Welcome to
The LaMarr's
Chicken Ranch



Hello!! Welcome to our little piece of the Earth. This page and our coop are still under construction.
We will be adding more pictures and information when we can. I wanted to use this design because
my Grandmother had a coop at her farm with same basic design. So, it's kind of like a nostalgic thing for me.

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Some assembly required



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. 2"x6"x16' Front main joist, pressure treated.



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Front Frame. The front posts are 4"x4"x10' so I would have plenty of length to set the roof pitch.


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Floor Frame
I used treated 2"x6"x8' boards for the main floor joist. I cut the joists down to 93" so when they were attached to
outer 16' main joist, the overall measurement would be 96" for the full sheets of plywood.
I centered them on 48" to allow the use of a full sheet of plywood without cutting them down.



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Back Wall Supports Added
The rear wall posts are 4"x4"x8'.


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Main Floor Frame and Main Wall Beams
2"x4" center joists for the floor. I wish now I would have used 2"x6" for the center joists, because
the floor feels "spongy" when you walk on it. It is plenty strong. I just like to build heavyduty.


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Starting on Floor Sheeting - 8'x16' Base 3/4" treated flooring
I had to notch the floor sheeting for the 4"x4" posts. Then I filled the edges with the scraps.


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Finished With Floor, Starting on Roof Trusses
I really didn't have a plan for the roof pitch. I just held a 2"x4" up at different angles until I found what I liked.
The only thing I wanted, was to be able to stand up in the back of the coop. So I needed to maintain 6' inside at
lower side of the roof. The roof ended up being a 12 degree pitch.


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Truss Boards



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Main Trusses and My little helper's seat



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Overhang Detail. I could have left the roof even with the end wall, but I like the look of the overhang.



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Rear Wall Sections Coming Together. All 2"x4" studs.



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View of Rear Wall, Fascia Boards Installed, and Pop Door Framing



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Side Wall Framing with Window and Extra Pop Door if Needed in the Future



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Front Wall and Window Framing with Roof On




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Dividing Wall and Door - Gives us a 4' X 8' Storage Area for feed and supplies and 8'x12' "coop" section



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The walls are up, windows are in, and drip edge, tar paper, and shingles are on the roof.
The open section on the end wall will have a hinged door that will lift up for easier cleaning.
The height of the clean out door is 12". I figured this would be plenty high enough to push a
pile of bedding through.



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Close up shot of the roof trusses and fascia boards.
We will leave the gaps between the roof and the walls open for ventilation but cover them with wire or
vented soffit for safety.



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Here you can see we added 3" R-13 fiberglass insulation to the walls.
This shot is taken from the chicken side of the coop - through the dividing wall - and into the entry/storage area.



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This is a shot of the covered walls with 7/16" OSB, a side window, and the front door.



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Here is a front view with the door and windows installed.
Pretty nice for a chicken coop but they were given to us for free so in they went!



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View from the back.
I didn't put many windows on the back because that side will bear the brunt of the harsh west winter wind.



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Here is a shot of the hinged wall panel that lifts up for added ease in cleaning the coop.
We will be able to shovel, sweep, or spray everything right out the door.



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Here is a shot of the closed hinged panel from the inside.



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Here is the hinged door propped open from the outside. Right now we are just bolting it shut, but we plan
on adding handles and some sort of locking mechanism in the future.



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This is our pop door. We will attach a cable to the eyebolt and run it across the top
of the coop and into the storage room so we can raise and lower it from there.
You can see that we had to make the track higher so that the door wouldn't pop out
of the track when it was raised fully. The track is two offset pieces of 1"x4" pine trim board that form a
channel for the pop door to run through. The door itself is just a piece of plywood
with a piece of 2x4 screwed to the top for added weight and a place for the eyebolt.
You can't budge the door from the outside so it seems to be secure. We anticipate
having to clean the shavings out of the channel regularly though. Hopefully we will find
a solution to that in the future.



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A closer shot of the pop door held open. You can see how the door fits into the channel
and slides up and down easily.



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We put 3/8" hardware cloth (found at a garage sale for next to nothing) up over the dividing wall.



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Here you can see that we put hooks in the roof trusses to hang adjustable chains from.
We will hang the feeder and waterer from these.



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At this point, the inside painting is finished.
We used two coats of an oil based primer and one coat of a high gloss oil based porch paint.
It gave us a very nice finish. It's very bright and shiny in there!



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Here is a nice view of how we have both doors set up.



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We added a layer of shavings. You can see we put up 2"x12" boards to provide a barrier for keeping the shavings
away from the door. This way as the shavings rise(we will be using the deep litter method), the door should
still open easily. You can also see both hanging chains for the feed and water.



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This is the same area from the opposite direction. The feeder and waterer are hung.
You can see one of our four week old cuckoo marans chicks.
Hopefully the barrier boards will keep the majority of the shavings away from the door.



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The chicks love having so much room to run in their new home!
We currently have Wellsummers, Cuckoo Marans, and Buckeyes in the coop.