After purchasing about 10 acres, I decided to build a large coop the first time.
After living in a neighborhood with a strict HOA I always had to have my coop elsewhere. I learned quickly that chickens are addictive and they just keep multiplying. So I built large enough the first time.
The chicken coop is 20x30.
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* please be aware that neither of us have any expierence whatsoever with building a pole barn. We just did as much research as we could and watched a ton of utube videos. Also if I use the wrong building lingo please excuse me, at least I am not calling everything a thing-amiger like I usually do!!
Our biggest issue we came across was my “it’s close enough style of measurement” and my dad’s military upbringing of “it has to be exact”!

We went with a pole barn style coop due to the cost of materials.
We started the pole barn in March 2019 and finished April 2019.
My 77 year old father is the most amazing person. It never would have been possible without him.
For the most part it was my father, myself, and a wonderful friend doing most of the building.

After doing a ton of research on building pole barns, we started the process.
My dad was thrilled he had an excuse to buy a few new exciting toys.
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(Not sure why some of these pics are showing up sideways)


We started measuring and staking the area to set the posts.
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Fortunately my husband and I were in the process of fixing up the home on the property and that meant hiring someone to build a fence for the front 5 acres. So while they had the auger there already I politely asked them to dig a few holes for me.
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We used a total of 9 4x6 posts 12ft each.
We filled the bottom of the holes with leftover concrete washout.(fence company had leftover)
We buried the posts 3 ft in the ground and then filled with concrete. We wanted a 9’ clearance in case I ever choose store things I have plenty of head clearance! The 4x6 posts are positioned every 15ft lengthwise and 10ft width.
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After concrete was add we let that settle for awhile we then got started with the fun part!!
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(Remember that part about my measurements skills? Well this is what happens when I decided on measuring this middle pole!)

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We got started on the headers. We attached 2x6 to each post to stabilize them.
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Next came the top! This is where our lack of experience became quite obvious ! We felt more comfortable with having a very low sloping roof rather than trying to make multiple trusses that would span the 20’ width. So we simply put 2x8 boards right down the center posts, then to raise the center height we set 2x10 vertically on top of that. So our center was raised enough to easily shed any heavy rainfall we might have.
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Next we attached the rafters to our 2x10 boards, and attached hurricane ties on each one.
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We then attached purlins to the rafters.


Then came the hard (hot) part! Start installing the metal roofing panels.
I chose to go with white, thinking in this Texas heat it may be a bit cooler than the usual gray/silver color.
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Ahh, relaxing under our new roof!


My mom ordered the hardware cloth on amazon, and we laid it out all the way around to deter digging predators.
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We planned from the start to have 2 sides open and the other 2 closed.
We went back and forth about wind direction and what would look best but still have a decent breeze. We decided on the front and back (20’ sections)covered with hardware cloth. This seems to be the best way to avoid major rainstorms from soaking the entire coop, and yet still get a decent breeze (LOL) in our Texas summer heat! Also my husband asked that we not be able to see inside the coop from the main road. (I guess he had fantasies that I would grow bored with chickens and he could eventually use it to store his equipment) Ha! Silly man!!
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Girts were put up while I was gone, so no pics of that! I also noticed when I got back the xtra boards in between the posts! My dad was very busy!!

It was time to start on the walls now. Luckily that day my brother-in-law and his wife decided to stop by! We of course put them to work! This made things much quicker!!
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After this my dad built the door. (I said I wanted a door that was
large enough to possibly roll a wheelbarrow into). I was wanting to put the roosts up and sand down before we moved the chickens to their permanent home.
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Unfortunately my timing was not great and a few days later it started raining, and didn’t stop.
The flooding was terrible in many parts of the Houston area, and I had to do an emergency evacuation of all my chickens from the coop they were in. This is where we rescued them from!
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Luckily the coop was secure, dry, and roomy enough.
They just had to share it with my daughters FFA broilers for a week before the show.

Later on we install a auto door that opens at sunrise and closes at dusk.
Here is a video I took a few months ago.
I made sure I was there before it opened to manually open it to get a decent count.(I ordered the Cackle surprise package as a congrats gift to myself for completing the coop) yes, my parents benefit daily from so many eggs!!



We spent a total of $3800.00 for all the material.
If I wouldn’t have be so picky on the sheet metal color it would have been much less.
I also think I probably didn’t need the 48” width of the hardware cloth for the skirting. I could have gotten by with 36” and that would have cost less.