Not sure if this is going to be an article of how to build a coop--or how not to! My brother-in-law, Jack, and I started it in October 2019. Here in south Alabama the weather is ideal, neither too hot or cold during the last months of the year. Both of us know some about carpentry but are strictly amateurs. I started looking at coop designs and fell in love with the Carolina Coop "American". Sadly it was out of my price range so I started on my own design. I kept it basic. Plywood and siding come in 4x8 sheets and you can get hardware cloth in 4' widths. So those are the numbers I went with.
My yard slopes and i had a hard time deciding how to level it out. I am 70 years old and that much digging was more than i could do. So I used cement blocks and the job was easier.
Jack and I were not on any kind of schedule so we took it slow figuring we'd be able to get the chickens the following spring.
Once we had the posts in and the blocks laid we buried wire around the perimeter. I used what I had on hand. After 20 years of dog rescue I had lots of fence wire, old kennel panels and some pieces of hardware cloth. I didn't stint on this, my house backs onto some woods and we have lots of critters who would be interested in the chickens.
Once the wire was covered we started on the framing for the coop. Jack and I had different ideas on what type of roost to put in. I believe since chickens walk flat footed on the ground they would prefer a flat roost so I added a 2x4. He said they are birds a want a round branch. We compromised and gave them a choice, we added both. (as a side note the chickens I got don't use either but that's another story.)
As I said we are amateurs and we made a big mistake in the beginning. When we set our posts I used the 4' and 8' measurements I measured inside to inside. So when I went to put up the siding it fit right thru the 4x4s and I had nothing to nail to.
I turned the siding long ways and used that mistake to add windows at the top of the coop.
Here in the south heat is a much bigger problem for chickens than cold. Heat rises and with the windows at the top it has a way to escape. When cold weather arrives I will close them off.
I added the clean out doors on the outside of the coop for easier access.
And this brings us up to the last day of the year. December 31st I was cutting a piece of wood on our table saw when it stuck. Instead of stopping and turning off the saw I pushed harder. The teeth of the saw grabbed the wood and pulled it quickly-- along with my hand. I severed all the tendons and a lot of the veins and nerves. in my right wrist. The doctor was able to reattach the tendons but I have a long time ahead of physical therapy.
January and most of February I wasn't able (or interested) in more woodworking. Once I was well enough to get up and about my interest in the coop build returned.
Poor Jack ended up doing most of the work. We added the hardware cloth.
I didn't take any pictures as we were putting the roof on. It was difficult for us. Jack is a big man and I'm an old woman with bad balance. Getting up on a ladder was a nightmare. We were able to do it a section and a roofing panel at a time. This is a picture from the inside. We secured a 2ft section of wire then added one of the roof panels. So we never had to climb up on the roof.
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Next we added trim boards to cover the sharp edges of wire. In the picture above you can see I used a piece of aluminum guttering for my flower boxes.
I added this picture blow because I had to remove the siding inside the run to make an open air coop. It's a long story why but this works better for me and my girls
Well that's my coup build. If you are wondering about the $80,000 tag...
$74,000 for surgery
$3,000 for ambulance and emergency room
and the rest to actually build it.
Please take power tool safety very seriously if you plan to build your own coop.
Charlotte Curry
