Cedar Shake Coop - Novice Custom Build

This is the first attempt of a novice backyard chicken owner to build a custom chicken coop. This was SO much fun to build.

*Construction photos are at the bottom.



From the little I had seen and understood of chicken coop construction and use, I knew that I wanted it to have insulation for our harsh climate here in MN, minimum maintenance, my wife wanted it to be "cute," and to have ease of access for humans. These were some of the main principles that dictated my design. So ...

• The walls, floor, and roof all have 3.5" of polystyrene insulation.
• The roof is cedar shake, the siding is pine, and the trim is cedar. I used a deck water sealant over the walls and run to weatherproof the wood.
• All the exterior hardware is galvanized or zinc plated.
• The floor of the coop has two built in drawers to pull out and easily scoop out the droppings.
• The nesting box (3) is also a drawer recessed inside the coop, insulated, that can be pulled out to retrieve the eggs and then slid back in.
• The coop to run access door for the chickens is a sliding insulated door that can be operated by us without having to go into the run.
• Two of the 3 windows are large enough for one of us to crawl through for maintenance.
• The run isn't very tall, so access to it is cumbersome being bent over and all, but the access door to the run is sufficiently wide if not very tall (about 4').

All in all, I am pleased with the end result. Truth be told, though, it got out of hand cost wise and by how elaborate and over-built it became. There are several things I would do differently were I to build it again.

• I would put the siding directly over the insulated 2x4s and skip the sheathing (3/8"). That was total overkill (same on the roof).
• I would use thinner plywood for the decking (1/2" max).
• I would use hardboard for the base below the drawers and for the drawers bottoms for smoother sliding and for lighter weight (perhaps sealed with polyurethane). Maybe even galvanized steel sheets.
• I would make the floor drawers deeper, 2x6s or 2x8s instead of 2x4s.
• I would cut in larger ventilation into the peaks (6" or larger).

Modifications made after the first year:

• Increased the # of 4" louvered vents from 6 to 10. Wasn't enough ventilation in the winter. This seemed to fix the problem for these last 2 winters.
• Added a galvanized steel roof over the run (it was uncovered before).
• We were having trouble with the chickens not laying in winter, so I added a digital programmable timer and LED lightbulb in the coop to help them to continue to lay through the winter. That's worked like a charm.

Ultimately, I would largely redesign the whole thing so that the run was a full-height walk-in run attached to an elevated coop. But I would still design it with the same aesthetics (wood siding, cedar shake roof (or maybe steel), etc). But hey, that's how you learn, right?

I had SO much fun building this coop!

Here is a link to the Google Photos album that I made that loosely documents the construction process, and a few modifications since:

@mattkinnick Chicken Coop Build

Thanks again, everyone, for your encouragement and advice! I'm glad to be a part of this community.

Matt