Hershey's Coop
Hi, My name is Ron, It is my privilege to be married to a very understanding lady named Carolyn. We have three grown children and one new grandchild and a great Black Labrador named Hershey Kiss.(Her mother's name was Bodacious and her father was Chocolate Fudge so the name was a natural
We have lived in the country for 22 years now (30 acres in South East Indiana) but this is the first time I've ever tried raising chickens for my own eggs. But in these uncertain times it makes sense to start doing this as well as going back to gardening and 'putting by' the harvest which we stopped doing when the last child left home.
The place where I'm constructing the coop is part of my barn. Years ago we had horses and a few goats that my oldest son was raising. The goats and horses are long gone but the old goat pen still remains.
This will be the new coop.
The old horse feeder in the corner will come down, a new door will be added and welded wire will
be put up across the open spaces. Two of the three 2x4's will be partially replaced by the nest
box which will have access from the outside of the coop. The area where you see the ladder
will become the roost area.
This shot shows the old goat access door. It will be partially framed in to make it smaller and
a sliding door will be installed with a rope and pulley to allow it to be raised and lowered (vertically) from outside the coop.
This shot is the outside of the barn showing the old goat access door. A wire walled
outdoor run will be built in this area.
I'll post more as construction progresses...
5/31/09
The Coop is finished! Thanks to my son Eric who did 98% of the work, which included a new roof on part of the barn....We also decided that there needed to be more natural light inside so a window, that hadn't been planned, was added.
You can also see the PVC feeder pipe on the outside of the wall. One 5 foot piece cut in 1/2 did the job.
The door opens in and has two latches on it to foil any predators who might want a chicken dinner.
Here is the pipe feeder idea that I picked up off BYC. 4" pipe with 2 1/2" holes drilled in it with a 90 degree bend. It didn't take long for the peepers to pick up on where the food was hidden.
This is the roost. The next boxes will be installed into the wall on the right with access from outside the coop. You can see the outside access on the left which is temporarily boarded over until the wire run is completed. The 2x4's are horizontally placed.
I moved the heat lamp outside with them as well. The door has double welded wire on the bottom to decrease the chance
of any of them getting out.
So, that's it until we get the outside fencing up and working in a couple days. At least they are out of the basement.
Well, it's been more like 6 weeks but the outside coop is finally finished. My son (the builder) says he doesn't want to see any more wire for a couple months.
Here is the outside access from the barn to the outside run. It is made from two pieces of oak barn siding that was left over, and is pulled up from the outside of the coop via a rope and pulley.
There is a ramp on the inside but they don't seem to need it but I'll leave it there.
This is a view of the coop. It is about 15 x 15 and the roost is a piece of old log that has it's own complement of bugs living inside. This was taken today, the first time they have been outside in the coop. The coop is covered with chicken wire just in case there are any chicken hawks hanging around the area. The main fencing is welded wire, stapled to the beams. There is a gate on the right side for access.
And that's about it. The only thing left to build are the nest boxes and there isn't any rush on those since it will be another month and a half probably until they get to the laying stage.
Thanks for visiting "Hershey's Coop" and I hope this has helped you with construction questions, or, just getting you going with your own coop.
8/7/09 The one in the center is store bought large size. Near as I can figure, the hens are 16 weeks old. Our FIRST eggs!!!
