I can't believe I finally finished our coop! I've been working on it since the beginning of November 2021! These pictures are in reverse order so if you start at the bottom you can see the progress as it happened. I really thought this would never be done. I've been fighting the weather and covid and trying to work around our homeschooling. I'm so glad to have the chickens sleeping in their coop tonight instead of my living room!
So here's the story. At the end of September, we got some baby chicks on a whim. I figured I could throw a coop together before it got cold (ha!) no problem. Well, we are on a budget so I had to spend quite a few weeks collecting materials as cheaply as possible, which pushed back the start of construction until after Halloween. I had enough material to make a tractor, so that is where they have been sitting the day, but it wasn't warm enough or secure enough for them to stay in at night, so we have been bringing them in and out every day. For 2 months.
I worked in the garage until it was time to put the roof on. I attempted to build the hen house modularly so we could move it more easily. It sort of worked. We managed to get it to the back yard in 3 pieces, after I spent a week on leveling the ground and setting gravel and pavers for the foundation.
I stapled plastic and tarps up to keep the weather out until we got the roof and egg box on. It looked super trashy for a few weeks.
The roof panels were given to me by some wonderful friends, and I got a bunch of used lumber for free, but I still ended up spending several hundred dollars on materials. Most of it was stuff I got cheap from fb Marketplace or the ReStore, but I did have to buy a LOT of 2x4s from Lowe's. Way more than I thought I would need. Another friend gave me a bunch of wood screws and that saved me a ton of money. I'm guessing I spent somewhere around $700.
The hardest part of the whole thing was that since I was using recycled materials, I had to design the coop around what I had. That was mentally exhausting. I have adhd. The struggle is real. And, yall, I have no construction experience whatsoever. I was just winging it, and I hate math.
90% of the work was done by me, all alone. I roped some of the kids into helping when I absolutely needed some extra hands, and my husband helped with some of the heavy lifting, but mostly it was just me. That was hard for me. I work much better with a buddy.
Well, despite our unseasonably warm December, the cold did finally hit us and I have had to time my work days based on the weather for the last few weeks. Weather was nice today so I busted butt to get as much work done as I could. Finished up as the sun was setting, and the girls are snug in their coop tonight!
So about the coop design. I did a few things really stupid. For instance the whole footprint is 6'x14'. Totally stupid. I wanted to give the girls as much space as I could afford them, so that's what I did, and the dimensions were just not very material-friendly.
I built the egg box with a storage cabinet under it and I'm so glad I did. I love that. I only put 2 nests in it because we can only have 6 chickens. The divider is removable.
The chicken door is from Omlet. The instructions are annoying but I think it'll be good once I figure it out.
The hen house is 4'x6'x4' inside and it's raised a couple feet off the ground so they can use the space beneath it. The floor and 10" up the walls are covered in linoleum to protect the wood. We are using the deep litter method.
The windows are plexiglass and have hardware cloth screens. Hardware cloth covers the whole run and the ventilation of the coop, which is all. Around the tops of the walls. We used a million staples, screws and washers. We buried 2ft of hardware cloth all around the run as a predator apron.
The door to the run was a clearanced screen door from lowes that I cut down to fit. The paint is barn paint since it was cheap and non toxic.
I think I'm going to add a little more secure latches in a couple places, and a second, lower roost as a step to help my orpington since she's pathetic at jumping. I really want to put a planter box in front of it in the spring, and id like to get a cute chicken sign for the screen door.
I probably way over-did this whole project, but I wanted it to look nice since I live in the suburbs and my neighbors have to look at it too.
So here's the story. At the end of September, we got some baby chicks on a whim. I figured I could throw a coop together before it got cold (ha!) no problem. Well, we are on a budget so I had to spend quite a few weeks collecting materials as cheaply as possible, which pushed back the start of construction until after Halloween. I had enough material to make a tractor, so that is where they have been sitting the day, but it wasn't warm enough or secure enough for them to stay in at night, so we have been bringing them in and out every day. For 2 months.
I worked in the garage until it was time to put the roof on. I attempted to build the hen house modularly so we could move it more easily. It sort of worked. We managed to get it to the back yard in 3 pieces, after I spent a week on leveling the ground and setting gravel and pavers for the foundation.
I stapled plastic and tarps up to keep the weather out until we got the roof and egg box on. It looked super trashy for a few weeks.
The roof panels were given to me by some wonderful friends, and I got a bunch of used lumber for free, but I still ended up spending several hundred dollars on materials. Most of it was stuff I got cheap from fb Marketplace or the ReStore, but I did have to buy a LOT of 2x4s from Lowe's. Way more than I thought I would need. Another friend gave me a bunch of wood screws and that saved me a ton of money. I'm guessing I spent somewhere around $700.
The hardest part of the whole thing was that since I was using recycled materials, I had to design the coop around what I had. That was mentally exhausting. I have adhd. The struggle is real. And, yall, I have no construction experience whatsoever. I was just winging it, and I hate math.
90% of the work was done by me, all alone. I roped some of the kids into helping when I absolutely needed some extra hands, and my husband helped with some of the heavy lifting, but mostly it was just me. That was hard for me. I work much better with a buddy.
Well, despite our unseasonably warm December, the cold did finally hit us and I have had to time my work days based on the weather for the last few weeks. Weather was nice today so I busted butt to get as much work done as I could. Finished up as the sun was setting, and the girls are snug in their coop tonight!
So about the coop design. I did a few things really stupid. For instance the whole footprint is 6'x14'. Totally stupid. I wanted to give the girls as much space as I could afford them, so that's what I did, and the dimensions were just not very material-friendly.
I built the egg box with a storage cabinet under it and I'm so glad I did. I love that. I only put 2 nests in it because we can only have 6 chickens. The divider is removable.
The chicken door is from Omlet. The instructions are annoying but I think it'll be good once I figure it out.
The hen house is 4'x6'x4' inside and it's raised a couple feet off the ground so they can use the space beneath it. The floor and 10" up the walls are covered in linoleum to protect the wood. We are using the deep litter method.
The windows are plexiglass and have hardware cloth screens. Hardware cloth covers the whole run and the ventilation of the coop, which is all. Around the tops of the walls. We used a million staples, screws and washers. We buried 2ft of hardware cloth all around the run as a predator apron.
The door to the run was a clearanced screen door from lowes that I cut down to fit. The paint is barn paint since it was cheap and non toxic.
I think I'm going to add a little more secure latches in a couple places, and a second, lower roost as a step to help my orpington since she's pathetic at jumping. I really want to put a planter box in front of it in the spring, and id like to get a cute chicken sign for the screen door.
I probably way over-did this whole project, but I wanted it to look nice since I live in the suburbs and my neighbors have to look at it too.
