New Woodcox Acre Coop

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I have been trying to talk my husband into building me a chicken coop for some time, he just kept saying it would cost to much. Then one day my neighbor told me of someone who was moving and could not take his chickens with him and wanted to sell his small coop and five hens, for $300.00 dollars. I was finally able to talk my husband into it. I was so excited. With the good help of some friends and neighbors we moved the coop and chickens & run six blocks to our home. ( this was June 24/11 ) We really enjoy having the chickens in the yard. And especially the fresh eggs. Last year we had completely fenced in our our back 1/2 acre to keep the deer out, so it was pretty safe for the chickens to free roam. As time went by and after I had made my husband reinforce the old coop against Racoons, I just keep finding things that I disliked with the little coop - to small, the nest boxes above the roost ( thus the chickens keep roosting in the nest boxes, and what a mess ) also could not clean the coop. So I started droping hints to my husband that I would like a new coop and would like a few more hens. It didn't go over well for a while but then I think he started thinking it was inevetable. He was going to retire in three weeks so I decided to not talk about it again untill he retired. He retired on 8/30/11 and we started on the new coop on 9/8/11. I had found BackYardChickens when I first got the chickens. So I started looking at all the different coop and drew up the plans from what I liked from each one. So thanks to BYC here is what I came up with. My husband was very patient with my requests. Getting started--
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The first day we put down the treated 4 by 4s and built the frame. I wanted it to be elevated 20" of the ground so it would extend the chicken run. We decided to insolate it as it does get real cold here ( central Ut.) in the winter
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The next day we got the floor in and most of the framing done. It is build with 2 by 4's I wanted the roof to go from the back to the front. The top 2 by 4's are 12 ' as I wanted it to also cover most of the run. Our coop is 6' by 8'. and the run will extend 12' beyond.
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In this picture you can see the small coop and run that we are replaceing.
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Below, putting on the siding, we used the same siding as on our home. also painted it the same.
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The framing is all done. We took the siding all the way down on the west and south sides, as thats where we get our prevailing winds and snow and we wanted the girls to have some protection.

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Our two youngest grandchildren thought it made a great playhouse. You can see in this pic that we put linoleum on the floor and insolated the inside with inch and a half styrofoam. The roosts are up and also the nest box's. We will put a 1" by 12" board as a poop catcher under each roost. we added another roost higher on that south wall. I decided to put the nest boxes on the outside to give more room. The nest box's are also insolated.
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The ladys love the higher roost. Were going to try the deep shavings to start with.
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Siding all complete--
We are now working on the run, Larry extended the rafter boards, so they were out the 12 feet. We covered all but four feet of the run, at first I thought maybe they wouldn't get enough sun, but the sun is so far south now that they get lots of sun. I'm so glad that we did the raised coop as the chickens love it and spend most of the warmest part of the day there.
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It was break time and the chickens kept coming in on the part that was not inclosed yet, they were anxious to move into there new home.
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Things are getting so close to being done. Both doors are now finished. The coop man door and the run door, I wanted both to be so I could walk in and clean things, they both work great. The coop back wall is 7' and the front wall is 6' so I can stand up easily. As you can see in this pic we choose to put a 1" hardware cloth skirt all around the coop and run. The whole run is in 1" hardware cloth. We tacked the cloth down with 12 - 14 " spikes. We do have Racoons, in fact while we were building we caught two in a live trap. But we are hoping the 14" skirt will discourage them. We are now competely done (9/28/11) with our project and it took us three weeks. Not to bad for retired folks. We have nine girls, three leghorns, three barred rock, three RIR mix.( I think ) It was fun to let our girls and the 6 new pullets that we bought in all at the same time. The pullets had never been in a coop, but was raised completely out side and ours girls had never had a ramp to go up, so the first night was rather funny. Ours new at dusk that they needed to go in, but was haveing a time deciding where to go, so I finally went into the coop and called them and let them see me, funny they all jumped up on the ramp and came in. Soon the new girls followed and everyone settled in for the night. Larry fixed a nice pully on the pop door so we can eaisly close it or leave it open as desired. I am so delighted with my new coop and girls. And weather or not my husband will admit it, I know he does to. We figured our coop cost us a little over 1200.00. I thank him for all of his hard work. I helped him as much as I could but he carried the load. Below is a few more pictures of the finished product. Hope you enjoy as much as I have enjoyed looking at all of your new coops,THANK YOU
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Woodcox Acre Coop Some things we had to change - we used 1 by 12 boards as poop shelves and
we found they were to narrow to catch everything so we changed to a 18"
piece of plywood. This time we covered it with linoleum like we used on the floor
there so much better and will be less work. Its now Nov.12 and two of our
six pullets ( the New Hampshire reds ) have started laying and I'm so excited.
The one chicken layed a full size egg right from the start. I said ouch when I
saw the first one.
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I'm surprised it was the Reds that started first, as the Barred Rock
are the bigger bird. No eggs from them yet, There around 6 mon.
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These are the two that are laying -----These are the other girls enjoying being out.
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