Our New Coop: Motel 6, Delivery Day AT LAST YEAH !!!

bigmike&nan

Crowing
15 Years
Mar 19, 2008
1,090
13
306
Scenic Jackson New Jersey
First of all I won't take ANY credit for this coop except that I am paying for it. We hired a builder who used to be a member here to build our coop, we had to save the money and we worked out a great design with him. Yesterday, IN ONE DAY, he and his team made this progress... We have 6 blue and black bantam cochins (4 roosters and 2 hens) that will move in here in about 2-3 weeks, depending on the weather and their feathering. Here's the front shot of the coop - all outside wood is 3/4 pine
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The structure is 6'6" wide by 5'3" deep by 6' tall... The nest box runs nearly the full depth of the coop,

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It will have a run that is almost 6 ft. tall by 6 ft. wide by 12 ft. long...

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Today they will be installing the roof, insulation and interior walls, windows, doors, electricity and lamp fixtures and build the run. Then all finishing details such as linoleum on the coop floor, screens, hardware and first coats of clear varnish and so on will happen Sunday. It's a lot of work but these guys are some hard working people. Their efficiency reminded me of a guy I used to do church pot lucks with - we were whirlwinds of activity. We knew what had to be done and without talking stayed out of each other's way and did it.

The wife and I should get the completed coop by next weekend. We're having the builders and families out for a feast - any of you in the Jersey Shore area that want to meet up and have a coop warming party sure are welcome to contact us and come out. I used to be a chef and will be "doing my thing" to make everyone feel special...


As I have said in the past, I used to be a chef, I don't have one single carpentry tool nor the stamina for this work - so "for us" this was the way to go. Hope any of you looking for a good coop see some structural ideas here that will aid you in building a great coop.
 
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Yes we did, I don't think folks realize how expensive pine boards are, I went to do some scouting at Home Depot and Lowe's just so I had an idea of what the cost would REALLY be like. It was humbling. We live in a nice area and I wanted what we got to not only fit in but to be real easy on the eyes. One of the things we're gonna do is string tiny christmas tree lights around the top of the coop and along the top of the run and have those on at night.

We have one great but smaller coop, and over the course of a year of reading here and raising our bantam cochins we learned a lot about what we'd want in a coop that would REALLY do it for us. We have these 9 week old babies that we're itching to get outside in a few weeks AND I want to get my wife some more bantam cochins, maybe a couple of buffs and a few splash (shissh, she doesn't know about THOSE YET, lol). And while the babies are young that 12 ft long run will REALLY give them some room to discover the outdoors while being safe. We've had lots of hawks and other predators circling lately and I'll be darned if they're gonna snack on any of my little babies.
 
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It was a gorgeous sunny day today and the boys really did themselves proud, they installed all trim, installed the roof and ran the electrical wiring for the light fixtures.


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Just the little touches like the trim everywhere, including on the nest box show you what a lovely job they are doing. Sunday they are slated to install the metal top on the roof, make the window and doors and install them and lastly the insulation and interior walls.

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Much more work than meets the eye, I am sure the real hardcore carpenter types here will appreciate the fine details.

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Hi. First of all thanks to everyone for the nice comments. It's really taking a lot of work, but we asked him to do a lot of stuff to it and it's really shaping up. Poor guy is freezing working in cold and windy conditions outside too.

Anyway here is the progress, double doors (one storm door and a screen door inside), storm window with screen inside,

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insulated, lamp fixture and wall outlet, roof trimmed and insulated.

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It's a lot of work. So he's out there again braving the cold putting in the inside walls, working on the run and then they hope it warms up so they can start doing the coats of amber tinted varnish. I'll keep you posted as he gets more of it done. It's gonna be some coop... Maybe I should move in there myself. LOL;)
 
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