I will definitely keep that in mind. How anything is made from treated lumber is a miracle. I cringe every time I have to use it. I'm surprised they don't have a drip pan under neath it when its on the shelves. For the people that use nails you have my respect. I'm by no means a carpenter but...
A few thoughts on the construction for those looking to start there own coop. Whatever price you have estimated for the project cost DOUBLE it. Then when you get to the store you will only be half as shocked when the cost is slightly more after doubling your estimate. I thought not using a whole...
I finally got most of the run wrapped up. I installed the metal roofing panels and facia boards. i originally intended for the cedar to age and the metal roof to fade and add some light surface rust to contribute to more of an "older / rustic look". After using the corrugated metal I believe it...
I started working on the Chicken Run Roof. I decided I would try to keep with the original design and go with a traditional roof vs the shed roof. The framing is mostly done with the exception of adding some horizontal supports to create a triangle support system for the individual rafters. I...
I thought about that as well. Something light out of wood or aluminum may be a better option. If I use steel I may need some kind of counter weight on the opposite side. The larger issue I'm going to have is accounting for the chicken run the is now attached...
I'm currently working out the details on a couple of ideas I would like to implement. One of them is a Pop Door indicator. My Pop Door is on the opposite side of the house and obscured from view. My fear is remembering or not if I closed it and not have to go out check each time. I could by a...
All good observations. The roof is slanted to the opposite direction of the ground which is not ideal. The roof was slanted this way because the entrance to the run is on the tallest side of the coop. I couldn't place the run door on the other side as there are to many bushes and not enough...
In addition to interior lighting I'm experimenting with some external lighting for the Chicken run. Both the external lights and interior lights would be on a timer so they wouldn't be on all night. I found an L.E.D. style light String to place around the perimeter of the run. I just draped them...
Here are a few shots of the construction of the Chicken Run. 85% of the lumber is not treated so it takes a lot more time to build, prime, and paint. The chickens also arrived early so Im expediting the construction. I may decide to put a shed roof on the run instead of a standard roof.
The...
I totally thought that as well. It would definitely lend itself to that style of a coop. I would be happy if I got close to that as well. The design concept was done in black and white with the exclusion of color. Hopefully the end design will land some where between Colonial and modern Rustic...
I'm debating on staining the exterior to give it a little more protection but the fence boards definitely changed the look of the exterior. There isn't a single nail in this coop. I used construction grade screws for the framing which added to the cost. The screws are much more forgiving then...
I didn't use the standard barn siding plywood to cover and finish the exterior in one step which would have saved time and money. This is when I discovered the fence boards and came up with the idea to use that as the siding. Tongue and groove style siding isn't needed since the exterior is...
Something else I realized when researching Chicken Coop Designs was that most Chicken Coops only have one clean out door. This Coop's interior size is 5ft x 5ft basically a square vs the more common rectangle designs. I couldn't see cleaning out the coop with one clean out door and being able to...
After half way through the construction I realized I placed the Nesting boxes on the floor. A glaring issue not caught on the computer. I had to raise the nesting box height.
I designed this coop using Google Sketchup. It helped tremendously to build the coop in 3d and make numerous changes to the design without costing anything but time. It's really gratifying to see it go from a computer to real life.
As far as cost My initial goal was to keep it reasonably cheap. My dad purchased a pile of random pieces of lumber at Lowes at a steep discount. Basically returned wood from projects and unsold lumber. They will place the lumber outside and put a price on it. You can also negotiate on the price...
And here are some Construction shots. Sorry I'm not a camera man or a carpenter so if you see some offending construction issues / wrong photo techniques please avert your eyes. So far this design was really fun. The coop is being constructed on an older existing Dog Kennel Slab. It is heavily...