Cheryl's Hen House...

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TerryH

Crowing
6 Years
Mar 12, 2016
1,163
589
251
NW Arkansas
My Coop
My Coop
Hello everyone!! My wife of 31 years, Cheryl is an awesome cook and really wants some chickens to provide her with those beautiful big brown eggs so we've decided to go into the chicken biz.
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She's also very excited about tending and generally enjoying the chickens. I'm enjoying the planning and looking forward to the building of the coop and run. I'll be making all the nesting boxes, roosts, feeders and so on. I love to research pretty much anything so I've been scouring this site, YouTube and pretty much everywhere else I can find.

We've chosen a spot for the 8x9 coop and the attached 8x20 run. My woodworking/metalworking/race car shop (30x40) is 100' behind the house with our raised bed veggie garden right next to it. I have a 9x9 compressor room on the back of the shop that houses my air compressor and provides general storage. We are going to attach the coop to the compressor room so they will have a shared wall. Basically we will extend the same shape of the compressor room to form the coop. Here's some views of the garden and shop area.










Here you can see the compressor room better. We will attach to the end wall and go out for the coop. The run will extend past there along where the chain link fence is now. I'll be removing most of the fence. The coop and run will have doors opening into the garden so this will be the back of the coop and run. We're planning on a couple of windows in the back with one window and the entry door on the front.





The coop will be styled much like my storage building but with a sloped roof to match the compressor house of course. I'll be using the same siding, windows and rough cedar trim and the colors will be the same with perhaps a few more whimsical accents just for fun.




And here is the coop and run!! Ok, it's more like a coop and run kit at this point.
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I'll begin prepping the site in the next few days. I'm going to start cutting and pre-building as I have time and Cheryl and I will be taking a few days off work in the next few weeks to assemble the coop and run. We are looking very forward to the process and especially to getting the chickens. I know I'll have a bazillion questions along the way. Thanks in advance for being gentle with us newbies. We always had chickens when I was growing up but Cheryl is a city girl so this will be her first time. I'll post more as we go along.

Terry
 
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Looking forward to seeing the progress! You should post this in the "coops" section of BYC. You have to have a minimum forum post count to post there (to prevent spammers) but once you've built your coop make a page for it!
 
Day one is in the books. Technically afternoon one as there were some other honey doo's for my Mom that had to be tended to this morning. I didn't get as far as I had hoped but progress is progress. I began by clearing the site. Removing the chain link fence and posts that are where the coop and run will be and the landscape timbers from the old planting bed and the gravel from the existing landscaping so I can recycle it to the other end of the run.



And here is where I stopped for the evening. I got the floor framed using pressure treated 2x6's. The coop will be 9x8. I got the floor framing leveled and and attached to the compressor room. The floor decking is just sitting there for now. I still need to lag bolt the floor framing to the 4x4's on the side of the compressor room and then I can attach the 3/4" decking for real. I dug down and packed gravel and then the 8x16 solid concrete blocks with treated 2x6's on top. It is perfectly level all the way around but it wasn't easy.



I spent a ton of time measuring and re-measuring to make for sure that the roof and siding was going to match up exactly to the exiting structure. Framing is not my forte' by any means. The run will extend to where I left this last chain link post. The run will be 8'x20' and 8' tall. Hopefully that will be plenty of room. We are planning on a dozen or so assorted brown egg layers.



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I couldn't resist a shot of our Cleveland pear trees. They are gorgeous this year. We were really scared a few years ago when we had a big time ice storm but they have recovered well. The one closest to the garden literally broken in half but it's coming back.

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Hopefully I'll have a bit more time tomorrow afternoon when we get home from church. Thanks for looking!

Terry
 
Looking good so far. And I agree, Progress is PROGRESS!

If your wife also loves baking, have you considered ducks? Duck eggs are great for baking.
I have both. While my chicken (was chickens, have 2 chicks in the brooder now so I have chickenS again) is easier than the 4 ducks, I enjoy the ducks more, they just seem to have more personality to me.
I do enjoy having a small flock that includes both though.
 
Looking good so far. And I agree, Progress is PROGRESS!

If your wife also loves baking, have you considered ducks? Duck eggs are great for baking.
I have both. While my chicken (was chickens, have 2 chicks in the brooder now so I have chickenS again) is easier than the 4 ducks, I enjoy the ducks more, they just seem to have more personality to me.
I do enjoy having a small flock that includes both though.

Thanks! Cheryl is a most excellent baker but I haven't considered ducks. Still trying to get my head around that we are even getting chickens.
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Interesting site, lots of potential there.
You could build a run all the way around the garden and they will keep some bugs from getting in there.
Or you could build doors in run for chunnels that go around and/or out into the garden area for bug and weed patrol....if you're not using herbicides/insecticides in the garden.

I wonder if the noise from the compressor will bother them....they'll probably get used to it, but something to be aware of and observe.
Make sure you put plenty of ventilation in the coop....way more than in the compressor shed.

Looking forward to watching your build....Best of cLuck to you!
 
Interesting site, lots of potential there.
You could build a run all the way around the garden and they will keep some bugs from getting in there.
Or you could build doors in run for chunnels that go around and/or out into the garden area for bug and weed patrol....if you're not using herbicides/insecticides in the garden.

I wonder if the noise from the compressor will bother them....they'll probably get used to it, but something to be aware of and observe.
Make sure you put plenty of ventilation in the coop....way more than in the compressor shed.

Looking forward to watching your build....Best of cLuck to you!

Thanks! We've lived on this property for 23 years. It was in the middle of no where when we first moved here but civilization is catching up to us now. We are blessed to have insulation from most of it. Our house is 200' off a cul-de-sac. We only have an acre but my neighbor has 4 with their house on the far side so we have lots of green space. The back yard is fenced all the way around so we could let the ladies free range but I'm not sure how that would work out. The mulch walkways in the garden all have 6 mil plastic under the mulch and the landscaping has weed cloth under the gravel. Doesn't seem that the chicken scratching would work out well but we will see.

I hadn't considered the noise issue. There are storage shelves immediately on the other side of the common wall which does a pretty good job on insulating the sound. I noticed yesterday that you could not hear the compressor very well. I don't have much opportunity to be out in the shop so the compressor doesn't run all that often. I will pay attention to how they react and go from there. Perhaps I could do some other form of sound deadening insulation if there is a problem.

I plan to use the same type of vents but there will be many more. I'm observing the 1 sq.ft. of vent per 10 sq. ft. of coop rule. I had considered building the coop with less height but decided to leave it tall specifically to keep the ventilation above the roosts etc...

Terry
 
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Wow. This is a great site for a coop. I'll be watching your progress with interest for sure.

Thanks! We had a few options on the property for the coop and run but this spot won out as the best overall. It's close to the house and the area where the run will be is sloping slightly away from the coop so should have good drainage. We're looking very forward to getting everything ready!
 

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