8x30 American Coop (Carolina Coops) build - pix heavy

[3KillerBs]

Taking a break for lunch. I have the network going, one more cam to install and then we will be able to keep an eye on our girls.

Dear wife bought a CoopWorx feeder a couple of months ago and it's now set up in the run; we put some food in it so all we need now are feathered customers. This is a well designed feeder and will hold 50 pounds of feed. The top is angled to keep the chickens off and is lockable.

We should be able to let the girls into the run in an hour or two.

A few more pix:

View attachment 3128504
My usual attire for spray painting. I used several shields on the respirator (3M respirator with throw-away clear plastic 'shields'.)

View attachment 3128507
Almost finished with the topcoat. The wind was blowing 15 mph+ so I wasted a bit of spray in spite of carefully directing the spray pattern. I used about 6 gallons of Sherwin Williams latex all purpose primer and at least 6 gallons of SW latex color paint. All of the parts except the structure were primed and top-coated before installation.

View attachment 3128510
Roof is on, my friends have experience with R panel roofs so this went quickly. All of the fastener holes were pre-drilled (great feature!)

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Getting ready to install the ridge cap. Thank goodness for my articulated boom lift (I bought it at auction a few years ago) which kept me off a ladder and off the roof. However you don't need a lift to install the roof and cap - it's a mild roof pitch. Get a piece of plywood to use while you are on the roof to spread the load. Note the netting covering the ridge.

Amazing progress!

I hope that the ridge cap is a ridge vent.

 

[UThobbyfarmer]

Taking a break for lunch. I have the network going, one more cam to install and then we will be able to keep an eye on our girls.

Dear wife bought a CoopWorx feeder a couple of months ago and it's now set up in the run; we put some food in it so all we need now are feathered customers. This is a well designed feeder and will hold 50 pounds of feed. The top is angled to keep the chickens off and is lockable.

We should be able to let the girls into the run in an hour or two.

A few more pix:

View attachment 3128504
My usual attire for spray painting. I used several shields on the respirator (3M respirator with throw-away clear plastic 'shields'.)

View attachment 3128507
Almost finished with the topcoat. The wind was blowing 15 mph+ so I wasted a bit of spray in spite of carefully directing the spray pattern. I used about 6 gallons of Sherwin Williams latex all purpose primer and at least 6 gallons of SW latex color paint. All of the parts except the structure were primed and top-coated before installation.

View attachment 3128510
Roof is on, my friends have experience with R panel roofs so this went quickly. All of the fastener holes were pre-drilled (great feature!)

View attachment 3128512
Getting ready to install the ridge cap. Thank goodness for my articulated boom lift (I bought it at auction a few years ago) which kept me off a ladder and off the roof. However you don't need a lift to install the roof and cap - it's a mild roof pitch. Get a piece of plywood to use while you are on the roof to spread the load. Note the netting covering the ridge.

Excellent progress. You’re really getting it done. How many birds are you planning in the final coop/run?

 

[John Canfield]

The ridge cap is indeed a vent!

Yesterday afternoon I cleared out all of the construction stuff in the run and opened the door to the hen house. We had a few lookers but no takers in spite of some meal worm treats on the steps to the run. I opened it up just a while ago and still no joy with them checking out the run. The feeder in the house part will run out of food by noon so maybe they be more interested in exploring.

The cams and network are installed and working so I'll have some screen grabs to show here.

Here's some more pix:

My buddy Tony with one end of the chalk line. We snapped a chalk line so we could line up the ridge cap sections. We kept saying "it's only a chicken coop" but old habits die hard and we couldn't resist doing a quality job.

Almost finished. I have to replace three of the screens - my nephew was running the crown stapler (we stapled the screens) and got one screen way off. Before he noticed the screen was way off plumb he compensated by making an ugly fold. I have to remove the screen and replace.

We made an installation error by using two 34" x 68" screen (or whatever you prefer to call them - hardware cloth or whatever) under the hen house where we should have used four smaller ones. So we are short two CC supplied screens. Three replacements are on the way. Temporarily I used some hardware cloth I bought at Lowe's so we could use the run.

My bud Tony hanging the Dutch Door

The hen house is almost complete, I just need to install the roost bar hangers. Amazingly the fit was just about perfect when I placed the roost bars in position. Another tip of the hat to CC and their CNC produced assemblies. (And to us for making the base 6x6 timbers perfectly square and level within 1/4".

Mystery pullet at 9 weeks of age- what is this girl?

 

[3KillerBs]

We snapped a chalk line so we could line up the ridge cap sections. We kept saying "it's only a chicken coop" but old habits die hard and we couldn't resist doing a quality job.

When we were building Neuchickenstein DH had one post just slightly out of line.

He asked me about it. I said, "It's a chicken coop. The birds won't care. But you're going to look at it every day for the next 20 years."

He moved the post.

 

[UThobbyfarmer]

Is Easter Egger an option? What type of comb does it have? Coloring looks roo-ish but everything else looks pullet.

 

[UThobbyfarmer]

I was also thinking Amberlink but they are a bit whiter than you bird.

 

[NatJ]

Mystery pullet at 9 weeks of age- what is this girl?

It reminds me of a Red Shouldered White Yokohama.
(They are not very common, but some hatcheries do have them, so they could occasionally show up in an assortment of chicks.)

 

[Iluveggers]

Is Easter Egger an option? What type of comb does it have? Coloring looks roo-ish but everything else looks pullet.

Yes can you get a close up of the comb?

 

[John Canfield]

All of the chicks were from Cackle. We ordered 6 lavender americanas, 6 blue americanas and 5 "rare". Of the rare we have a gorgeous Wellsummer (welsumer?), a polish with a white head and black body, a silkie, mystery bird in the above pix, a white/ivory something and what looks like a blue americana but with two or so white wing tips. This one doesn't look like our blues.

The girls still haven't left the hen house to explore the run. Closest we got so far is them sitting on the door threshold .

Here's a few screen grabs from chicken cam:

The girl in the center with the white wing tips is mystery bird #2, mystery bird #3 is on the roost step looking out. I'll get better pix with my Canon SLR.

This is a good view of mystery bird #1 and mystery bird #3. On the left is the Polish and welsummer.

Found this one I took with my phone.

 

[UThobbyfarmer]

I think @NatJ nailed it. Looks like Cackle does sell Red Shoulder Yokohama Chicken in their rare breed section.

@John Canfield That coop just keeps getting better and better. The birds are even color coordinated with it. What a wonderful coop you’ve given them. They’ll be out and about exploring in no time.