I finally gave up the idea of building a large coop
. There is no one here to help me accomplish such a big project. 
Hubby has no skills and is scared to death he can't do a proper job. I've come to the realization he is uncomfortable with the idea of framing. It's been vacation week and we've begun covering the coop in 1/2 inch plywood. I stained the outside with redwood outdoor wood furniture type stain, painted the inside with an off white oops interior primer/paint before assembly. The red dripped into the edges of the white looking a bit gory but I doubt the chickens will notice.
Here's the original coop. Hubby n grandson assembled it, about to finish the roof. We originally put bits of plastic walls salvaged from an old hot tub around the bottom to keep food and chickens dry. That has now been removed.
You can see the base is burried in soil, woodchips, and chicken poo. We dug it away to put the new wood in place. You can just see the new white wall in the back on the right side although it covers all across the back.
Hubby attaching the back wall if you look really closely you can see tiny holes drilled along the top for a very very small bit of ventilation.
Attaching the front right side panel. You can see the end side is not covered yet because it is currently pressed up against the chain link and hardware cloth fence making it inaccessible.
We will be repositioning this entire unit so the only part inaccessible will be that back wall. The other end on the left only has the lower half uncovered because the top half is where the henhouse is located. Hubby is attaching that bit as I type. The only part left to cover is that inaccessible right side end and the top and bottom coop doors that we call the stable doors. Those doors will be covered from the inside so they can be opened easily. I'll be retinking lock types due to my arthritis. The right side triangle of the roof will have a plywood rain covering that is about 2-3 inches away from the exposed hardware cloth to act as ventilation. The left side triangle has a hardware cloth covered window into the henhouse which will be left open and have similar treatment. I'm planning to cut a hole or holes above this window just under the roof edge to increase ventilation.
The entire unit will be coop, not coop with run. It sits inside a run. By making the original attched run into coop area it gives enough square feet for 5 chickens while the floor space of the original hen house gives enough for 2 chickens. I have 6 pullets and 1 cockerel. Chicken math happened fast. Yes, I want a few more, but now I think hubby has a bit more construction confidence. I may be able to coax him into building a second coop.
Soooo much more to do and to figure out. Meanwhile I'll post additional pics as we go. This will be slower now because sadly vacation is over.
. There is no one here to help me accomplish such a big project. Hubby has no skills and is scared to death he can't do a proper job. I've come to the realization he is uncomfortable with the idea of framing. It's been vacation week and we've begun covering the coop in 1/2 inch plywood. I stained the outside with redwood outdoor wood furniture type stain, painted the inside with an off white oops interior primer/paint before assembly. The red dripped into the edges of the white looking a bit gory but I doubt the chickens will notice.Here's the original coop. Hubby n grandson assembled it, about to finish the roof. We originally put bits of plastic walls salvaged from an old hot tub around the bottom to keep food and chickens dry. That has now been removed.
You can see the base is burried in soil, woodchips, and chicken poo. We dug it away to put the new wood in place. You can just see the new white wall in the back on the right side although it covers all across the back.
Hubby attaching the back wall if you look really closely you can see tiny holes drilled along the top for a very very small bit of ventilation.
Attaching the front right side panel. You can see the end side is not covered yet because it is currently pressed up against the chain link and hardware cloth fence making it inaccessible.
We will be repositioning this entire unit so the only part inaccessible will be that back wall. The other end on the left only has the lower half uncovered because the top half is where the henhouse is located. Hubby is attaching that bit as I type. The only part left to cover is that inaccessible right side end and the top and bottom coop doors that we call the stable doors. Those doors will be covered from the inside so they can be opened easily. I'll be retinking lock types due to my arthritis. The right side triangle of the roof will have a plywood rain covering that is about 2-3 inches away from the exposed hardware cloth to act as ventilation. The left side triangle has a hardware cloth covered window into the henhouse which will be left open and have similar treatment. I'm planning to cut a hole or holes above this window just under the roof edge to increase ventilation.
The entire unit will be coop, not coop with run. It sits inside a run. By making the original attched run into coop area it gives enough square feet for 5 chickens while the floor space of the original hen house gives enough for 2 chickens. I have 6 pullets and 1 cockerel. Chicken math happened fast. Yes, I want a few more, but now I think hubby has a bit more construction confidence. I may be able to coax him into building a second coop.
Soooo much more to do and to figure out. Meanwhile I'll post additional pics as we go. This will be slower now because sadly vacation is over.
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Now that's a poorly made coop! Actually ours has door issues in varying weather conditions. The whole Coop warps. Crossing our fingers this works.
