Altering my terrible TS coop.

[Cryss]

@Wise Woman if you get this coop don't do like I did and put it on the ground. This wood is soft and will rot fast. As a matter of fact I realized too late it should have been painted by me before use. Paint it before assembly maybe? Also, Place it on some sort of floor. I'm putting down brick and drainage stone, then pallets, then 3/4 inch scrap plywood, then linoleum, then the coop.
This has lots of drafty gaps. Close all the doors and windows. Open one door at a time and stick your head inside to see where light comes in. I covered those with skinny thin strips of scrap wood. Maybe shims would work? I trimmed the doors from the inside to block drafts. Ventilation is pretty decent for your purposes, positioned above the pop door. The egg door when locked isn't flush and it's loose so I added sliding bolts on both sides. I'm planning on changing all sliding bolt locks to something easier to manage for my arthritic fingers. I cant face another winter struggling with frozen and misaligned tiny locks. Carabiners might be my option. Oh! And one more thing I did. Once my gals start scratching inside the roost area bedding flys out that pop door! I solved that by placing a simple red brick just inside the doorway. It stops about 90% of the bedding that would have found its way outside from being lost. It's only about 2 inches high so they can still go in and out, no problem.
Would I buy this for a main coop? No. Would I buy this for a spare? Yes but with these modifications.
And wait for it to go on sale.

 

[Chick-N-Fun]

Kudos to you and your husband! He may not be a carpenter, but he did his best to make YOU and your Flock happy! He’s a Keeper! . Enjoy your new set up! It looks great!!!

 

[Wise Woman]

Thank you for all the tips Cryss. I am aware of the shortcomings of these coops. But right now, for my space, abilities and money, it is the best option for me. I am stalking Craigslist every day as well to see if something much better gets listed, but so far there is just crap or custom made, which I cannot afford at this time.

If I end up with a pre-fab, I was planning to customize and re-enforce it, as well as paint it while putting it together. I also plan on using caulk to make it draft free and adding ventilation if necessary I may change the roost bars if I think they need it.

I am also going to put it up on a cinder block foundation with a hardware cloth apron and redo the doors and locks. I will be using the nest boxes for their food area and so I will be putting some different roofing over what comes with the coop.

While building something from scratch would be overwhelming for me physically, I can do small things if I have the basics in place. I also plan to place this coop under a large cedar tree where it will be somewhat protected from the rain and snow. I also plan to cover it with a tarp when not in use.

I know it isn't the ideal solution, but for now it will work for me and it is something I can handle physically. We just have to do the best we can with the resources available to us.

 

[Cryss]

Thank you for all the tips Cryss. I am aware of the shortcomings of these coops. But right now, for my space, abilities and money, it is the best option for me. I am stalking Craigslist every day as well to see if something much better gets listed, but so far there is just crap or custom made, which I cannot afford at this time.

If I end up with a pre-fab, I was planning to customize and re-enforce it, as well as paint it while putting it together. I also plan on using caulk to make it draft free and adding ventilation if necessary I may change the roost bars if I think they need it.

I am also going to put it up on a cinder block foundation with a hardware cloth apron and redo the doors and locks. I will be using the nest boxes for their food area and so I will be putting some different roofing over what comes with the coop.

While building something from scratch would be overwhelming for me physically, I can do small things if I have the basics in place. I also plan to place this coop under a large cedar tree where it will be somewhat protected from the rain and snow. I also plan to cover it with a tarp when not in use.

I know it isn't the ideal solution, but for now it will work for me and it is something I can handle physically. We just have to do the best we can with the resources available to us.

Good plan! Yup, building from scratch isn't for me either. I'm closer to 70 than 60, but I'm resourceful.

 

[Wise Woman]

Well, I just turned 61, but have several chronic illness that prevent me from doing a lot of the physical stuff I would like to do. But I too am resourceful too and always try to find ways to get done what I want! For a project like this, I can get my best friend, who is 62 and has bad arthritis, but she is like me and finds a way, to help me put this together and I can get the guys at the hardware store to cut things to size for me so all I have to do is bring them home and install them. Makes things much more doable for me.

 

[MrsWayne]

I'm 53 and you guys are making me feel shameful. LOL

I have a pre-fab as well. I had to split my run because of a mean rooster. He started attacking my two Pekins then turned to one of my girls. Since I moved him to a rooster time-out my girls have laid every day.

We moved our pre-fab yesterday and put it up on blocks to get it off the ground. I have to put hardware cloth along the outer edges today. I just don't know if I should cover the dirt floor with it or not.

The important thing is that you take good care of the flock, not if you have a pre-fab coop or fancy shed.

 

[Wise Woman]

So right MrsWayne. It sounds easy to just build a shed, but it is not easy when you do not know how. It stresses my husband out majorly. That is why he hired someone to build our big coop last year. He does't want to do any more building and I cannot physically do it even if I knew how. And I can tell you it isn't all that cheap anyway. The price of wood has gone up substantially. I also have a small 1/4 acre property and I have no room to store all sorts of bits and pieces I find cheaply as neighbors would call code enforcement on me.

Sooooooo....I have to do what I have to do. I need a brooder/isolation coop and a prefab is my only choice due to budget and ability constraints. But I don't need it until next year so I will save my pennies and make sure I modify it as best I can and take good care of it. My chickens will be well cared for and won't care where their coop came from.

 

[Cryss]

Thought I'd include some pictures of my progress, which is extremely slow!

My plan is to make a border of used bricks on the ground , fill it with gravel, and place 2 weather stained pallets end to end on top. This pallet is ready. Now to prepare the second one....maybe tomorrow. It's HOT today!

A close up so you can see how I've wrapped 1/2inch hardware cloth under and up all 4 sides to prevent critters getting in that way.

I measured, hubby cut 3/4 inch boards. I'm painting them with gray oops exterior paint on both sides and edges. My painting method consists of dump and smear. These boards will go on top of the stained pallets which will cover the non hardware cloth covered top and the stapled edges of the cloth. When I get to that point I have to decide, do I lay the linoleum down and set the coop on top which would hold the linoleum in place, or do I set the coop on first, then line the linoleum inside which means crawling on my belly for the back half.
Stay tuned for updates.

 

[Cryss]

I know I messed up when zealously extending my run. Once it was up I realised it would be weak under snow load. Panic!!! Family has stepped in andd begun building a lean-to over the entire thing. Here's the begining.

Holes dug ready for posts.

Front posts in place. Too HOT to do the rear posts.

Run is 10ft wide, 30ft long, 6ft high.
And so it begins. Stay tuned for updates.

 

[Wise Woman]

Looks like you are making good progress! Keep posting the pics. I love them.