Any tips for a new chicken-coop-builder?

[adeechickluv]

Wish you luck!

 

[ColoradoMike]

Quote:
The answer to this depends in large part on whether or not you would enjoy the building part. Some people want nothing to do with measuring, sawing, hammering, etc. and simply want to start with the chicken keeping part. Others love the designing and building part, and once they finish their first, they're already planning their second. I get the feeling that most of us are in the middle somewhere.

I really enjoyed looking through as many coop designs as I could and began designing our coop in my head. I turned to BYC with some questions on various aspects of my concept, and then began acquiring materials. The building part was very fun for me - I'm not a pro by any means, but I was happy to be able to use some 'recycled' materials and have been very pleased with how things turned out. Of course, I'm planning on some modifications/expansions this spring, but I should be done after that (lol yeah right

)

So, have you built many things before? Do you have the tools or at least know someone with the appropriate tools? Do you have the time to devote to the construction part? I spent a few weeks worth of evenings and a few weekends to finish ours, weather permitting. The real challange was balancing relatively new fatherhood with the construction, but my wife was very patient with me, as she knew we were under the gun to finish the coop since we already had chicks in a make-shift brooder

There are pros and cons of each of your options to be sure - for me, I knew I wanted to build our own coop from scratch, since I enjoy those types of projects...

Good luck!

 

[Dogfish]

3 sheets of plywood gets you a 4' cube. Add 4 eight foot 2"x4"'s, 2 twelve foot 4"x4"s, and 4 pier blocks and you have a 4'x4'x'4' cube secured at all edges, with a 24" space underneath. Elevated coop. Add on from there.

Have fun!

 

[patandchickens]

If you want a book or plans, I would VERY HIGHLY recommend AVOIDING books of chicken-coop plans (unless you get 'em from the library, just for inspiration) or most of the things sold online... just get a book from your library on building sheds (for a walk-in size coop) or kids' playhouses or doghouses (for a reach-in size coop). There are LOTS AND LOTS of books with detailed plans and step by step directions for those things. If your library does not happen to own one there is always interlibrary loan, or they are not expensive at a bookstore. Of ocurse you will have to add extra ventilation and a roost and popdoor but that's pretty trivial

Good luck, ahve fun,

Pat

 

[blasto]

We bought a wooden, shingled dog house on sale (reg. $119 bought for around $85) then raised it up on 2x4s. At first we made a wire door to cover the existing dog house door and were going to cut a hole in the floor for the chickens to get in and out of, but then realized how much coop room that took up so the dog house door is now the pop hole and we cut a large access door on one of the longer sides of the dog house (the bottom of the access door is even with the inner floor. I use a cut piece of 2x4 along that bottom edge to keep in the bedding when the door is opened). Made a separate and detachable run from 2x2s. The run is as high as the top of the door. Secured 1in. welded wire to the 2x4s supporting the coop on three sides (two sides actually, as one is an access wire door) and floor and on three sides, top and floor of the run. The two pieces secure together with spring-locking eye hooks (not sure what they are really called). There is also a wire access door on the run. Food and water hangs under the coop and instead of a ramp I just put an up-ended cinder block under the pop door for them to get up and down. Oh yeah, and we cut vent panels above the door and on the opposite wall and covered them with wire and house vent covers.

In theory I made this thing movable, but it is darn heavy and the wire on the bottom hasn't been seen since the first few weeks, the floor level has risen with all the poop, scraps, leaves and shavings I've tossed in over the past year and I imagine it would take some doing to pry everything up to move.

The chickens just roost and lay in the coop and spend the rest of their time in the run (or loose with us in the yard). Even in the pouring rain they hang out in the covered portion under the coop. Right now I have a big Welsummer hen and a cochin bantam pullet but all winter it housed the Wellie and three bantams without any problems.

I was totally overwhelmed when we started all of this. My husband is not the best carpenter around (and believe me, I am being VERY kind

) so trying to figure out how to build a coop from scratch was driving us both nuts. We live in the burbs and have stealth chickens so the setup had to be attractive and this was the best solution for us. Good luck!