Everytime I go by a old farmstead, I like to look at the old buildings and see the uniqueness of each. When I first decided to get chickens, the first thing you think of is what kind of coop will I need. I started looking through the internet and found the one currently in my avatar and thought that someday I want one like it. The kind of chicken coop you would likely see around a old farmstead.
I inquired around to find an old coop (BTW, I like things old) some farmer no longer wanted and I could bring it home on my trailer.....but everyone that was willing to give one away usually had a lot of problems that went along with it. It happens to be I am a building contractor, so it didn't take me long to decide to build one myself.
Since we are currently 12" deep in snow, I am not able to do any home construction so this would be a ideal time to build this new coop in my driveway, and since it is portable, when it gets finished (and the snow is gone where it needs to finally go) I will move it with my farm tractor to it's final destination.
The first step was to get the local lumberyard to deliver the framing package. I decided that a 10 x 16 was a good size for me.
Then my youngest son Chris and I began framing the exterior walls in my barn where there is no snow and a good flat surface to do the work. After the walls were all framed, we stood them up and went on to the floor system.
The floor system is 2x6 floor joists laid out on 2 foot centers with a treated 4x6 as the skids, and also a bearing point for the floor joist so that it will be a solid floor. Then I used 3/4" square edge o.s.b. for a floor. Now would have been a good time fo put a 10 x 16 piece of linoleum down....but I am impatient, that will come later.
Then the next step was to carry those wall sections (pictured earlier) out and nail them to the floor system. I used 2x4 14's cut to 7' for studs and spaced them 16 " on center. I wanted more headroom than I had at 6 foot, but thought 8 foot was too much. I wanted to be able to stand up straight anywhere inside of the new coop. This is the end where my door will go, it is not currently framed down to door size since I will be looking to see what I can find in the scratch and dent area of the lumber yard and then frame it accordingly.
This is the front view, which will have two windows 42" in heighth and 5 foot in width. I have some Andersen windows that were replaced from a house I remodeled last summer and figured they would be perfect for this.
Now I need to work on the roof framing, which you can see by my avatar will be two different rooflines at different heights with windows in that short wall.
I will post updates as I progress through this project, I hope you will enjoy the process as I go through it.
I inquired around to find an old coop (BTW, I like things old) some farmer no longer wanted and I could bring it home on my trailer.....but everyone that was willing to give one away usually had a lot of problems that went along with it. It happens to be I am a building contractor, so it didn't take me long to decide to build one myself.
Since we are currently 12" deep in snow, I am not able to do any home construction so this would be a ideal time to build this new coop in my driveway, and since it is portable, when it gets finished (and the snow is gone where it needs to finally go) I will move it with my farm tractor to it's final destination.
The first step was to get the local lumberyard to deliver the framing package. I decided that a 10 x 16 was a good size for me.
Then my youngest son Chris and I began framing the exterior walls in my barn where there is no snow and a good flat surface to do the work. After the walls were all framed, we stood them up and went on to the floor system.
The floor system is 2x6 floor joists laid out on 2 foot centers with a treated 4x6 as the skids, and also a bearing point for the floor joist so that it will be a solid floor. Then I used 3/4" square edge o.s.b. for a floor. Now would have been a good time fo put a 10 x 16 piece of linoleum down....but I am impatient, that will come later.
Then the next step was to carry those wall sections (pictured earlier) out and nail them to the floor system. I used 2x4 14's cut to 7' for studs and spaced them 16 " on center. I wanted more headroom than I had at 6 foot, but thought 8 foot was too much. I wanted to be able to stand up straight anywhere inside of the new coop. This is the end where my door will go, it is not currently framed down to door size since I will be looking to see what I can find in the scratch and dent area of the lumber yard and then frame it accordingly.
This is the front view, which will have two windows 42" in heighth and 5 foot in width. I have some Andersen windows that were replaced from a house I remodeled last summer and figured they would be perfect for this.
Now I need to work on the roof framing, which you can see by my avatar will be two different rooflines at different heights with windows in that short wall.
I will post updates as I progress through this project, I hope you will enjoy the process as I go through it.
Last edited:
