Building of our coop

[taylorashleyd]

Here is the beginning of our coop building thread. I wasn't planning on a materials list until the end because it seems we head to the hardware store three times a day during this project! Here are some pictures. We are progressing pretty smoothly. Dimension of the coop are 4x4 and the run is 8x4 which should be plenty for the three chickens we have. We have plans to extend the run for 6 chickens total, but we won't do that until next year (too much digging for one year and we are getting old

). We are building it in modular format so we are building each wall separately and then will put them all together. This way we can store the pieces in our garage to keep them out of the rainstorms we have been having lately.

First we dug a 6" deep hole and added a truckload of pea gravel into it:

Then we placed some concrete footings for the coop itself and the bottom boards of the run:



Next was assembling the base of the coop:



Then I painted everything and we screwed on the floor:



Next we built the back wall since it was pretty simple. The back wall is taller then the front so rain slopes away from our garage:



Then we built the front wall which will have a swinging side door for coop access and our vertical feeder and waterer mounted to it, so we had to frame that out. We will have an adjustable vent in that top area:



Then we framed the side wall that will have the coop door, a window, and a vent:



That is where we are at right now. I forgot to take a picture of the front wall with the plywood on it, but I will add that and whatever we get tomorrow to the thread. I don't have any sketches of the coop. We had these beautifully detailed plans I made and since then have tossed them out the window and are just winging it right now. Maybe I will draw up some plans when we are done if anyone is interested.

 

[Kjf18]

Looks great. Hope to see more pictures soon.

KJF

 

[taylorashleyd]

Okay, after a few weeks of doing little things here and there we finally got a day to work on the coop! We have all the walls up, insulation installed, electrical conduit run, and most of the inner walls done at this point. It is really starting to come together. Not a moment too soon either. The gals are starting to escape their brooder every now and then. Clever girls.



We built all the walls modularly, so they went together really quick.



And this would be why this is taking as long as it is to finish. Every weekend or day off I have it rains constantly. Luckily this little storm only lasted an hour.



We decided to insulate the coop for our Montana winters. We also ran a conduit for electrical into our coop. We have an outside outlet for our garage right behind the coop, so we ran an extension cord from there through the conduit so we can have a daylight bulb for the winter time in the coop. Also it is nice to have in case we need anything else in the coop.



Egg box is getting under construction. We are going to have a community box since it is almost 4' wide. We will frame it out a bit more and have a removeable board in the bottom so I can sweep bedding onto the main floor for cleanup. The egg box will be covered with curtains for some privacy.



Here is the wall with the chicken door, window, and vent.



This is going to be our access door. It goes to the floor so I can easily sweep the bedding out. On the door will also be a wall mounted feeder and waterer that my husband made out of PVC piping that the chickens are loving to use right now. That way I can just open the door and fill from there.



My husband working in the coop. He is 6' 4", so the back of the coop is pretty tall. The roof will slope away from the garage. I wanted a cute gable looking roof, but that would just dump a bunch of water right against the garage. We will probably be putting gutters along the garage roof to keep water from running into the run, but even with all the rain the run has been draining just like I had hoped.

Well that is all for now. Tomorrow the plan is to build/finish the roof, finish the access door, tar paper the exterior, paint the inside, cut/paint the siding before installing it, and install the pop door. I don't know if we will get to actually installing the siding, but that is the plan anyway. Then this weekend we can finish up the run/interior and hopefully get the chickens into their new home!