- Apr 19, 2013
- 9
- 1
- 9
Hello all. I am new to chickens but I am not new to building things. I'm a machinist & welder by trade in the aircraft industry.
I've built everything from barns to funny cars and a few things in between.
I recently got into chickens and due to my current project, a 4000 sq ft barn I decided to buy a coop kit from CC Only.
I bought it with the knowledge that I would be putting in some man hours and materials to improve upon it.
So for those of you considering one they can be improved upon with not too much effort, here is what I did.
Assembly - glue everything, add a few extra screws, pre-drill and hand tighten to avoid stripping.
After the glue drys caulk everything, every joint, around windows & doors, where the shingles meet the trim, everything.
Paint everything, inside and out. I painted the inside w/ Kilz primer. I painted the outside with a 15 year exterior latex, I painted the trim with enamel intended for metal.
The legs on my CC-05 were the corner boards extended 6" so I cut 2x4 blocks to fit inside them and glued in place this made the whole assembly quite solid.
I replaced the nesting box hinges with a continuous piece of piano hinge, fully caulked.
The stock roosts, yeah those suck... I bent up some brackets to hold 2 1/2" wide strips of plywood and changed their location. I put one way up high towards the peak and wasn't sure if my girls would jump up there but they have no problem and 3 of them sit up there with room to spare.
Next I made a new base with longer legs so they could utilize the space under the coop and made some small troughs for grit and oyster shell.
So here are a bunch of pics and you can ask more questions or let me know what you think.
I paid $245 + free shipping on ebay for it, all the paint and parts were just stuff I had laying around the shop.
You kind of get what you pay for... I wouldn't want to spend $600 or more on one of their coops and then have to put all that time into one but for what I paid it gave me a decent enough platform to get started.
The girls - 1 BR/RIR cross, 1Blue Barred EE, 1 Copper Black Maran.
I've built everything from barns to funny cars and a few things in between.
I recently got into chickens and due to my current project, a 4000 sq ft barn I decided to buy a coop kit from CC Only.
I bought it with the knowledge that I would be putting in some man hours and materials to improve upon it.
So for those of you considering one they can be improved upon with not too much effort, here is what I did.
Assembly - glue everything, add a few extra screws, pre-drill and hand tighten to avoid stripping.
After the glue drys caulk everything, every joint, around windows & doors, where the shingles meet the trim, everything.
Paint everything, inside and out. I painted the inside w/ Kilz primer. I painted the outside with a 15 year exterior latex, I painted the trim with enamel intended for metal.
The legs on my CC-05 were the corner boards extended 6" so I cut 2x4 blocks to fit inside them and glued in place this made the whole assembly quite solid.
I replaced the nesting box hinges with a continuous piece of piano hinge, fully caulked.
The stock roosts, yeah those suck... I bent up some brackets to hold 2 1/2" wide strips of plywood and changed their location. I put one way up high towards the peak and wasn't sure if my girls would jump up there but they have no problem and 3 of them sit up there with room to spare.
Next I made a new base with longer legs so they could utilize the space under the coop and made some small troughs for grit and oyster shell.
So here are a bunch of pics and you can ask more questions or let me know what you think.
I paid $245 + free shipping on ebay for it, all the paint and parts were just stuff I had laying around the shop.
You kind of get what you pay for... I wouldn't want to spend $600 or more on one of their coops and then have to put all that time into one but for what I paid it gave me a decent enough platform to get started.
The girls - 1 BR/RIR cross, 1Blue Barred EE, 1 Copper Black Maran.
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