Chickens! Our West Austin coop build - Lots of photos!

[kellanv]

So it is Sunday afternoon and time for a chicken coop construction update! I am very happy with the progress so far. Got about 12 hours of work in this weekend which is pretty good given the rain and my schedule! Minus building/mounting the nesting boxes I am pretty much ready to start getting everything dried in (roof, siding etc.) Haven't quite decided on the siding yet but we'll do something neat. The roof will be galvanized metal to keep things a bit cooler. Once that is all up and screened we will probably be moving our current 10 house guests into the coop so they can start acclimating!



Heres the front that will open up into the covered run. The pullet-shut door will be mounted in the gap just right of center. The large gap above the double horizontal 2x4s will be a large screened window. Since it will have a roof overhang it is probably the best place for one!


Another angle. Our special "chicken litter box" drawer can be seen on the left side there. That will eventually be faced with the same siding as the coop.


The back side of the coop where the larger "human access" door will be located. This is also the low side of the coop roof. There will be two vents along the roof slope on both the roost side and the nesting box sides.


Voila! The chicken litter box drawer in action. We wanted to do something that would allow us access from the outside for daily cleaning. Probably going to use Sweet PDZ.


After completely destroying a set of "heavy duty" drawer slides I came up with this. Most likely a lot more durable long term. Has a certain rustic feel to it! We may cover the rails with grease/shortening/lard/bees wax to give it a little more slip but it works surprisingly well!

And thats it for this week's installment. Hopefully next week I can get a bit done on the roof and siding!

 

[AlabamaSweetpea]

I like your slide for the litter box

 

[kellanv]

Thanks! I'm glad I figured out how to get it to work!

 

[kellanv]

So I have a question for you fine folks.

I have been racking my brain coming up with a siding option that we like. The coop is in the front of our lot so we want it to look good and go with the house which is pretty modern/contemporary. I know we want to use some galvanized metal as siding (looks better than it sounds) on one side to match the bit of it on our house. For the other three sides however I am thinking I would like to use cedar 1x12's that I can get relatively cheaply and run them horizontally as siding. Traditionally one would want to put 1/8" or 1/4" gaps in the boards like a privacy fence.

Would this be a problem? From a "how dry does the coop need to be" perspective it would mean that rain *may* be able to get into the coop if it drives sideways but my thought was that our windows would already allow some water in if thats the case. The gapped siding would also allow a bit of a breeze which I know would be beneficial.

I can always put sheathing underneath but its just added expense that I'd love to avoid!

Thanks!

 

[Jubilee1111]

I have a coop that is open air on three sides and it still gets hot. I think the added ventilation of the gaps would be a benefit. Additionally,rain isn't usually our biggest issue

You'll want to make sure mold isn't taking hold but I think it's a great concept.

The metal will hold heat, though.

 

[kellanv]

Thanks! Kinda what I was thinking.

As for the siding/roofing, if you actually look at most data sheets, galvanized roofing is very good at reflecting heat waves. Coupled with the fact that its actually pretty light weight, it doesn't have a large amount of thermal mass to it which means the coop should cool off at night quicker. Putting a roof deck on under the metal may add some insulation but I'm not too worried about it!

 

[Nomibear]

Is the cedar going to be where the chickens can peck at it? I remember reading that cedar shavings shouldn't be used for bedding since it's dust or oils are toxic to chickens. (sorry don't remember which one) Would cedar as a building material be a problem?

 

[kellanv]

I have seen several runs and coops with cedar trim so it should be fine unless they really try to eat it!

 

[kellanv]

So finally an update! We worked a lot on the coop last weekend and this weekend but I decided to wait until this one to show any more photos. We are going to do some work on it tomorrow as well. Our roofing came in so that will probably be installed next weekend because we will run out of time.

That being said...



The coop so far! We used the galvanized metal on the front to go with our house. The chicken door is a pullet-shut door. I think we could have gone with something more bold but...



Pullet-shut door and our nesting boxes. We used some of the gray paint from our house to paint the insides.



Here is a view of our egg door from the outside. We used a couple of latches with a carabiner on one and a pad lock on the other. More for humans than anything.


\
Me trying to show the door open. Matches pretty well!



The siding is all 1x6 cedar board which we cut and used a 1/8" roundover router bit to get a nice clean look. I'll work on the face for the sliding tray tomorrow.

Thats it for now! We are quite happy with the progress and look forward to getting our lovely pullets out of our bathroom!

 

[kellanv]

Today I managed to build the frame for the door and my wife started getting the paint on it so we can put the siding on and hang it.

My other major accomplishment of the day was finishing the face of the poop board drawer. Over all I like how it looks!



View of the drawer closed. Note the handles.



Here is the drawer open. We had to re-work a couple of things trim wise but overall it went as planned.

We are going to attempt to work some after work this week to finish putting hardware cloth on the windows and hopefully hang the door. Hopefully next Sunday we will be able to put the roof on and release our girls into their new home!