Chronicles of a New Coop

[oldhenlikesdogs]

How exciting to start building a coop. Looking forward to seeing your progress.

 

[bwebster]

Currently gathering supplies. Hope to get most of the coop done by or during this weekend. A couple more Home Depot trips first... ran out of lumber. 3 of 4 walls framed and in the garage. Gotta frame the people door wall next.

I attached a couple pics of my current setup, hoping maybe some brains bigger than mine can think of a good way to connect the current run to new coop. I'll be removing the lower level part with the planter and expanding off the end for a nice long run. My conundrum lies with the overhang on the current run, and the height difference. The new coop, when done, will have 6' walls and a 12" roof height, plus being up off the ground. So probably about 8' from ground to pitch. The run addition won't be covered (other than HW cloth or chicken wire) so I kinda want the covered section where the chickens come out, though it won't butt up flush to the new coop. I suppose I can just cut off the overhang?

Hope to have more updates soon! Subfloor material, vinyl floor, windows and HW cloth are all in the garage. Just need a few more 2x4s, 2x6s for the rafters, and sheathing for walls and roof. Felt roll, shingles and drip edges ordered and ready to be picked up.

Btw... We have 5 FAT barred rocks in there now, 3 wearing pinless peepers. Easy to see why we are expanding! And of course we want to add 3-4 more haha.

 

[bwebster]

Alright. Finally done. Chickens in and ready to lay a few more thousand dollar eggs.

I'll have to see how things go because there are a few things I may have to adjust. For instance roost and nest box heights. When they first went in they went up on the storage shelf and on top of the nesting boxes. May have to adjust. I may want to add a poop tray under the roosts, which I planned on initially. But I put down vinyl flooring so if not, it'll be easy to sweep out.

Very hard time connecting the old run to the new coop but I figured it out. And the hardest part of all was dealing with Home Depot lumber. Lots of splits, warps, twists and such. This thing is solid as hell, but a few times I cursed the world about things not lining up or being square.

If anyone has suggestions on what to do differently, or criticisms on what I did wrong please tell me!! Scroll through the photos and let me know!! Thanks everyone.

(Wall art courtesy of my little humans.)

 

[bwebster]

How did putting HC on the soffits turn out?

It went haha. Forgot to take a pic and it's dark out now, but it worked. Instead of getting cut by the HC my drill skipped and stabbed my thumb with a Phillips bit lol. That is one thing I'm going to need to adjust. I actually went inside and told my wife I was done, until I realized I had forgotten to put the HC up.

I just cut 8'x9" (9" overhang) strips and screwed them up with a washer. It worked but it's not as neat as I'd like it to be.

 

[deidreg]

Very impressive work! I especially like the art gallery--not every chicken can claim to have art in their coop! Congratulations!

 

[Melky]

Nice job. My inside is like yours but I left the tops of my nest boxes so no roosting pooping on top. I also used natural perches one in front of the nest boxes and one across the hen house. I needed nothing else and they took right to it.

 

[bwebster]

@Melky that's a good idea about the top of the nest boxes.

 

[Melky]

@Melky that's a good idea about the top of the nest boxes.

I may have to use your upper storage idea. Need a shelf high.

 

[bwebster]

UPDATE***

Chickens have been in for over a month and all is well. I haven't noticed any pecking (though a couple still have bare spots above their tails, but some pin feathers coming in). Space was the main reason for building a larger coop.

I removed the roof of the nesting boxes to deter perching and they still use them just fine. Eggs have slowed due to winter, but I put a battery motion light on the ceiling and it seemed to help for a little while. 5 a day for a week or so but back to just 3 a day. We have 5 BRs.

Also no roosting on the storage shelf. All are roosting where they should. Not even on the bar on the nesting boxes.

Now I wait until expansion happens again. Hopefully far from now and preferably never. Thank everyone.

 

[aart]

I removed the roof of the nesting boxes to deter perching and they still use them just fine.

They don't try to perch on the tops of dividers?

Eggs have slowed due to winter, but I put a battery motion light on the ceiling and it seemed to help for a little while.

Supplemental lighting needs to be consistently timed for the same time each day.
Motion light is not going to do that...who know how long the lights are on with that set up.