Construction of my 8'x8' Coop - In Progress...

[turtle1173]

I thought I would share a few pictures of my work in progress. I've done an awful lot of "browsing" the past few weeks. Lot's of great ideas out there. The hard part is deciding and committing on what will work for "me."

Here's my frame: 8' x 8' I took an 8' 4x4 and cut it into 2 foot sections. That's how far off the ground my coop will be. I will also utilize this area in the run. My good helper is in the picture also. He will be turning 6 on Tuesday.

2 sheets of plywood was easy enough to make the floor with.

The wall on the right side of the photo is 4' high. The center section on that wall will be where the nest boxes are. It is 4' wide and approx. 13" tall. The wall on the left side is 3' tall. The wall that will be closest to you in the photo, I plan on having two doors that will open wide to allow for cleaning and full access. The far side wall will be where the chickens will come and go.

My next step will be to get some 10' long 2x4's and span the roof section. After that I'll finish building the other two walls. I'm still trying to figure out what I want to do for the roof.

Well, that's all for now. Hopefully I'll have more done on it in the next few days. We'll see if it's going to continue to rain

Shane

 

[All about the EGG]

Thats nice lookin. Gonna run power to it?

 

[Portia]

Nice job, Shane! Looks an awful lot like ours did at that point (you can see it on our website); but we didn't have the little helper. Keep the pics coming, would love to see it as it progresses. Do you have your chicks/chickens yet?

 

[Hangin Wit My Peeps]

Looks great! Were planning on a 8X8 foot coop also

Just nice planning when it comes to buying the wood. How many chickens are you keeping in there? Are you going to insulate?

 

[turtle1173]

I will probably run power to it but it won't be anything fancy (an extension cord

). I wasn't planning on insulating it.

We got our chicks on April 1st, so they are getting close to 6 weeks now. There are 10 of them. I'm going to try and post some pics of them in the next week, as I would like to see if someone can confirm that they are all pullets.

We have 2 white plymouth rocks, 2 California whites, 1 black sexlink, 1 production red, 1 New Hampshire red, 1 Buff Orphington, 1 Rhode Island red, and 1 Bantam.

They are getting mighty big for the brooder that I built at the end of March. I'm going to have to get a move on.

We have a fenced in back yard (4' chain link) but I haven't really let them out to roam much. I would like to give them free reign in the backyard but I'm still going to build them a run area on the coop for those times we might be gone for a couple days.

I'm hoping to get the wood for the roof tomorrow if the rain holds off.

Thanks for all the comments.

Shane

 

[mudshark]

Looking good.

I'm at a similar stage of a similar build though mine is 6 1/2' x 5'. I'm currently working out where to put access doors for cleaning and wonder if I should have one at each end to minimize reaching - so I wonder how you'll deal with cleaning if your doors are only at one end?

 

[FarmerMack]

Quote:
I have a 6X8 coop and i put the chickens exit on one end and the main door, for me, on the front. When it came time to clean it out this spring i broke out my snow shovel and shoveled it all out the front door. then raked it into a humus pile.

pictures where taken last month on the ladies first day out.

]

First day out the girls piled out the front door

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One taken during consturction

Farmer Mack

 

[turtle1173]

Well, here's 4 more pics of what I accomplished today.

As you can see, I've got the support ran for the roof. These are 10' long 2x4's run at 24" centers. Then I also added extra 2x4's inbetween each runner.

Here I started framing what is going to be a big double door. I've just got the perimeter framed on this. I will run a couple 2x4's in the middle of this space. Then have two doors that will swing outward to open up the coop. I'll have the roosts situated somewhere close to this side, so as to make for easier cleaning.

A couple of questions...

What do I need to do for ventilation? Do I need to frame in a window or put in something for this??

What about the space between my roof framing and the walls? I'll put plywood on top and then have it run up on the sides. Can I have a gap at where the two meet for ventilation or close it up tight and put it elsewhere?

Thanks for all the feedback!

Shane

 

[speckledhen]

Something like this works well. This is my original 8x8 coop under construction. We didnt take the plywood all the way up the wall, put hardware cloth inside then made a drop door from a board to fit into the opening that could be propped open all the way or part way. This is in addition to a windows that open and a back vent for cross breezes in summertime.

 

[turtle1173]

Well, the coop is coming along. Here's what I've got done this past week. Mainly the roof almost completed and the nesting box framed.

I would have finished the shingles this afternoon but ran out of roofing nails. I'm almost there.