Coop and Run Build In Progress

[timemine]

I started building my coop about 3 weeks ago. I've only had two good weekends of progress due to bad weather and life. This is my first time owning chickens so I did many weeks worth of research and planning. I designed the coop myself and am building it by myself. The coop will be 5'x8' and the run will be 9'x8'. Overall it'll be 14' x 8'. The coop is 2 feet off the ground and open to the run to give the chickens more outside space. The entire thing will be covered with a metal roof. I can have up to 12 chickens (new restriction that just passed). I have 6 right now, but have 2 roos that I'm trying to rehome and will get more girls when the coop is done. My chickens are 9 weeks old now and living in my dining room.

This is the beginning of framing out the coop.


The coop will be next to my neighbors garage. There's about 4 feet between his garage and the coop and it's definitely on my side of the property line.



More framing happening. I framed it out on the ground because it's just me and I won't have anyone to help me hold things in place to screw them down so I'm taking advantage of gravity.



I decided to paint everything as I go because painting is my least favorite thing ever. This way it's spaced out and I don't have to be on a ladder or squished into a corner to get everything painted.



Got the first frame painted!



This is the north side of the coop.



This is the east side of the coop



From left to right: south side, east side, and north side of the coop.


It was a nice day so I brought the chickens out while I worked.



Weather was significantly slowing down progress. I saw this "party tent" on a really good sale so I bought it so I could work in almost any weather.



Got the footers in place. A neighbor had used cement blocks I could use for free and my father had treated 4"x4" lumber so I went this route to minimize cost and labor.



All the footers are in place and ready for the base.



I had a roll of 2x4 welded wire hanging out in my basement so I cut it and attached it to the bottom of the base to discourage diggers. I dug back the sod and put the wire down. I wanted to avoid tearing up my grass as much as possible.


I put the sod back in place, stomped it down, and am ready to put the frame up.



I got three sides up. I decided to put part of the roof up before I put the last wall up so that I don't have to reach too far over to do roof work.



I got part of the roof up, the last wall up, and the floor joists in.



I bring the chickens out with me on nice days. Yes, I catch and carry them out and in. Some of the chickens are much more cooperative with this than others. They're all chill once I get them, but Red, my RRR Roo is a slippery lil sucker so he's always the last to get caught. This day they were very adventurous and were allllll over the yard. They spent a lot of time by me under the coop. I think it's a hit. One good side of them being in my dining room for so long is that they're very used to me and lots of noise since I listen to music and am also remodeling the inside of the house. They're used to lots of noise so they don't even run when I'm using my power tools. I've got some really chill chickens.



The sun is setting so time to stop progress for the weekend. The picture below shows the south side of the coop. The middle section is going to be used for storage of chicken items. Above the storage is going to be the roost with a slide out poop board. Above that is going to be a window I got for $10 at a local hardware store. It was in the loose or damaged section.



This is the west side of the coop. I got the window (double hung!) at the hardware store for $20 in the loose or damaged section. There wasn't a thing wrong with it. It was one heck of a find. I put the window up so that it opens from the outside to avoid having to deal with opening from inside the coop. I'm going to build a "screen door/cage " for the outside of it so it can stay open whenever and still be safe. The "door" will swing open so I can use the window to access the inside of the coop whenever or if I ever need to. There will be many doors on the coop, but I figured I didn't want to permanently seal the window with hardware wire just to make life easier in the long run.



I'll keep this updated with my progress!

 

[Finnie]

Your coop is going to be awesome!

We've had a lot of rain here, too, and can't get much done outside. But yesterday was really nice, and today is too.

Looking forward to watching you build this.

 

[timemine]

Finnie, I'm in Indianapolis too! I'm in Irvington.

 

[limited25]

You are doing great on your coop (both money wise and carpentry skills) ... looks good! Nice you have the north side facing the neighbor's barn so will break cold winds in the winter. Also like your chickens ... quite cute.

 

[Finnie]

Finnie, I'm in Indianapolis too! I'm in Irvington.

Wow. You know, when I saw the photos of your yard and neighbors, I thought, that could totally be in Indy, or at least somewhere in the Midwest. (On my phone, and mobile version doesn't show me people's avatar info.)

Plus, I heard that Indy raised their chicken limit. (I am actually not in Indy. Just to the north.)

 

[timemine]

Got more done on the coop. There's still a long way to go, but loving the progress.

This is the east side. On the left is a storage area on the bottom with the roost on the top. On the right will be a removable shelf with the nests under it. The nests will be in the inside and removable. The chicken door will be in the middle.


This is a view of the inside. I choose cheap peel and stick vinyl for easy cleaning and replacement if necessary.



I got this in the discount bin at the local hardware store. It's technically half of a sliding window, but there was nothing wrong with it and for $10 I couldn't pass it up. It is in front of the roost area. It's south facing so in the winter it'll help let in light and keep the coop warm. I have a wifi thermometer that sends up to the minute readings to my phone of the coop temp and humidity. If it gets too hot in the summer I'll put a shade over the window to keep out the heat.



This is the west side of the coop. I got two of the industrial vents for $5 at Habitat for Humanity Restore. I LOVE the window. It's dual hung so opens from top and bottom.


The south and west sides of the coop.



This is the north side. The top will be a vent with hardware cloth. The bottom will be an access door.


This is the east side. The enclosed area is the storage area below the roost. It'll be used to keep food and chicken items.

 

[timemine]

The coop is still a work in progress... Here are the latest pictures.

I built two pull out poop drawers. The roosts are right above the drawers. I've filled the drawers with sweet PDZ and the boards on the ends are attached by a click connector so I can just pull on the board and remove it whenever I want to clean out all of the board. I didn't know what material I was going to use for the poop boards so I wanted to be able to have the drawer hold stuff, but also be able to sweep it out when necessary.



Here are both drawers. I built the one on the left a few weeks ago and just finished the one on the right so that's why it's so clean.


Here are 4 of my girls on the inside of the coop. The poop drawers are in the background on top of that shelf thing. The storage area is under the shelf.


Here you can see the two roosts at different heights. Originally I didn't have as much ventilation, but my girls were shoving themselves against the side in front of one of the side vents so I cut three more vents. They still all shove against each other but in a different corner now. I've tried telling them there are two roosts and two corners, but they don't listen. The feeder and waterer are temporary. I'm going to build out a system later, but for now it works.


Here's the exterior. The window you see is where the roosts are and the storage is under the roosts. I still need to build out the pop door, run, add the window/vent covers to stop rain from getting in.



This is the west side of the coop. I built the "cage" around the sliding window. I keep expecting to see one of them sitting inside it. It's covered with hardware cloth so they are safe.

 

[Intheswamp]

I must say that you are doing a fine job! Keep it up!

I really like your poop boards, again, nicely done!

Ed

 

[Finnie]

It's coming along very nicely. I like how bright and airy it is inside.

 

[timemine]

I got the run finished this weekend. I still have to put trim and window covers on the coop and finish painting it, but the run is done! My girl Dotty is in the pictures checking it out. I have 4 5-month old hens that free range my yard and I have 7 2-month old babies that were in my dining room so I needed to get the run done so they would have more room until they're big enough to free range and so I could start safely introducing them to the big girls.

This is the South side. Right now the coop door is covered with a piece of plywood to separate the bigs from the littles. I let the bigs out through a door on the North side of the coop. The space below the coop is open to the run.


This is the Southeast side of the coop/run. A previous tenant from my other house had had a backyard above ground pool and left a set of really well built wooden stairs in the back yard. So, I decided the chickens would love climbing on it so I put it in the run. So far the littles love it! They all slept on the top step last night


This is the West side. Below the coop is open to the run. I wanted to be able to easily clean out under the coop whenever I needed to so I built three "doors" that swing out for easy under coop access. You can see the hinges and they are closed with self locking gate latches and carabiners.