Building a chicken coop has not been easy. Certainly more time, money and effort than I ever gave it credit. Hauling the lumber, sinking posts, concrete, heavy wire.....we still aren't done! LOL! the "chicks" now 15 weeks old are still living in old cupboards, which they don't actually seem to mind. Here's the "roof" of our coop (6 sheets of Heavy flippin plywood) attached to a 14' X 40' fully enclosed run. Of course, I wasnt even planning the "coop" addition but the angle of the lumber we were installing looked like it would be so easy to turn into a shed style roof, so off to home depot we went, the full weekend later, we don't have the "run" finished and haven't finished the new "addition"!!! jeesh Chickens are still running amok......the cost is just eye popping Poor hubby, I just brought home some chicks one day and he inherited major construction project! Life is good!
It will be worth it in the end, it looks like it will be a great looking coop. I know what you mean about taking longer than anticipated. I'm building one myself and going on a week and still not finished.
a week ......... We're planning what chickens to get NEXT Spring and starting on the coop and run for them NOW! Because we know it will take that loooong. But then again, my hubby and I are physically limited on how much we can get done at one time, so we always add LOTS of extra time on any estimate. That way it's really a nice surprise if we get finished early. It's always worth it when it's done and it looks fantastic!
LOL! So true, my post made it sound like thats what I got done in one weekend....it's actually been a MONTH of weekends and we are no where near done.....
Long story short when you plan out your coop/run make sure you are able to make room for the injuried/sick or newbees/babies. I am kicking myself in the butt that when I have to make a separation for any reason in the coop it's such a hassle. My run is easier to divide because we used 10x10 dog kennels and can just place sections even with door up anywhere. The whole thing is a learn experience that's for sure.
I really thought we'd be done in 4-6 weeks... 8 weeks later we're still not quite done. At 6 weeks, we finished everything enough to move the chicks in. We work a little at night sometimes, but mostly weekends. We're about 90% complete, but I think the last 10% will probably take the longest. I've been very surprised at the cost. We thought if we built it ourselves, we could do it cheaper. Of course, our scope creep kicked in too. We didn't have a real plan or a real idea of cost. We just went to Home Depot once a week and bought what we needed for the next phase of construction. I think building one from a kit, probably would have been faster and cheaper, but the experience of building something like this has been very worthwhile. Here's a pic of the 90% that's completed.
