Cost of building my own coop?

[La Banan]

Quote:
LynneP - I have been meaning to ask you all this time - why do you have a racoon living in your barn? My dog Hoagy gets away every once in awhile despite all our precautions and if he doesn't come back with a head full of quills (arggghhh) he comes home with deep and deserved scratches around his eyes from the racoons. I can hear those beasts every night trying to figure out how to get into the gold but we got them at bay so far!
jan la banan

 

[djackjr]

Since I leave in the pacific northwest and our winters are not to cold and our summer are not to hot, will I need to insulate the part of the shed I am turning into a coop. I do have power out there so I can run a heater to say keep it at around 45 to 50 degrees in the winter. There are two vents at each end and one window that will be on shed side but air will flow through upper part of shed since that will be just chicken wire up there with a solid wall below it.

One more thing what should I put on the plywood floor to keep it from getting wet and falling apart??

 

[Heather J]

You can put a couple coats of a good floor enamel, but my favorite is a piece of sheet flooring --vinyl--some people have used those cheap sticky tile squares but you'll get water in between them so I highly suggest staying away from them. Depending on the size of your coop, you might be able to pick up a remnant from a flooring place for a really good price.

 

[Dixiedoodle]

We are building my coop now. It's taken longer than expected and the 10x7foot coop and covered run is going to be around 1400$. We had a cement pad already on the property--so that is the floor. The coop has barn siding T111 (I think that's what it's called), tin roof but has 3/4" plywood, with roofing sheeting under. I purchased hardware cloth to cover the windows and vents along with screen wire The run is covered in ten foot chainlink fencing (two feet buried and the bottom three feet will have hardware cloth over the chainlink to keep the racoons from putting their hands thru the fence and pulling a chicken thru there.. Chainlink fencing also will cover the top of the run.. There is a cement pad under the front gate that extends out two feet with chainlinking buried another foot down. It's almost 'overkill' but my dh said he didn't want me screaming and squawling and he knew if a predator got in there, he would "have the devil to pay'.

All the books and information I gathered said:
10 sq. ft. per chicken standard breed in the run
4-5 square feet per standard breed in the coop
1 foot of roost " "
1 nests box per every 5 hens

My nest boxes are 12"x12"x14"tall. and has a (what I call) a landing board on the front for them to hop up on. The top is slanted at a steep angle to prevent roosting on it.
The bottom of the first next box is 18" off the floor.

My roost is 30" off the floor with a dropping board 6" under it. I will cover it will shavings and rake it off every day or as need. Since they seem to do more pooping at night it will HOPEFULLY catch the larger amounts of it..

Will you be getting chicks or adults??

 

[Chicabee19]

Since I leave in the pacific northwest and our winters are not to cold and our summer are not to hot, will I need to insulate the part of the shed I am turning into a coop.

Unless you are on the far east side, no - you don't need to insulate or run a heater. I know people who have 3-sided coops in Portland.​

 

[djackjr]

Thats what I thought with the weather here that I would not need to worry about to cold or to hot. on the chicken run it will by 12 by 6 maybe 20 by 6 and covered. I was going to run a electric fence one foot off the ground all the around about a foot from the run, would that suffice on keeping critters out???

Oh and Dixiedoodle it will be chicks to start with...

 

[pdpatch]

Quote:
No, because you have to deal with Dogs and Cats, they will jump over an electric fence that low. Skunks. For Opossums, Racoons types it may unless you have trees close to the coop they can jump from. Snakes would be a no.

But when setting up defenses, it like in the Military a single layer of protection will not work to protect from all potential preditors. Some layer will help with one type of preditor but one does not deal with all.

Tom

 

[djackjr]

Ok what I meant was a one foot high electric fence around the perimeter of my enclosed yard. Would I still have to dig down a foot to keep them from digging under since the electric fence would be in the way. I have the rockiest yard in the world and do not want to dig if I don't have to.....

 

[chicken_angler]

IF you can find lots of materials to use, get them. I made my large coop for under 15.00 because it was a chicken coop that needed fixing because the previous owners let it go.

 

[djackjr]

Ok going to make an enclosed pen 6ft high 6 ft wide by 12 ft long. With a screened top on it. Part of that will be a solid roof to keep the rain off. Probably the first 6 feet of the run. This will be attached to the side of my shed with a door cut out for the chickens to get in and out. I decided to build an interior wall with a door going into the chicken part of the shed. That wall will be 6ft high with chicken wire going above that to the ceiling. This will let in light from my existing light fixture for the winter. the size of the coop will be 6ft by 10ft. With 6 nest boxes for 12 hens. What is best breed for brown eggs???
So in the coop they will have about 5 square ft each and in the run about 6 square feet each. Would should be adequate. If I get more chickens I will add on to the run and move the wall inside the shed......