Discouraged, lost and confused.

[Jenski]

Don't get discouraged! I just sent a message to patandchickens - - she is out of Canada, and she is fabulous and experienced with coop construction for your weather. Let's see what she has to say.

P.S. - - the coop looks great! - and welcome to BYC!

 

[BWKatz]

Your coop looks alot better than alot that I've seen. Add the Hardware cloth as an apron and use landscaping pins to hold it down. I'm in the process of doing that now for mine.We have red clay and with 100F u can't shovel anything. Keep up the good work and just have fun with it! "Don't worry. Be happy!"

 

[Chickenaddict]

We used 2 layers of plywood on our coop floor and no linolium (not by choice) the first layer wasn't thick enough for my liking so I made DH put down another layer of thicker plywood. No moisture gets on the floor unless someone spills the waterer which never happens. I wouldn't be tooo concerned about it. For ventillation we used 2 roof vents, 5 windows, and will be installing vents above the front door and the back wall. I think you will be just fine the way your doing things already, if it makes ya feel better don't take the frame up but put another piece of plywood on top of the existing piece. Looks fabulous already

 

[MimiChick]

I agree with the previous posts. Do what you can afford and what works for you. The start looks GREAT

I'm in the process of building a new, bigger coop for my girls (and hopefully some more), and one of the things I found helped me a lot was a paint sprayer. I got an inexpensive 'Wagner Project Sprayer' at Lowes and used it to spray a wood preservative paint on all my wood. Like one of the other posters said "all wood rots eventually", but painting with a wood preservative will help it last longer. Give that floor a good couple of coats of wood preservative paint and you should be fine. If you want to paint the frame/walls, that's some bonus protection too.
As for insulation, I got the rolls of thin foil like insulation. You can just staple it to the walls between the studs. It's inexpensive and easy to work with. I don't really know how much insulation it actually provides, but in our New England weather I think it should be fine. My old coop had no insulation and my girls were just fine. I'm adding it more for me than for them. Also, the air trapped between the studs (if you put an interior wall in) will provide a small measure of insulation itself.
Ventilation is really important. If you can devise something up high, under the soffit, that you can open and close at need, I'd put it on each wall. That way, you can take advantage of which way the wind is blowing to either open or close. I just did simple hinged "flaps" or doors that I cut out of the plywood near the top and screened with hardware cloth. I can open or close the flaps at need.
The only thing you really need to remember for winter is that the girls need to be kept as draft free and dry as possible. It's not so much cold temperatures as moisture in the air that can give them problems. You need the ventilation to release the moisture that they produce.
Anyway, I think you've made a great start and your chickens are going to be absolutely delighted with their new home. Don't worry about what's "right". There is really no "right" way. Do what you thinks best, what works for you and what you can afford and you'll be just fine.
Keep posting your progress and your finished coop. Best of luck.

 

[oldchickenlady]

Your coop looks great! Dont worry about burying wire, just lay a strip of hardware cloth or welded wire (I used 1x2) about 18-24 inches wide on the ground around your run. I used metal tent stakes from Walmart to hold mine down. I would paint the floor then put down linoleum. Cheapest you can find or check salvage stores. You can get paint real cheap at any paint store that has been returned due to being the wrong color (oops! paint). Tractor supply had 5 gallon barn red paint on sale for $49.00, if you have one in your area. There are cheaper ways to do things that will reduce the costs. I got some real nice pressure treated runners at Lowes for free. I am going to use them for the supports for my roosts an nest boxes. They are almost the same size as a 2x4. Check your local lumber stores and see if they have scraps to give away. Check often as contractors know about this and will snap up anything usable pretty quickly. As for the insulation, I don't know that you would need it. I would research cheaper options online, or you could put a heat lamp in there if you have a way to do it. I dont have electricity to my coop, but could run an extension cord. I saw an idea about putting a concrete block in your coop (the kind with the square hole in it) and putting a light bulb on an extension cord in the hole, then setting a metal waterer on top to keep it from freezing. I think I read somewhere that someone used plastic bags for insulation...it would take a heck of a lot of bags! Maybe you could insulate one roll at a time and use salvaged paneling or something for the cover over the insulation. Dont worry so much and build it the way you want. It will work out and the chickens don't care! As long as you have adequate ventilation they will be fine.

 

[junglebean]

I know how discouraged you are. I was in the same spot about 4 weeks ago! So, bare minimum first, and add ons as you go. I have a plywood floor with some vent holes(covered in wire), covered by that vinyl on a roll from HD. So far,so good. And the plywood and frame were out in the rain for 2 years before the coop was on it. I have been confused by the no draughts, but need ventilation too...what!? So, they have nice windows for the summer, and they can be closed in the winter. We have a coyote problem around here too. Digging wire a foot into the ground is not possible, nor do I even want to attempt it. We dug a small trench and made the run fence go down about 3 inches, just so there wasn't a gap. Then I laid treated wood along the outside edge. We had a lot left over, as we had to saw off and re-do posts. Then I threw a bit of dirt over them. Otherwise, I would have used cedar poles that are laying around. I will later drill holes and secure them into the ground with rebar and loop nails connected to the fence to keep predators from rolling them away. This is cheap and relatively easy. Another idea I saw was to wire hardware cloth to the bottom of the fence, then slope it out and slightly bury it, going about 2 feet outside of the perimeter. So if something starts digging, they hit the wire and give up. I also just do a perimeter check everyday. The coop is "predator proof", so that's the important thing. Think of this project as a work in progress. You can always change things. Nothing is set in stone. If I can figure out how to keep them from flying over the darn fence, then we'll be peachy!

 

[Stevo]

I would get some plywood on it soon. The framing will start to twist and rack if left with out it for too long. As long as you have ventilation underneath the plywood floor it will be fine. Even if its OSB. Coyotes cannot dig threw wood so forget the wire. Here in NJ it gets cold in winter and my coop has no insulation. All wood touching the ground should be pressure treated. 5/8 plywood for the exterior walls is ok if you stain it with an outdoor sealer like deck sealer. 1/2 OSB plywood for the roof. You can use a ridge vent for ventilation instead of gable vents. Nothing will get threw it. Soffits need to be animal proof so coons or weasels cant get threw there. They will push plastic soffit up and get in. Welded wire works best. So you need 8 sheets of 19/32 acq sheathing @ $19.00 ea. for walls. 4 sheets of 7/16 OSB @ $8.00 ea. for roof. 1 roll roof felt @ $19.00. 3 bundles of shingles (1 square is 10x10) @ $17.00 ea. 1 gal. Cabot deck stain @ $15.00 1 roll of 24x36 wire welded garden fencing @ $12.00 . I would use the wire to make windows also w/shutters for winter. You can use the cutouts from the 5/8 plwood just stain both sides. Then misc. hardware like hinges and eyehooks. It adds up but you will have a nice coop that will last a long long time. To ventilate the underside (looking at photo) I would just cut some vents in the 2x4 just under the flooring like maybe 18in and cover them with wire. One on each side will be plenty. This is the cheapest I would go with materials. You could always use better if your pocketbook can handle it lol.

 

[JMPE]

Ventilation is important. You need a solution for that. Louvered attic vents at the gable ends would be perfect. The shed I converted has a gap on the side walls where the wall meets the roof. You could also just use a saw bit to cut 2"-3" under the eaves and cover these with 1/4" hardwire.

Don't stress about the wood you use or insulation. Dry chickens can handle the cold. I have power in my coop which is the BEST thing ever (IMHO). Extra light and heat in the winter when needed. I use a bird bath heater to keep my water liquid.

A lot of us have converted old sheds or scrap coops. The chickens don't care. Build what works for you.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I use a dirt floor so I will not comment on the plywood floor. With Vancouver's wet climate, I'd be concerned but others have direct experience with that.

Vancouver has a mild climate moderated by those ocean currents, from what I understand the mildest in Canada. I'm sure you get some Arctic blasts that last a while, and I don't know how severe those get, but I'd imagine the humidity is fairly low when it gets that cold there. When you are looking at cold temperatures, you are not looking at average daytime temperatures. You are looking at what is the coldest it has gotten over about the last 5 years. And your concern is not so much during the day when they are awake. It is at night when they are sleeping. You need to keep drafts off them and give their body heat a chance to warm the place up. How many chickens you have will affect how much body heat they give off.

Good ventilation is very important in your wet cool climate too, I'd think more important than insulation, not specifically for your severe cold snaps but for your normal cold wet winters. As long as you build it fairly tight so you don't get breezes coming in below where they are roosting, I doubt you need to insulate. It won't hurt, but I doubt it is really necessary. If you do insulate, I'd think real hard about a vapor barrier in your wet climate. I don't know what your prevailing winds are or your worst winds. I'd suspect the cold Arctic blasts come out of the north and you often get breezes from the west off the sea, but each area with its hills and valleys can have its own microclimate. I'd suggest on your downwind sides you put a lot of ventilation under your overhangs to prevent rain from blowing in but give good air exchange. On your upwind sides, either no ventilation or build it so you can close it off when you want to. If you really want to, you can build a hover. That is an enclosure over the roosting chickens that hold in their body heat. I'd be a bit careful of how you do that with your normal cool wet winters, concerned you'd be trapping humidity in there, but I have no experience with hovers. I know I don't have your winter weather, but just for kicks, here is a shot of mine in 8*F weather. It's been colder here but it happened to be 8*F when I took this shot. As long as they are not in the wind they do not consider this temperature as cold.

You will get all kinds of different opinions on window placement. That’s not surprising since we all live in different climates. I put mine on the north wall, partly to keep the sun from cooking the coop during the day but mainly because that was the convenient wall to put it on. I’d think in your mild climate, East and West windows will work fine, especially with decent ventilation.

I strongly agree with the people that are saying to use an apron instead of trying to dig down in difficult soil and burying wire. Once you loosen the soil, it makes it that much easier for a critter to dig down under the wire. You’ve already done a lot of its work for it. An apron is where you take a piece of wire maybe 18” wide, lay it flat on the ground outside your run and coop (You don’t have to worry about coop since you have a solid floor) and attach it to the bottom of your fence. I use J-clips but a lot of people use hog rings or tediously thread wire through there to firmly attach it. You can leave it laying on top of the ground, maybe weighing it down with rocks or something. I’d imagine in your climate the grass would grow through it pretty quickly and hold it down. Alternatively, you can remove the top two inches or so of sod and cover it with that. That keeps it out of the way of your weed eater if you don’t get it weighted down properly. I used 2”x 4” welded wire most places. I had some hardware cloth left over so I used that in some places. Coyotes can go through most chicken wire like it is not there since it is of pretty small gauge. The welded wire and hardware cloth is usually of thicker gauge. I’d feel pretty comfortable with 17 gauge wire and consider 14 gauge the same as Fort Knox.

Just another person’s opinion. I think you are doing OK. Good luck!

 

[MarieNC]

I understand how overwhelming it can be, trust me! I think you are doing a great job - don't lose heart! We just finished our coop last week and you will be so happy when it's all finished and your chicks are happily living in it. I live in NC and the hard clay is just a bear to try and dig in. I put an 18 inch apron around the run with 1/2 inch hardware cloth, and I only dug down about 2-3 inches, attaching one end to the pressure treated lumber with screws and washers and the rest with landscape pins - worked great! No need to dig down a foot at all. Save yourself some work.