FINALLY DONE--our second coop. designed by a mama!

[haTHOR]

we've been in this a-frame coop for a year, and recently brought our flock up to six full size hens (from four). i want to add some hens and hatch a few chicks to transition my birds to laying olive eggs (dark brown and blues and greens are good too). they are already cramped in the a-frame, so i can't do anything until we have a new coop!

here's the footprint shot...4x6. the bottom part will be hardware clothed (buried 6").

in this one you can see the popdoor (will slide in and out from outside) and the framing for the window (and a chicken! have you guys ever seen one of those?

)

i am particularly excited about this find at the habitat for humanity thrift store...a jalousie window that we installed baqckwards so it cranks open and closed from outside the coop, and has a screen/

this one shows where the front doors are...at the top, a roost access with glass window, south-facing). there will be two roosts there that i can remove (copying e-z clean coop and many many others).
below, 3 nest boxes and to them via a door running (almost) the length of the bottom. i can reach the top of the popdoor this way as well.
sitting atop the dividers for the nest boxes will be a linoleum-covered poop board. it will serve that duty and also form the ceiling for the nest boxes. poop board will also protect the popdoor from poop. chickens will need to duck under it to go down the popdoor. hope they are willing!
on the back wall, those will be two big doors (2x4 each). they will grant me access should i need to get in bodily and so i can clean the deep little out every once in a while. i want to get my carpenters to make me a nice hardware cloth screen that will open/close under one or both of these.
this thing will be ready for a roof, trim, paint... as soon as our carpenter friend comes over again!

to be continued!

 

[AtholCoop]

Looks good.

 

[Mike & Baby Chicken]

Looks great so far!!!

 

[haTHOR]

thanks! will post more when we do more. it's pouring here now and i didn't get the whole thing primered/painted...so it's under tarps!

 

[Nava]

good job. but i think that you are hooked already,so before those boys finish that one and go, have them start building the other one trust me you will need more it's a good adiction

 

[haTHOR]

i think you hit the nail on the head. i am defending my master's thesis in a week so i think this is filling some terrible form of obsessive hysteria that keeps me from having time to worry too much about it (or preparing more fully!

) i'm actually looking at incubators online. and thinking about adding goats!

just kidding about the goats...but yeah, i am hooked. the first time you find yourself dragging a lawn chair to watch the chickens when you are stressed out, you know it's actually a really healthy habit.

 

[Nava]

or in my case when you go sit in the coop to read a book,and have chickens all over you,yea i think i'm adicted.i got 8 pens

and i think i nedd two more

 

[haTHOR]

DONE!!

ventilation (hardware cloth) on three sides near the roof (8" across the front which is 6ft), and additional ventilation at the roost door (won't leave this uncovered at night until it's warmer) and a jalousie window. bottom run will be hardware cloth too and only used very seldom for times when we leave in the afternoon and won't be back until after they put themselves to bed.

i love love love the pistachio green with the pinkish white. it's all been repainted this green rather than the sage you see in some pics.

this was before the final paint job but shows the grat jalousie window...installed backwards so i can crank the louvered windows open or shut depending on the weather.

it took three days (and many many beers) to complete it.

nest box door

this shows from the back of the coop, where i have two big doors for human access. you can see the droppings board under the roost. that board covers the nest boxes and the popdoor, which is where they'll go in and out of the area under the coop (which will be fenced in with hardware cloth and be predator proof.

thrifted awesome door on top (in the first pic) gives me access to the roosts, above the nestboxes. you can see here the droppings board and how it slides out via the nest box door so i can clean it easily. (it won't have shavings for long--that's a stop gap measure until dh gets back from the store with mastic so we can put on the linoleum).

look at this little sweetheart

so happy! and i designed it myself.

 

[CityChook]

Nice! I'm not sure what your plans are for the jalousie window - which I haven't seen before - it's pretty cool - but please don't rely on the window screening for protection. If that window's gonna be open, you'll want to hardware wire it. I love the window that we installed backwards - it operates from the outside too. I put the wire inside.

 

[fiddlebanshee]

I really like your design. If I understood correctly the nest boxes are underneath the roosting shelf, correct? How is that working out? I like it that you can pull the shelf out from the outside to clean it, very clever! So, do you then deposit the poop on a compost heap, or how do you dispose of it?

The other question I had was about the two people size doors. Why do you have two? (just curious).

I might replicate this, if you don't mind, because it seems easy enough to construct, is compact and very practical.