First coop build

[Machseven]

Roosting bars and nesting box dividers added.

Ramp

 

[aart]

Roost height vs floor space might be an issue too.
Not much room to maneuver.

 

[aart]

not sure what you mean. what are you suggesting?

That maybe they will have a hard time getting up and down due to space restrictions.
Guessing that roosts are about 24" high, they'll probably need wing spread to navigate.
Might be fine, might not.

 

[Machseven]

One other deviation from the plan - I decided I wanted the door located on the downhill side instead of the side of the coop. Therefore, I moved that part of the foundation down near the ground. I wanted the capability to roll a wheelbarrow into the coop to help with extracting compost (that sounds better than mucking out). The coop will go uphill on the other end.

Also - I filled the blocks with concrete and then later drilled anchor bolts into the concrete through those Simpson strong-tie pieces screwed to the 4x4's at each block. I'm sure that isn't the right way to do it, but I wanted to have some sort of wind resistance. I also hammered rebar into the ground with the tops flush to the blocks before adding the concrete. I think this meets chicken coop code? Probably not...Oh well. Anyway - the anchor bolts - I used the Red Head anchors that are hammered into the holes. I beat them flush, so they look right, but I have little confidence that they seated correctly. I probably should have used the ones with nuts. Drilling those holes, btw, was pretty difficult. I really didn't want to drill bigger ones, so if anyone has the right answer for this, do tell.

 

[Machseven]

I bought my first round of material, mostly 2x4's. The plans called for 50 2x4x8's with some other long pieces for the roof, the top and bottom beams. Then plans called for another 30 1x4's and other trim pieces, but I was already putting down serious capital here and I began to doubt that I would follow the plans that strictly. My spidey-sense was correct here, as I'm nearly down with the 2x4's and I still have at least a dozen uncut.

I laid them out on blocks and painted them. This was good - lot of work but I felt better as the project has taken many weeks and I didn't have undercover storage for all that wood. I used the barn paint sold at Home Depot.

I began the framing. My thought was to build the two longer wall frames and temporarily support them, then add the smaller ones.

 

[Machseven]

I laid things out on the driveway and squared the frames using diagonal measurements. I used 3" Spax screws, which do a good job. No one will come right out and tell you what length screws to use, so I can tell you that a 3" Spax screw may be used to mate 2x4's without the end sticking through. I've learned from videos that it's good practice to drive the screws at a bit of an angle for strength, and to drive adjacent screws at different angles for more strength.

The frames came together reasonably well. I

I levelled them roughly at this point.

 

[JmeV]

Good luck! We’ve been working in building a coop too. We also bought all of our materials in September. It’s expensive!

When my husband and I embarked on building our structure, I cruised Facebook marketplace and Craigslist for free materials. I picked up a lot of great lumber (and some that ended up in the firepit) and even some rolls of wire for free. We were on a very tight budget, though.

 

[3KillerBs]

In retrospect, I kind of wished I had dug in posts with concrete. Anyway, at this point, I wanted to get a level wood base and go from there.

Where are you located? What's your climate like? (You can add your general location to your profile to help people give targeted advice).

In my location here in the steamy southeastern US, even ground-contact-rated treated wood disintegrates due to termites, carpenter ants, in less than 10 years so dug-in posts are a bad idea and sheds/coops/etc are commonly put on blocks, but up north in a different climate the same posts will be fine but frost heave will play havoc with blocks.

 

[Machseven]

Where are you located? What's your climate like? (You can add your general location to your profile to help people give targeted advice).

In my location here in the steamy southeastern US, even ground-contact-rated treated wood disintegrates due to termites, carpenter ants, in less than 10 years so dug-in posts are a bad idea and sheds/coops/etc are commonly put on blocks, but up north in a different climate the same posts will be fine but frost heave will play havoc with blocks.

Virginia. True four-season environment. It's not as termite-ridden as South Carolina where we used to live.

 

[Machseven]

Oh - about the plywood!

I got untreated 15/32" plywood for the roof and coop. The plans called for different sizes, including some 3/4". That stuff is expensive!! For my little coop, 15/32" is plenty, I'm pretty sure. The roof took 3 pieces of 4x8's.