First Coop Build

[Sportsman94]

Hello all, new to the forum and new to chickens. Actually don’t live in a place where I can have chickens so talked my mom into letting me keep some at her house. We live in central Georgia. I’ve spent the last month or two working on getting the coop built here and there when I had time. I think I am pretty well done with the exception of a few finishing touches. The coop is 6x6 ish and 6 foot tall at the lower end. the run is roughly 6x10 plus what is underneath the coop. The plan is to have 6 chickens in here with the ability to add one or two more later if desired. They should be here next week. I do have a couple questions, are windows necessary if the birds will be in the run or free ranging for the majority of the day? How would you connect the hardware cloth seems on the run?
Thanks!

 

[riss]

This looks pretty impressive. I know @aart is very good about this stuff and has some experience with this kind of stuff.

 

[Finnie]

Hello all, new to the forum and new to chickens. Actually don’t live in a place where I can have chickens so talked my mom into letting me keep some at her house. We live in central Georgia. I’ve spent the last month or two working on getting the coop built here and there when I had time. I think I am pretty well done with the exception of a few finishing touches. The coop is 6x6 ish and 6 foot tall at the lower end. the run is roughly 6x10 plus what is underneath the coop. The plan is to have 6 chickens in here with the ability to add one or two more later if desired. They should be here next week. I do have a couple questions, are windows necessary if the birds will be in the run or free ranging for the majority of the day? How would you connect the hardware cloth seems on the run?
Thanks!

Since you seem to have plenty of ventilation, I don’t think you need to worry about windows.

I “sew” the seems in the hardware cloth with wire. You can use the wire that came wrapped around the roll of hardware cloth, but you will probably need more than that. You can buy wire at feed stores, hardware stores and craft stores.

There are other ways to connect the seams as well. Zip ties is one way. I find the wire lasts longer. Zip ties tend to get brittle and break over time. But I saw the other day that my 5 year old wire rusted through in some spots and needs to be fixed. None of my zip ties have lasted 5 years. Both ways can be tedious, just depends on what you prefer to do.

You can even do J-clips, like they make rabbit cages with.

 

[littledog]

Super nice setup for 6-8 chickens, It looks like you have a good amount of ventilation in the coop in between the top of the walls and the roof. Since you're in central Georgia where it gets hot and humid though, you should probably have more ventilation to prevent moisture buildup when they're inside at night, roosting and pooping. Possibly some vents near the bottom of the coop, right below the upper vents, so the airflow goes from bottom to top but avoids their roosts.

For connecting hardware cloth seams, what I did was cut pieces of hardware cloth into sections that match up to the posts, and attach them to the posts with deck screws in washers.

 

[saysfaa]

One option for hardware cloth seams is two wood slats bolted together with bolts through the holes in the hardware cloth pieces sandwiched between the slats. Or one slat bolted or screwed through the holes in the hardware cloth into a post and or rail.

 

[Lucy Brown]

Wonderful coop. Are you planning on adding a door to the henhouse?

 

[TrevorLaRene]

I can’t add much to the earlier advise except this: build it as big as you can, both in square feet of space and in height. Most people continually add more birds. It’s nearly impossible to have too much space.

And if you can safely do it, run electric power out to it.

But bigger. Always bigger.

 

[Sportsman94]

Wonderful coop. Are you planning on adding a door to the henhouse?

there is actually a door already on it. It’s the piece that says “Tallwall” on it.

Another question for the brain trust. Is my ramp too low from the exit of the coop for them to be able to use? Does it need to sit flush with the “door”

 

[Yakisugi Coop]

Your chickens might appreciate windows on opposite sides of the coop on hot nights, to let a breeze go through the coop. I agree light isn't 100% needed if they're not spending their days inside the coop--but because you're in Georgia it could be the nights when windows come in handy.

 

[Sportsman94]

I will also add that the floor is made of 2x6s and is far from air tight so I assume that will allow for extra ventilation to glow up from bottom to top.