First coop- Newbe questions and request for feedback

[MarcBinNC]

weekend update- it rained all weekend and we even had bad hail on Saturday (about 2 miles north of me they got 5 inches of hail and 24 hours later it still looked like a snow storm with 4-5 inches of accumulation on the ground!). I did manage to get the rest of the framing done and build the nest boxes (i decided to go with 2 instead of 3 because 3 looked like it would have been a little cramped (12 inches wide). also between rain squalls, i managed to put on the roof decking, underlayment and shingles. The last shingle went on at 9:30 last night (gotta love headlamps) so i didnt have time to take any pics of the progress. will try to take some this evening.

Marc

 

[Deviant]

looks good so far, glad to see you had help. I asked my youngest boy and on the 1st cut he asked me for a chair! lol so I am been doing it all myself so you know I am having fun.

 

[MarcBinNC]

looks good so far, glad to see you had help. I asked my youngest boy and on the 1st cut he asked me for a chair! lol so I am been doing it all myself so you know I am having fun.

I’m very fortunate that I have a family that loves building/woodworking. we have a 14 and 11 year old daughters, and our 3.5 yr old son and everyone likes to help. The girls were cutting and hauling up shingles for me last night! Sometimes I can’t get the wife away from my power tools long enough for me to get my projects done My wife has figured out how to "make money" with our chicks (which is relative when you look at how much it cost to build a proper coop that will appease the neighbors in a neighborhood setting) and has been bringing in new projects for the last 2 weeks. Not only has she been taking them to Easter photo sessions in exchange for free family photo sessions (they did 10-12 sessions in one location on Saturday) she has also figured out how to sell photo props to the photographers which we've been building in parallel with our coop. Here is a bench we built last Thurs for the Photo sessions on Saturday. Its kid sized so its 12" tall x 12" wide x 48" long (seat is 24"):



Marc

 

[MarcBinNC]

made a little bit of headway after work. got the wiring ran, trench dug, and the siding on the front (although again, to late to take a pic). here are picks of my progress minus the siding-

 

[MarcBinNC]

 

[MarcBinNC]

 

[MarcBinNC]

Got all of the siding but 1 piece up today. Gotta go out of town tomorrow but will be back Thursday. Should get pop door, window, and vent holes cut on Thursday night then I'll hav ethe weekend to paint, build access doors, hook up electrical, and add trim. Getting close and getting excited. I'm thinking I'm going to build some little flower boxes to mount under the windows

 

[MarcBinNC]

I had to go out of town midweek and then dealt with rain again the last few days so i didn't get done this weekend like i had planned. Today we did manage to get the siding finished, holes cut for windows & doors, trench dug, conduit ran and covered, coop wired, electrical hooked up, automatic door installed, Windows painted and weather stripped, and most of the siding painted. now we just have to install windows, build and install human doors, add trim, finish painting, and build the run. unfortunately that will have to wait until next week because tomorrow we have to take our girls to Florida to spend spring break with birth mo,; so well be spending tomorrow on the road all day and then were going to spend a couple nights at the beach on our way back. Here are some progress picks:

ChickenWifey painting



Back of Coop


Lightswitch cover on outside under back eve

cool 7 program digital timer/light switch i fount at lowes

 

[MarcBinNC]

got back from a short vacation today. had to do yard work so didnt do much but i got my windows installed.

 

[MarcBinNC]

so i finally got the coop its self finished. i just have a few minor things to do to the interior, build a ramp, and build the run. really need to get it done this weekend because the chickens are getting out of their brooder now.


Front view


Front view "all closed up"


Back view with "human doors"


Nesting boxes (need to clear out my tools, coop has become a storage bin during construction)



Marc