We have officially begun the prep for our future feathered friends! I will be posting our progress as we go through our journey of building our first coop and run, and I am looking forward to pointers, comments, and answers to my newbie questions!
We are building the 4x4 Kennel Coop (and run), plans purchased from eBay. My plan is to augment the structure slightly: making it taller. I want to be able to stand in the high side of the run. We are planning on getting 5 hens in early May.
First, the site needs to be prepared:
Before:
After! We removed the baby redwood (it went to a good home), weeded, and removed the boards from the old garden bed. The tree suckers on the left are still left to go.
The plan is to put the coop side of the structure on the left/west (under the bay laurel tree) and the run extending over to the right/east. We'll be setting up the foundation at least 2' out from the fences.
Question time!
We live in a suburb, and an island at that - main predators are going to be coons, possums, rats, and perhaps snakes, would be my guess. The plans don't call for a specific foundation, just something to keep the bottom beams off the dirt. I was considering the following options:
A. sunk cinder blocks with 2.5" thick pavers on top for perimeter only
B. pavers for the entire footprint of the coop - a "floor" of pavers
C. combo of A and B (sunk cinder blocks, with a paver floor)
Any suggestions? Pros/cons of these solutions?
Additional notes:
- The dirt is very sandy, it doesn't pack down as hard as I'm used to.
- We will be using 1/2" hardware cloth for all screening.
- I am considering putting in gutters and collecting the runoff in cisterns. Maybe the drought this year has made me paranoid.
Thank you ahead of time!
We are building the 4x4 Kennel Coop (and run), plans purchased from eBay. My plan is to augment the structure slightly: making it taller. I want to be able to stand in the high side of the run. We are planning on getting 5 hens in early May.
First, the site needs to be prepared:
Before:
After! We removed the baby redwood (it went to a good home), weeded, and removed the boards from the old garden bed. The tree suckers on the left are still left to go.
The plan is to put the coop side of the structure on the left/west (under the bay laurel tree) and the run extending over to the right/east. We'll be setting up the foundation at least 2' out from the fences.
Question time!
We live in a suburb, and an island at that - main predators are going to be coons, possums, rats, and perhaps snakes, would be my guess. The plans don't call for a specific foundation, just something to keep the bottom beams off the dirt. I was considering the following options:
A. sunk cinder blocks with 2.5" thick pavers on top for perimeter only
B. pavers for the entire footprint of the coop - a "floor" of pavers
C. combo of A and B (sunk cinder blocks, with a paver floor)
Any suggestions? Pros/cons of these solutions?
Additional notes:
- The dirt is very sandy, it doesn't pack down as hard as I'm used to.
- We will be using 1/2" hardware cloth for all screening.
- I am considering putting in gutters and collecting the runoff in cisterns. Maybe the drought this year has made me paranoid.
Thank you ahead of time!
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