FREE chicken coop plan (nice one too) on the Purina Mills Website

[audioguy]

More pics!!!

This one shows the shelf with the pans installed.

Decided I needed some edge to prevent the trays from falling into the coop

Here it is all assembled with the roost. I hope it works!

s

 

[quillary]

Hi all. I love that I can check in with others working with this design. I was wondering if anyone is attaching an enclosed run to the Purina Mills design. We installed the nest boxes over the chicken door, as in the original plan, but now I can't figure out how to attach a run so the little ones can get in and out and we can get the eggs. What are you all doing?
Thanks,
Hillary

 

[NevadaRon]

Here's my attached run.

I just kind of built a run out in front of the coop, then filled in the spaces with chicken wire. Also around the raised posts of the coop. That gives them a place to get out of the sun/rain.

 

[quillary]

Thanks, NevadaRon! I was thinking of something lower to the ground, but maybe taller is the way to go.

 

[affacat]

we're almost done building a modified version of this coop (6x4 rather than 4x4).

So far, so good, except we found mounting the 4 corner posts onto the floor frame was incredibly awkward and a bit of a challenge. All 5 pieces weigh quite a bit, so trying to get everything level (especially given minor inconsistencies in various measurements) was rough. Ultimately, one post is a bit wonky... but we hope the chickens don't notice.

In addition to changing the measurements, we're going to be putting the walls on the two small ends on hinges so we can clean it out easier. We're also mounting clear corrugated roofing to the roof frame. Last but not least, we're installing cheap linoleum we got from Habitat Restore (Habitat for Humanity's reuse/recycle/remnant store) on the floor.

 

[lizzy14]

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This is just what I would like to do - make it a tad bigger - and wondered how difficult it would make things! And I was concerned about the ease of cleaning. My father will be building the coop mostly and I'm hoping to gain some skills along the way... But he is a pretty good problem solver and good with these things. Did you run into any surprises or anything when going with the modified size? How many chickens will you be keeping in this? I wanted a 4x8 with attached 8x8 run originally, but I'm thinking this could work for five chickens.

 

[lizzy14]

For those of you (I know there was at least one) who modified this to be 4x8, how much did the cost rise to accommodate this larger size? I'd like to keep the cost for this between 150-200 but perhaps I am being unrealistic. We have a free supply of 2x6's and some roofing shingles, and I've been scouring craigslist and may be getting some plywood from someone. Any other penny-pinching to consider for this coop design?

 

[affacat]

Quote:
This is just what I would like to do - make it a tad bigger - and wondered how difficult it would make things! And I was concerned about the ease of cleaning. My father will be building the coop mostly and I'm hoping to gain some skills along the way... But he is a pretty good problem solver and good with these things. Did you run into any surprises or anything when going with the modified size? How many chickens will you be keeping in this? I wanted a 4x8 with attached 8x8 run originally, but I'm thinking this could work for five chickens.

It's actually not all that expensive to increase the size to 4x6 or 4x8 -- it's not a full 50% more expensive (and in fact, the jump from 4x6 to 4x8 is almost negligible, since most wood comes in 8 foot lengths anyway. All of the wood used on the 4 foot side stays the same, so all you're really adding to the bill is an additional piece of siding (you need 2 pieces for 4x4, and 3 pieces for 4x6 or 4x8) and a couple extra 2x4s for the longer side.

It's not much harder to build either... in fact, it's about the same. The Purina instructions are pretty terrible -- we used them as a guide and then talked through our own design... we've talked about converting what we actually did into a set of real instructions and might even get around to it.

 

[lizzy14]

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Thanks! I'm sure everyone trying to build this would greatly appreciate your detailed instructions!

 

[audioguy]

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