Helpful hints for building coops

[CapricornFarm]

Crazy but I guess parrots are considered pets though they can be awfully loud. Even my little Quaker is noisy. I wouldn't even look at a house with an HOA when I was looking. Didn't want to deal with the politics.

Exactly, they are just on power trips.

 

[CapricornFarm]

The floor of the coop is down but still needs trimming. The boards on the front and back of the roof make a huge difference! Bought the gutter and downspout etc. Today. Going to use a rain barrel for watering the animals.

 

[dunnmom]

Thank you, CapricornFarm...

I don't consider my self rebellious...I just like stuff being thrown at me and make something. Kinda reminds me of woodshop back in the 60's. Use your imagination, working from the ground up, and see what works best for you. You don't need some plans that you've paid hundreds of dollars for. For me, it's simply looking at a project...the beginning and final goal, then looking at the intermediate steps in between (damn, I sound like a piano teacher). Maybe relax and have a glass of wine and look at your project. All those little details will come to you.

I don't know what advice to give you, but I'm running hardware cloth EVERYWHERE to keep my babies safe, but as far as the outside, exposed area for gardening, that's another bridge further down the road. This is just my 16 x 16 foot chicken run hidden below my 5 foot concrete wall. I am allowed to have a (reasonable) amount of poultry.

Hardware cloth is what we went with. The 1/2 in. Nothing gets in or out of our run, except bugs. It's kind of a pain to work with, but I really feel it's worth the money.

 

[CapricornFarm]

Hardware cloth is what we went with. The 1/2 in. Nothing gets in or out of our run, except bugs. It's kind of a pain to work with, but I really feel it's worth the money.

In TN i used welded wire on the outside of the run, and chicken wire on the inside. So each side of the 2x4 had wire attached. Kept coons from reaching in far enough to grab things, and kept dogs and coyotes and foxes out. Of course, hardware cloth is better but i was building 20 coops so budget was important.

 

[dunnmom]

View attachment 1115653 View attachment 1115654 The floor of the coop is down but still needs trimming. The boards on the front and back of the roof make a huge difference! Bought the gutter and downspout etc. Today. Going to use a rain barrel for watering the animals.

That's a really cool chicken shed! How exciting! We only got chickens because I convinced my husband we needed practice chickens. He wants to move out to the country and be self-sustaining and all that. Right now, however, we have 4 kids, 2 of which have different degrees of autism. We all live in my mother in law's house in our state's capital city, speaking of young people who sponge off their parents. Ha! Actually, we do pay our own way, take care of the household bills, and no video games, so that's better than nothing I guess. The kids and I love our practice chickens, and hope to be able to keep more someday. I would totally consider doing a shed style coop like yours later on. It looks like it's coming along nicely.

 

[Crooked Chicken]

Loving your coop CapricornFarm -- you're doing a great job!

My property had 2 ancient 10 x 12 coops on it when I bought the place. Not sure how old they are, but I'd say at least 60 years old. They are built super sturdy from good old hardwoods. Problem is that they are on dirt and have groundhog burrows under them, critters inside, lopsided, all kinds of gaps.... I decided to tear them both down and build a new coop, but didn't work out as planned.

I rented a construction dumpster and proceeded trying to dismantle one coop. It was the better of the 2. First I just tried prying boards off. Then I cut through most of the supporting framing with a chainsaw and tried to pull it down with my truck. That took several tries. Now the roof is laying on the wood floor -- same kind you'd have in a house. There are several layers of old crumbling asphalt shingles in it. Bought a sawzall to cut through the roof, but even that takes forever and completely wears your arms out in a short time. They used lots of nails -- big, fat, looooong ones, so I can even pull those out.

I gave up and decided to patch up the other coop and use it, not wanting to wait another year to get chickens. This one didn't have nearly as nice flooring and was in really bad shape. Hence the name Crooked Chicken lol. Everything is crooked. Even the new roof on that has a big bow in it. I found stacks of shingles in the barn when I cleaned it out, so had the guy mix the shingle colors and I love it. Oh well. I am still making improvements. I also made a lot of errors in building the run -- it was hot, humid and I was in a really big hurry. I likely will redo the run next spring before it gets hot. Still have to put roof panels on run and get everything painted (only 1 wall painted so far). Bought 3 cans of oops paint yesterday, so might use some inside because it's rather dark.

 

[CapricornFarm]

That's a really cool chicken shed! How exciting! We only got chickens because I convinced my husband we needed practice chickens. He wants to move out to the country and be self-sustaining and all that. Right now, however, we have 4 kids, 2 of which have different degrees of autism. We all live in my mother in law's house in our state's capital city, speaking of young people who sponge off their parents. Ha! Actually, we do pay our own way, take care of the household bills, and no video games, so that's better than nothing I guess. The kids and I love our practice chickens, and hope to be able to keep more someday. I would totally consider doing a shed style coop like yours later on. It looks like it's coming along nicely.

Thank you ! I have been working hard on it. I did most of the work, including the plans myself. Tomorrow i hope to build the divider and the back door. Still have to add vents and the pop holes. And i need to fix the skylight. But it feels like i have really made good progress.
I hope you find a nice place to get your "homestead" going.

 

[jeria]

View attachment 1115653 View attachment 1115654 The floor of the coop is down but still needs trimming. The boards on the front and back of the roof make a huge difference! Bought the gutter and downspout etc. Today. Going to use a rain barrel for watering the animals.

Love your coop. Nice idea using a rain barrel for the animals. I would if I lived in the country-- one house we rented in midst of nowhere had a cistern for water and all the downspouts fed into it. Here in town I'm leery of it as everything moves west to east right across the metro I live just east of Kansas City, no telling what might be in that rain.

 

[jeria]

Crooked Chicken, your coop and run look good. Would love to have that much space in a run.

 

[CapricornFarm]

Loving your coop CapricornFarm -- you're doing a great job!

My property had 2 ancient 10 x 12 coops on it when I bought the place. Not sure how old they are, but I'd say at least 60 years old. They are built super sturdy from good old hardwoods. Problem is that they are on dirt and have groundhog burrows under them, critters inside, lopsided, all kinds of gaps.... I decided to tear them both down and build a new coop, but didn't work out as planned.

I rented a construction dumpster and proceeded trying to dismantle one coop. It was the better of the 2. First I just tried prying boards off. Then I cut through most of the supporting framing with a chainsaw and tried to pull it down with my truck. That took several tries. Now the roof is laying on the wood floor -- same kind you'd have in a house. There are several layers of old crumbling asphalt shingles in it. Bought a sawzall to cut through the roof, but even that takes forever and completely wears your arms out in a short time. They used lots of nails -- big, fat, looooong ones, so I can even pull those out.

I gave up and decided to patch up the other coop and use it, not wanting to wait another year to get chickens. This one didn't have nearly as nice flooring and was in really bad shape. Hence the name Crooked Chicken lol. Everything is crooked. Even the new roof on that has a big bow in it. I found stacks of shingles in the barn when I cleaned it out, so had the guy mix the shingle colors and I love it. Oh well. I am still making improvements. I also made a lot of errors in building the run -- it was hot, humid and I was in a really big hurry. I likely will redo the run next spring before it gets hot. Still have to put roof panels on run and get everything painted (only 1 wall painted so far). Bought 3 cans of oops paint yesterday, so might use some inside because it's rather dark.

Looks serviceable. It is good you could make use of what you have. It does take a long time to build a coop. I have lost track, but i know it has been at least a month and a half or so on mine. If i had a work crew, it would obviously go much quicker.