How many 2 by 4's does it take to build a coop?

[orcasislandchickens]

Use typing paper and a pencil at first, draw the ideas, by hand still works and is often faster. Also sometimes just the process of pysically drawing it on paper lets the creative juices flow. It doesn't have to be perfectly streight non wiggly lines or anything, you can tidy everything up for show later.

Accidentaly posted before I finished the lecture

. I had four kids. I don't anymore because they all grew up so I have time on my hands to pester you. One now designs robotic arms and hands and stuff for undersea exploration vehicles which is a way neat job and he loves it. Anyway back to the coop.

A wall say 8'wide by 8'long by 8'tall would have roughly (not adding or taking away for the thickness of the wood)

1-8' top rail
1-8' bottom rail
1 for the corner and 1 at 2', 1 at 4', 1 at 6', 1 at 8' for a total of 5 more so you are at 7 per wall. Plus 2 sheets of plywood.


INMHO You realy want to spend some time on this and get what YOU want and will be happy with. There are always compromises, you should be the one to figure out what goes and what stays. You have so much better a chance of that if you have worked out the details yourself.

Someone recently posted a big new breeding coop that was almost like a kennel building, inside it had a section that was a walkway, and along the wall were kind of dog kennels lined up and seperated different breeds of chickens. Each one had a people size door to the hall, and a small pop door to an enclosed outdoor run. Is that the kind of thing you are thinking? I'm sure the one I am remembering cost many thousands of dollars, but maybe you could make something similar, but a little smaller.

I think you might need 4' along one side as a hall to walk in and room for the doors to open. So let's say this is going to be 8'x12' (probably too big and expensive but we might as well dream). You take out 4' for the hall. That leaves aspace 4'x12' to divide up. you might make 3 4X4 inside coops, which would fit a trio for inside sleeping or if you divided the space another way 2 4x6 coops, where you could keep 2 bigger flocks, either way you just added extra interior doors and walls which are more materials. Get out the scratch paper and start in. Do more than one design and pick the best. Use up lots of paper. Good luck, have fun, and may you wind up with the greatest coop ever.

 

[Chickenfortress]

Another suggestion here. If you would like a bit more resistance to predators and rodents instead of plywood on the outside, spend the extra and go with Hardi-board siding. Its cement based, and very strong against claws and teeth. It can stand direct burial, so you can run it down a foot in the ground if you will have no foundation to protect the lower areas. The foot measurement only gives an outside wall height of 7' from a normal 8' sheet of siding, which will not give you room for a standard height door. Good thing it comes in 9' sections too. When you backfill the buried bit put stone, metal or glass in the bottom of the hole first, then cover with dirt to protect your chickens toes. Anything trying to dig under will have a tough time with that, and if you use broken glass, they won't try a second time. I used this around both the run and the coop. It's a lot cheaper than a foot of very expensive welded wire mesh, since glass , bricks or metal scrap can frequently be found free.