- May 25, 2015
- 145
- 5
- 96
Hi ya'll. My chickens grew a lot faster than I was ready for, so by myself, with one hand in a cast, I had to build a coop this past weekend!
Step 1: Make a frame… One of the hardest parts and unfortunately the part that made the rest challenging. Why? Because it is very hard to keep everything square when you are attaching it by yourself on site on uneven ground. But anyway, 8 ft tall 4x4's for the front. 6 ft tall for the back. 2x6x12 for the front and back. 2x10x4 for the sides (these were well exposed to the weather).
So now that you understand that I am not a perfectionist, on a low budget, and working with a handicap on literally the first thing I've ever built, you will be able to appreciate the rest of this….
After attaching floor supports...
Next, dig the post holes 2* feet deep. Note: Make sure they are the proper distance unless you really want an inward bow in your posts or you'll have to lift the entire thing out and dig the hole even bigger.
*One of the holes is only one foot deep, because I dug into a solid block of granite and could not remove it. So a leg got shortened...
Next, add two free 4x4 pallets from work (I know, *gasp,* pallets! Those can contain chemicals or something, but in my person opinion, I don't care because I'm 95% sure the chickens will be fine. Cut them to fit on your posts with overhang in the front for your front porch. It helps to be a 6'2" power lifter when you need to pick up a possibly 60 pound or more pallet and align the hole to fit over a post that is 6 feet tall.
Then, cut your sheet of OSB and slide it on the same way.
If you don't like OSB, then you won't like me. I prefer OSB because it is cheap and so am I.
Then, add pallet walls. One full 40" by 48" for the front, with another half, and two half and a quarter for the side and back walls. Pallet wood, oh my! It was free, it will be fine, I am sure the chickens will live.
Build the frame for your roof. Attach a 2x4x4 from the front to the back on the outside, and 2x4x8's to the ends of those. If I could do it again, I would have made the inside smaller or adjusted my pitch so I could just use a 4x8 sheet for the top, but could not, so… well you'll see.
Put another 2x4xlessthan8 and then nail your OSB and another piece of plywood to it (see it wasn't long enough).
Shingle the roof and make sure you didn't account for having to use a bigger area than 4x8 so that you need to borrow shingles from someone else to finish the top. I never shingled anything before, so it looks pretty good.
Build your side box, then call it a day. Yeah, no details here, it is OSB cut and attached to the 2x6x10's from earlier.
Build a hinged roof for it.
Make your chicken door and come up with a way to keep it closed.
Make sure you remind yourself of how pointless this endeavor was, and remind the chickens of it by painting it on the inside of the door. At the end of the day, it's a chicken coop. It's not even a necessity for me, just a luxury.
Paint it black with the cheapest paint which just so happens to be black asphalt paint used for waterproofing wood. Yeah, that's the cheapest paint I found and it is awesome. Will it hold up? IDK, let's find out.
Yeah, it's rough, but it's got the nesting box, a window, and a front porch… These are luxuries. In Kenya, the chickens do not even have coops, they roam the streets. Speaking of which, I seen so many bizarre breeds of chicken roaming around Kenya, any BYC'er would be jealous to see just how many there were. Breeds so well mixed that you wouldn't know what they were originally. They gave me a chicken as a gift once after I preached in a village, and it was what inspired me to start raising birds again. They are easily the most important bird in the world.
If you don't like my coop, I don't care, I just wanted to share it because I think people need to know they can make a coop that doesn't resemble the sistine chapel and still be a decent chicken keeper. I may or may not be on this property much longer, so I was not going to invest heavily in it regardless.
I don't need architectural advice, I would have liked to have made it better myself, but 'good enough' will be good enough.
Step 1: Make a frame… One of the hardest parts and unfortunately the part that made the rest challenging. Why? Because it is very hard to keep everything square when you are attaching it by yourself on site on uneven ground. But anyway, 8 ft tall 4x4's for the front. 6 ft tall for the back. 2x6x12 for the front and back. 2x10x4 for the sides (these were well exposed to the weather).
So now that you understand that I am not a perfectionist, on a low budget, and working with a handicap on literally the first thing I've ever built, you will be able to appreciate the rest of this….
After attaching floor supports...
Next, dig the post holes 2* feet deep. Note: Make sure they are the proper distance unless you really want an inward bow in your posts or you'll have to lift the entire thing out and dig the hole even bigger.
*One of the holes is only one foot deep, because I dug into a solid block of granite and could not remove it. So a leg got shortened...
Next, add two free 4x4 pallets from work (I know, *gasp,* pallets! Those can contain chemicals or something, but in my person opinion, I don't care because I'm 95% sure the chickens will be fine. Cut them to fit on your posts with overhang in the front for your front porch. It helps to be a 6'2" power lifter when you need to pick up a possibly 60 pound or more pallet and align the hole to fit over a post that is 6 feet tall.
Then, cut your sheet of OSB and slide it on the same way.
If you don't like OSB, then you won't like me. I prefer OSB because it is cheap and so am I.
Then, add pallet walls. One full 40" by 48" for the front, with another half, and two half and a quarter for the side and back walls. Pallet wood, oh my! It was free, it will be fine, I am sure the chickens will live.
Build the frame for your roof. Attach a 2x4x4 from the front to the back on the outside, and 2x4x8's to the ends of those. If I could do it again, I would have made the inside smaller or adjusted my pitch so I could just use a 4x8 sheet for the top, but could not, so… well you'll see.
Put another 2x4xlessthan8 and then nail your OSB and another piece of plywood to it (see it wasn't long enough).
Shingle the roof and make sure you didn't account for having to use a bigger area than 4x8 so that you need to borrow shingles from someone else to finish the top. I never shingled anything before, so it looks pretty good.
Build your side box, then call it a day. Yeah, no details here, it is OSB cut and attached to the 2x6x10's from earlier.
Build a hinged roof for it.
Make your chicken door and come up with a way to keep it closed.
Make sure you remind yourself of how pointless this endeavor was, and remind the chickens of it by painting it on the inside of the door. At the end of the day, it's a chicken coop. It's not even a necessity for me, just a luxury.
Paint it black with the cheapest paint which just so happens to be black asphalt paint used for waterproofing wood. Yeah, that's the cheapest paint I found and it is awesome. Will it hold up? IDK, let's find out.
Yeah, it's rough, but it's got the nesting box, a window, and a front porch… These are luxuries. In Kenya, the chickens do not even have coops, they roam the streets. Speaking of which, I seen so many bizarre breeds of chicken roaming around Kenya, any BYC'er would be jealous to see just how many there were. Breeds so well mixed that you wouldn't know what they were originally. They gave me a chicken as a gift once after I preached in a village, and it was what inspired me to start raising birds again. They are easily the most important bird in the world.
If you don't like my coop, I don't care, I just wanted to share it because I think people need to know they can make a coop that doesn't resemble the sistine chapel and still be a decent chicken keeper. I may or may not be on this property much longer, so I was not going to invest heavily in it regardless.
I don't need architectural advice, I would have liked to have made it better myself, but 'good enough' will be good enough.
