I need help please

[kimismurf]

Actually, we have a barn and an old shed on our property. We have cleaned out the old shed and are turning it into a coop. So far it has a chicken door with ramp. It has a light and a place for nest boxes though the boxes aren't in yet. I'll upload pictures later today of our progress.

 

[Wise Woman]

I have no carpentry skills either, but luckily my husband has developed some very basic ones, so our coop building has been left to him. I design, he builds. Works for us. However, if I did not have him around to do my dirty work, I would head off to one of the big stores like Home Depot or Lowe's, and have them cut the wood for me. Our local hardware store does the same thing for a dollar a cut. It does add up but I would willing spend $20 or 30 dollars to have everything pre-cut for myself.

Here is a link to a cute coop that looks simple to build and would house your 3 chickens nicely.

http://www.fresheggsdaily.com/2012/02/building-chicken-coop.html

Here is a link to the plans on Etsy.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/76006914/chicken-coop-plans-new-england-cape?ref=unav_listing-same

If you figured out your lumber list and measurements and had it pre-cut, you would just have to put it together once home. Not sure how hard that would be, but I bet it is doable, even by a novice. One other tip I would give you is to paint all the pieces on both sides before putting it together. Will save you a lot of time and crouching once it is all together. Good Luck.

HTH!

Cheers!

 

[kimismurf]

This would work well for the 3 little stinkers I have running around here. I do however have 12 little eggies in the incubator. I'm sure they won't all hatch. I've had chickens for about a month now. My husband says when I do something, I really do it lol. This is why we decided to use the shed. We are planing to spend Monday and Tuesday and get it done, hopefully.

 

[yolksonus]

I think using your existing shed is the best bet for you right now. Our chicks are ready for their coop at 5 weeks old and it isn't finished yet! If you have an existing shed- use it!!! We are scrambling right now! No garage or barn to use while the coop is being built. I would not have been able to build a coop on my own. My husband and I talked about what we wanted, he designed it, ended up finding one on BYC that he bought the design for (mainly for supply list) and modified a bit and he is building it. See have an old garden shed on the property but it is no where near rodent proof, so we are building one. Good luck to you! Post pics when your done. Below is the progress of ours so far.

 

[kimismurf]

Wow, that looks great. I bet your chickens are going to love it.

 

[Madddawg]

I think using your existing shed is the best bet for you right now. Our chicks are ready for their coop at 5 weeks old and it isn't finished yet! If you have an existing shed- use it!!! We are scrambling right now! No garage or barn to use while the coop is being built. I would not have been able to build a coop on my own. My husband and I talked about what we wanted, he designed it, ended up finding one on BYC that he bought the design for (mainly for supply list) and modified a bit and he is building it. See have an old garden shed on the property but it is no where near rodent proof, so we are building one. Good luck to you! Post pics when your done. Below is the progress of ours so far.




that's a good start, one thing you may want to do as soon as you can is get some more rock or backfill or something around it. that steep wall of rock on the lower side may start to slide down.. Something to think about.

 

[mucduc]

You said you're in the country. Where I'm at everyone has out-buildings. And a lot of those out-buildings have a lean to roof. If you have anything like that, then you could easily enclose the lean to.

Wont have to worry about any load-bearing walls, the roof is already there, and would be easy to put up walls and attach chicken wire or hardware cloth

Even putting a lean to onto your she'd wouldn't be to difficult

 

[kimismurf]

Thanks, we don't have an out building. We decided to make our old shed into a coop.

 

[yolksonus]

Yes madddawg- we will be putting fill and maybe more blocks around the base of the coop where the pebbles meet the ground. We wanted to finish the cook and let everything settle before we do that.