Innovation Pet Big Green Walk-in Hen House from Tractor Supply Thread

[Finnie]

This will be my build thread for the newest addition to my chicken village. I decided to go with a flimsy prefab coop because I think this one is a little better than most of the ones TSC carries. I've had my eye on it for over a year, and right now it's marked $100 off from the usual price. Another reason for settling for prefab is because I can set it up fairly quickly, and lately my time has been overcommitted. So this is a stop-gap solution to my urgent need to separate some of my roosters away from the main flock. But I think it will be useful for many other times when I need to separate birds, or grow out chicks in the future.

I was encouraged to go for it by reading @grohfrog 's modification thread for the same coop, here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/big-green-hen-house-modification-recommendations.1238827/

Some of the suggestions given on there have inspired me to buy one of my own and tweak it to make it more to my liking.

Ok, so I thought it would be pretty simple to haul the pieces home (sans box, because the only way to fit it in my minivan was to stack all the pieces in the back), buy wood for the base, build and level the base, and then assemble the coop on top of the base, all in one day. Started at 8am, and figured no problem, be done by 4:30 easy. And it might have worked out that way, if I hadn't gotten OCD about whether it was facing due north properly enough. Probably spent an hour turning the base this way and that. Then I got bogged down leveling it. So, by the time I had to quit for dinner, here is what I had accomplished:

Fortunately, it's light out later these days, and after dinner I was able to go back out and assemble the coop. (I did need DH to come assist when I got to the roof, cuz I was running out of daylight, and an extra pair of hands would help me to use less time wrestling with it.)

Well, so I didn't get any more pictures because it got dark. I'll try to take some in the morning. There is still a lot to do.

 

[imnukensc]

Looking forward to see what mods you do to it.

 

[Finnie]

Looking forward to see what mods you do to it.

Thank you

 

[Finnie]

So here is how we left it last night:

I still need to finish putting the trim pieces on the roof. I also skipped the steps related to the nest boxes, because I am planning to leave those off. I will have to cover those openings. There is nice solid white trim all around the nest box openings, so I'm happy with that part.

The roof of the nest box seems like it will make a nice cleanout door. It's a little short, so I will see about fashioning a piece of wood to make the opening smaller and serve to attach the hinges to. Then a block or trim of some sort at the bottom for the latch.

OR, it occurs to me, I might prefer to have the cleanout door hinge at the bottom, so I don't need to prop it up. It's still in the design phase, so I can try to think of all the pros and cons of different ways of doing it. Perhaps use something other than the nest box roof, so I can maximize the opening instead of blocking part off.

 

[Finnie]

As a side note, I took some photos of some damage to one of the roof pieces. This is how it came out of the box. The guys at TSC were moving the pieces from the box to my car, or else I might have noticed this myself. I probably would have asked for a different roof piece.

But I decided that I can live with it. I did a little repair work with some wood glue.

It was almost dark when I took the clamps off, so I didn't get a photo, but seeing as that is the underside of the roof, it ought to be protected well enough from the weather. I did make sure that that piece went over the run, and not over the sleeping area.

It doesn't bother me too much. I really don't hold this type of prefab coop to very high standards. I have a smaller one with the same kind of asphalt roof material. That one is terrible because they put wood trim all around the asphalt, which prevents rain water from running off. It pools at the seam between the asphalt and the wood, and caused the roof to fail in its first winter.

One of the features I was very pleased with on this new green coop, is that they did not use that piece of wood trim. Water can run down the green asphalt and just drip right off.

Sometime if I get a chance, I should post a photo of that other coop, which I call my baby coop, and the modification I made to it. I built a second roof over the old one, and now it is protected better from the weather. It's 4 years old now, and I figure I've gotten my money's worth out of it. I hope I can say the same for this one in four years.

 

[aart]

Was the box sealed....wonders if that broken roof panel is why it was on sale?

Clean out door bottom or top hinge.....bottom hinge might be easier to operate,
if it opens all the way before hitting the ground(have seen some that do not so hard to stand close). Scrolling back it looks like it will open fully hinged at bottom, and would be hard to prop/hook up if hinged at top due to roof edge.

Will this be mobile...or taken apart and stored flat when not in use.....or just leave it out there to 'rot'? Why not put it closer to your pinterest coop? Is that it circled red in the background?(yes, you should update that thread )

 

[Finnie]

Yes, the box was sealed. They were all on sale, and on line as well.

Now I'm considering hinging it on the side. That's a good point, that the roof limits propping it up.

I don't intend it being mobile. Or stored anywhere. I guess if it rots, it will rot where it sits.

We are in the process of moving my chicken village out of the back yard. For some reason, my husband wants grass to grow there again.

We are fencing off part of our back field with electric wire, and moving all the various random coops out there. The Pinterest shed of course stays where it is, and those chickens will have an attached run built and no longer be allowed to free range. (Except I plan to let them out anyway, for small amounts of time that won't be too hard on the landscaping.)

I took a panoramic photo of the new area, from even further back. The white step in posts outline the area, but we haven't strung the wire yet.

Here is a picture of the back yard with its chicken "shanty town".

Here is a view my husband took with his latest gadget, a drone. This was before the new coop went in.

I'm going to arrange all my other coops near the new green one, basically behind where those abandoned raised beds are.

 

[jthornton]

If you could make both sides open up like this it would make cleanup easier with full access to the insides.



I need to get my drone back air born...

JT

 

[aart]

Sweet pics!
I see now why it's out there, to call the others to join it
Looking forward to watching the progress!

 

[Finnie]

If you could make both sides open up like this it would make cleanup easier with full access to the insides.

View attachment 1370428


JT

Yes, that's exactly what I was thinking!

Although, I did notice that on the west side, there is that door on the back of the coop. So if I left the west nestbox on, I could still reach in to clean the west side ok.

My first purpose for it will be a bachelor pen for roosters, so nest box not needed. And not needed if I grow chicks out in it either. But I could also use this for a breeder pen, so then it would be good to have a nest. I could store the parts until I want them.