It grew

[sirhc76]

How is it that the actual size is always more than the dimensions in your head. I measured the space that I had and told myself OK 4W x 5T x 8L will be enough for my 6 hens. Took a crash course in google sketchup and got to work. I started building and thought you know I have the length why not make it 10L and I might as well do 6T so that I can walk into it. After I built the wall frames and stood it up I contemplated cutting 9 inches off to bring it down and then talked myself out of it. Well the neighbor has a small arc with 2 hens and said this is really all you need just an arc, they are simple to build. The wife signed off on the arc and after $500 in materials the arc is now a 4x6x10 "storage shed" as we have told the neighbors across the street. Technically its storing something so that should be ok. Started yesterday, made 4 trips to Lowes and you know its bad when you leave something that you brought to the store on a lumber rack only to come back and find it hours later. As I built the wife kept saying Um that appears to be getting rather large, what happened to the "arc" you mentioned. Well honey Noah brought on more animals than anticipated so it grew.

 

[faykokoWV]

you'll be glad in the end

1. if you stay with the chickens you have they will be happier with the extra room
2. coop won't get yucky as fast
3. now you can probably add a few more chickens if you end up addicted like the rest of us

 

[Life is Good!]

Please tell your wife, even Noah had to bring along ALL his materials and supplies needed for the trip

Gotta store the feed somewhere, right?!

Looks like a GREAT ark...bigger IS better. Really. Mine was really, really big in concept - and when the 5wk old's moved in....now they're nearly 8wks and twice as big, the coop is looking a bit small lately. Cannot imagine when they're full-grown. Especially taking into account our winter weather (cold, wet, miserable for several weeks).

I'm already figuring on a bigger establishment. This section of the forum is deadly for that! Ideas abound here! Thanks for sharing yours!

 

[dobimomof4]

Ok that looks great. My question is how hard was it to use that google sketchup? Not the greatest with computers but your drawing sure does look nicer than my free hand sketches. Does it help with the measurements of some of the pieces?
Thanks for posting this information

 

[sirhc76]

Sketchup isnt that bad, I'm sure I there is an easier way to use it once you learn the app. You can actually import dimensional lumber in specific sizes. Finally finished the framing on my coop and now I need to trim and paint. I decided to build in ventilation on both ends. The location I'm going to place this is beside my house between the fence and wall. This area is like a nice little wind tunnel and forces all the kids toys that can roll down that area from the entire yard. Its also in the shade which will help on the hot Texas days. I built the ends to open and close once I get the appropriate hardware installed. I also set it up so that I can pull two side panels off and remove the poop boards. I'm going to get a trailer mover so that I can easily move this thing, I had to use the dolly yesterday and that wasn't easy. I also learned that its much easier to add the wire first then install the sideboards. I learned this the hard way no biggie since I'm a practitioner of the measure once cut three times style of carpentry.