Look What I Can Do!!! *PIC Heavy*

[Mattemma]

I read the reviews at Amazon.Looks like the big coop for 30 hens costs around 1k right?

 

[dsqard]

Mattemma, thank you so much for your condolances.

I was more angry at myself than the dog. I should have just left them in their coops until I got home. Yesterday, while I was working, the chickens were free ranging and the dogs were out back. The dog that got out on Friday (he had to have jumped over the fence) never made a move to try it again. I don't know if it was because I was home or not but I am not going to take that chance again. Today I have to go out and the chickens will just have to wait to go wandering until I get home.

So far we have spent around $675 but that includes some things that you would not have to get. A $45 miter saw blade, an additional window and shutters (I had to order the windows online since Home Depot and Lowes don't carry shed windows and of course I just HAD to order the really cute decorative shutters

), a new jig saw, longer jig saw blades, an additonal saw horse (only had one that I had bought years ago to use as a saddle rack) and probably some other things that I have forgotten. I would guess that the extra stuff probably adds up to $150 to $200. The book estimates that if you build the coop just like their plan it will cost around $1000. I guess it does add up each trip to the store. It doesn't hurt as much when you are doing it a bit at a time. It is still less than buying a pre-built shed that you would have to modify and I know it is built better. The wood itself does not cost a lot it is the other stuff that is more expensive. I am not sure how I am going to do the roof yet. I know I want to use the corrigated PVC just not sure if I am going to put plywood under it or just screw it to the rafters. I like the idea of just screwing it to the rafters because it would be less expensive and if I buy white panels it will let some of the sunlight come through. I am worried that it might not be sturdy enough without the plywood underneath so I am still thinking about it. Maybe do a little of both to have the benefits of both!

 

[bburn]

The name for that saw...common name is sawsall (saws all)....lol....union carpenters helper here.

And that will work on Pelican's metal building....with a metal blade. My coop is framed out in 2x4's but covered in corragated metal roofing. We had to use one to cut out the window. An electric drill and a long (contractors) extension cord would help also since it is a free standing building already.

Girls....we can do most things if we read about it and take a minute to see how something works. My garage is chock full of all those drills and saws and other metal dealies......I am learning what they do and how to use them, slowly.

DH comes home next weekend and then goes back for another month of work. Once he leaves I am starting on a little duplex coop that holds three to four chickens on each side. Am trying to figure out where to put it right now.....starting to gather up things that might work for it. We have some old six pane wood windows out there that I am going to snatch up. They won't raise but I could hinge them and use them.

I don't have Chicken Coops for Dummies but I do have my DSS who is hanging out up here, not employed and wants to make some money....he looked at the coop picture and said it looked like more than a $50 job to him. I might just give him $75 for this job....maybe.

 

[bburn]

dsgard....we don't have the pvc on the roof of ours, but corragated metal. No plywood underneath. The nice thing about it being corragated is it also serves as ventilation. All that wavy stuff. Just thinking here....

watching you build with amazed interest....

 

[dsqard]

bburn I absolutely love my sawsall! I bought it so it is mine not DH's!

It really is a handy tool and I loved using it on the mesquite trees. Using a chain saw to trim branches usually resulted in more time spent on trying to sharpen the chain and making sure the chain was tight than actually cutting branches. Of course you couldn't cut down a really thick tree but I would work my way around some really thick trunks on some desert broom (UGH hate those nasty things, spent about a month clearing out a bunch of it at our old house and then would eyeball all the ones near the roads I drove on lusting to cut them ALL down

) I will have to look/price out the corrugated metal. That might work better than the PVC and might be less expensive than buying the plywood and the PVC. I think reusing the windows you have is a great idea! I wish we had some old ones to use but we just had our house built about seven months ago so no old stuff to pick through yet. I am saving the longer scraps of wood to see what I can use them for. The plans are pretty good about not wasting too much lumber so I don't have anything over three feet in the scrap pile. I am thinking I will find something to do with them.

 

[dsqard]

Quote:
Yes that is what the book says it willl cost about. I have tried to find wood on KSL which is basically our local version of Craig's List but no luck. It would cost me more in gas running around getting pieces here and there then just going to the store to buy new.

 

[dsqard]

OK I didn't get a whole lot done on the coop today. The rest of my life interferred a bit. Had to go grocery shopping, go get dog food (yeah I am still feeding them

) and I had to go pick up the sheeting for the outside. I did score three really AWESOME things though! They are not in the order they happened but they are in the order of awesomeness from least to best!

I absolutely love pumpkin spice creamer for my coffee and the stores usually only carry it from around Thanksgiving to a little after New Years. This year it is out early!

When I went to Home Depot today they did not have enough of the sheeting that I wanted. The stuff I wanted was almost $17 a piece. They did have enough of a more expensive kind at almost $23 a piece. I asked the supervisor what the difference was and he called over one of the wood area staff members. These two guys were real gems. The staff member was so smart about the materials and how to best put them together and suggested that the supervisor let me have the more expensive stuff for the same price as the stuff I wanted. I even got one of the pieces for $8 because it had some damage on the edge which you won't even see. The Home Depot here is soooooooooooooooo much better than the one in Sierra Vista, where I came from. You were lucky to get a sales person to talk to you let alone have really good advice. I am going to go on line and rave about this store. Today was great but even other times when I have gone in the people who work there have been so nice and helpful.

This is the area that I am going to put the coop in. Before today it was covered with tumbleweeds and wasn't very level. When they were putting in the fencing for the horses the ground was really soft so there were tractor tire ruts all through it. When I was getting ready to go shopping I noticed the neighbor working in his yard with his tractor. I figured what the heck and went over and asked him if he could clear out the area for me. He said sure and stopped working on his yard and came right over. He not only cleared out all the weeds but he spent at least half an hour getting it pretty level. He is such a nice guy! I thanked him many times for saving me hours of backbreaking work. It just totally made my day!

I did get the sheeting done on the right wall. It doesn't take that much time to do. The cut out is where the nest boxes will go.

Now I have to go back to work tomorrow. I won't be able to work on the coop much unless we get the rain that they are predicting. Good weather = 10 hour day at work Bad weather = 8 hour day at work and on an 8 hour day I might have a chance to do some work on the sheeting during the week.

 

[gryeyes]

Anybody who can read this on BYC can also buy the book on BYC.

Go to the BYC store and pick it up - you'll be supporting BYC. I would have bought mine at Amazon, too, had it not been available at BYC. (After all, one of the co-authors is Nifty-Chicken, the owner of BYC.)

The Raising Chickens for Dummies book was invaluable to me, and the Building Coops for Dummies will also be invaluable. Love 'em both!

SO following this thread to see the coop that I want to build, built from it. I wanna see those chickens IN it, too!

Oh, and the employees at the Commercial counter at Lowe's are really, really used to me, as I had them run quotes for materials before I built my first two coops, they saw me all the time getting more wood, more hardware, and the various tools I needed. Some of them even wanted to see photos of my construction, which I shared on my cell phone.

Any time I walk in, somebody there will say, "Whatcha building now?"

 

[dsqard]

Got my book through BYC!!!

 

[BWKatz]

Coming along great!