First off I want to thank Heather for her inspiration to start this project! Her "jump in there and get it done" attitude and ability to laugh at her mistakes gave me the courage to start this project!
My story is probably like many people on here. I have never owned chickens before in my life. I "talked" DH into getting four pullets and we built a chicken tractor just the right size for the four of them. My first thought when we finished building the tractor was that we should have built it bigger! (Yup had the fever and chicken math was going crazy in my head already!) Fast forwards a month or so and I saw that there were some pure Ameraucana pullets close to POL for sale. I called the lady and not only did she have the pullets but a really nice three year old blue wheaten roo! Ok made the arrangements to go get four pullets and the roo and found a coop for sale that was supposedly big enough for all of them. Got the coop and realized that there was no way it was going to be big enough for the nine chickens I had let alone my desire to hatch some chicks! (OK I am totally lost to the chicken addiction!
). My DH and I "discussed" this and decided we would build the "final big coop". We got the Coops for Dummies book and decided to build the walk in coop. Supposed to hold 30 chickens
We were going to make building the coop a winter project. Well, I stumbled across Heather's thread on how she is building a new run for her additional new chicks and had no experience building anything. I read her thread and saw how she was learning how to do things better and better as she went. This inspired me to get the materials to start building our new coop and see how far I could get on my own. (I am not exactly patient when I want to get something done, can you tell?
) Anyway, last weekend I started the project by myself and I was surprised at how well it has gone so far!
One thing I should bring up before I get into the pictures. I consider myself pretty handy on a lot of things. I can do simple plumbing and electrical work but I have never been real good at carpentry. If I build something it is usually crooked as all get out and I would't have let a dog sleep in a dog house that I built. With book in hand (or rather on the floor next to the piles of wood so I could look at the directions often!) I began.
Started framing up the floor. I was using a camera with too much lens on it so I couldn't get the whole frame in.
The floor all done!!!!! It took me 3 to 4 hours to build all by myself. (you can see the book on the floor towards the back of the pic
) The first thing I did after I finished it was jump up and down on it to be sure it was solid! My DH came home shortly after I finished the floor. He looked at it, looked at me and then shook his head.
He thought I did an awsome job and called me "his crazy wife"
We decided that we would go get the wood for the front and back walls the next day because he knows me well enough that once I get going on something you can't stop me!
After the trip to Home Depot the next day, got home with the wood and stopped to eat something before getting started. He looks at the TV and says "darn it, the Cowboys are gonna start playing in a few minutes" This actually made me smile because we are not really good working on a project together. Two "alpha" type personalities on a project is usually not so good. I looked at him and told him to go watch the game and I would build the walls myself. I am having fun and I wanted to see how much I could do on my own! Here is what I got done that day: (I did need some help with the walls because the wood kept sliding on the floor while I was trying to screw it together so I would have DH come out and stand on the boards to hold them still
)
Front wall all framed up. We are changing the plans around some and instead of a gabled roof we are going with a shed roof. I had to figure out what heights to make the front and back walls to get enough slope on the roof (thank you google for finding a website that will do that calculation) The book suggests at least a 20 degree slope and since we get good amounts of snow in the winter we had to go with 9' for the front wall and 6' for the back wall. DH wanted to go a foot lower but I insisted on the 6' back wall because I don't want to bang my head while cleaning the coop!
Back wall framing coming along!
Back wall all framed up!
You can see the front wall and floor up against the wall in the garage waiting to get put together!
So today I am taking off work so I have three days to work on this. DH has to work today and Sunday. So I get to keep going on my own. I do have to say he has more carpentry experience and has given me some really good suggestions. Over this past week I have been drawing up the plans for the side walls and the nest box. More adjustments to the plans! I have been itching to get building the rest of the walls and I can't wait to see if what I drew up is going to work out!
I will post more pics as this progresses!
A few things that I have learned so far:
Screws are much better than nails since you can take them out and fix a mistake a LOT easier!
Measure twice (at least) and cut once (oldie but a goodie!)
Don't assume that the drawing plans are 100% accurate that way you don't go crazy thinking you made a mistake!
My story is probably like many people on here. I have never owned chickens before in my life. I "talked" DH into getting four pullets and we built a chicken tractor just the right size for the four of them. My first thought when we finished building the tractor was that we should have built it bigger! (Yup had the fever and chicken math was going crazy in my head already!) Fast forwards a month or so and I saw that there were some pure Ameraucana pullets close to POL for sale. I called the lady and not only did she have the pullets but a really nice three year old blue wheaten roo! Ok made the arrangements to go get four pullets and the roo and found a coop for sale that was supposedly big enough for all of them. Got the coop and realized that there was no way it was going to be big enough for the nine chickens I had let alone my desire to hatch some chicks! (OK I am totally lost to the chicken addiction!
One thing I should bring up before I get into the pictures. I consider myself pretty handy on a lot of things. I can do simple plumbing and electrical work but I have never been real good at carpentry. If I build something it is usually crooked as all get out and I would't have let a dog sleep in a dog house that I built. With book in hand (or rather on the floor next to the piles of wood so I could look at the directions often!) I began.
Started framing up the floor. I was using a camera with too much lens on it so I couldn't get the whole frame in.
The floor all done!!!!! It took me 3 to 4 hours to build all by myself. (you can see the book on the floor towards the back of the pic
We decided that we would go get the wood for the front and back walls the next day because he knows me well enough that once I get going on something you can't stop me!
After the trip to Home Depot the next day, got home with the wood and stopped to eat something before getting started. He looks at the TV and says "darn it, the Cowboys are gonna start playing in a few minutes" This actually made me smile because we are not really good working on a project together. Two "alpha" type personalities on a project is usually not so good. I looked at him and told him to go watch the game and I would build the walls myself. I am having fun and I wanted to see how much I could do on my own! Here is what I got done that day: (I did need some help with the walls because the wood kept sliding on the floor while I was trying to screw it together so I would have DH come out and stand on the boards to hold them still
Front wall all framed up. We are changing the plans around some and instead of a gabled roof we are going with a shed roof. I had to figure out what heights to make the front and back walls to get enough slope on the roof (thank you google for finding a website that will do that calculation) The book suggests at least a 20 degree slope and since we get good amounts of snow in the winter we had to go with 9' for the front wall and 6' for the back wall. DH wanted to go a foot lower but I insisted on the 6' back wall because I don't want to bang my head while cleaning the coop!
Back wall framing coming along!
Back wall all framed up!
You can see the front wall and floor up against the wall in the garage waiting to get put together!
So today I am taking off work so I have three days to work on this. DH has to work today and Sunday. So I get to keep going on my own. I do have to say he has more carpentry experience and has given me some really good suggestions. Over this past week I have been drawing up the plans for the side walls and the nest box. More adjustments to the plans! I have been itching to get building the rest of the walls and I can't wait to see if what I drew up is going to work out!
I will post more pics as this progresses!
A few things that I have learned so far:
Screws are much better than nails since you can take them out and fix a mistake a LOT easier!
Measure twice (at least) and cut once (oldie but a goodie!)
Don't assume that the drawing plans are 100% accurate that way you don't go crazy thinking you made a mistake!
