Looking for large coop plans

[3KillerBs]

I often think of naming my girls. Especially after I see Patara calls one of her hens "Clarice"; how cute.

Some of mine have names -- the ones with distinct personalities or distinctive appearances. Also, my roosters get names.

I have Chipotle, the California White, and Ancho, her daughter. Silver is the lightest of the Blue Australorp pullets and Dark Beauty, the darkest. The Mottled Javas are Mocha, the dark one, and Latte, the one with more white on her. Etc.

Gorgeous coop, but that wouldn't work in Indy.
She's going to deal with wind, freezing cold, heavy wet snow, hail, extreme heat, and humidity.

I was talking about the structure -- the posts, beams, and 4-foot uprights.

The siding of such a post and beam structure can easily be varied to match the climate.

 

[WthrLady]

Some of mine have names -- the ones with distinct personalities or distinctive appearances. Also, my roosters get names.

I have Chipotle, the California White, and Ancho, her daughter. Silver is the lightest of the Blue Australorp pullets and Dark Beauty, the darkest. The Mottled Javas are Mocha, the dark one, and Latte, the one with more white on her. Etc.



I was talking about the structure -- the posts, beams, and 4-foot uprights.

The siding of such a post and beam structure can easily be varied to match the climate.

I didn't catch that until after I hit reply, then the computer battery died. LOL and I couldn't fix it. I wonder what she ended up with.

 

[3KillerBs]

I didn't catch that until after I hit reply, then the computer battery died. LOL and I couldn't fix it. I wonder what she ended up with.

No problem, someone else might have read it that way too.

 

[Egg Blues]

I'm building my own, but I do the welding myself. I'm using the following materials:

-- Ten 6-meter (~20ft) galvanized 2" round structural pipes
-- Six 6-meter lengths of 1" x 2" rectangular tubing, galvanized
-- Twenty-two pieces of corrugated sheet metal, ~ 65 cm x 240 cm (2'2" x 8') for roofing
-- 20 meters of 2" hole, 2-meter-tall chain link
-- Two 6-meter lengths of 2" x 2" x 4mm angle iron -- for door threshold and frames
-- Six 6-meter lengths of 1.5" x 1.5" x 4mm angle iron
-- Three 6-meter lengths of 1/2" galvanized pipe
-- Four weldable steel hinge pieces, cylindrical, socket-style for making the doors
-- Paint for preserving the steel
-- Some sheets of flashing for the roof cap
-- Misc. items, e.g. self-tapping sheet-metal screws for the roofing, bird netting to keep wild birds out, etc.

Total cost of materials: About $750 (in my location).

The coop will be 4m x 6m inside, with six 2-meter pipe posts supporting two 6m structural pipes upon which three trusses will be placed. The trusses are simple triangles made by joining two halves of a 6m pipe cut on about 31-32 degrees angle, joined by a vertical member at 120cm length, to the horizontal cross-member at 4 meters in length. This forms a larger triangle bisected in the center to make two right-triangles of 2m x 1.2m x ~ 2.4m. Beyond the 2.4m roof section, the 3m. pipe extends another 60cm for potential eaves in the future (my roofing won't fully cover this at this time).

From the 80cm remainder of the pipes cut for the bottoms of these trusses (4m + 1.2m + 80cm) I weld them back onto the post pieces to extend them into concrete footings in the ground, keeping the full 2-meter post sections above ground so I can walk inside without fear of hitting my head on the trusses.

Cutting and notching the pipes correctly for welding joints requires a little experience/knowledge. For the top of the vertical member in the truss, two straight 45-degree angle cuts, meeting in the center of the pipe, fits perfectly. For the bottom, two 45-degree cuts plus lopping about 1.5cm / 5/8" off of the corners does the job. The welding may still require some filler metal for any gap remaining. Other joints follow the same principle.

(My apologies for the lack of artistic skill, but hopefully you get the idea.)

The doors could go wherever one wished, I'm putting mine in the ends. The six rectangular tubes are to be welded laterally across the three trusses, three parallel strips to a side about 1m/3ft apart, providing support for screwing the roofing metal to the structure. And, obviously, the chain link material will wrap around the four sides, being attached to the vertical posts. The 1/2" pipe is for triangulation support, adding diagonal members between the horizontal and vertical members, and between the trusses (top center of one truss, bottom center of the adjacent truss). I think if I had tried to put all of this into the picture, it would have been too messy to make heads or tails of it all.

The welding does need to be secure, and the posts anchored well to the ground to prevent the possibility of uplift in a strong wind. I'm not an engineer, but using some online tools and some guesswork, have estimated a need to be able to hold down at least 4 tons of weight/pulling force as the open walls allow wind to pass under the arched roof, forming a crude wing effect. Simply put, it would never do to just rest the trusses on the lower structure--the first storm would likely remove the roof.

 

[3KillerBs]

I'm building my own, but I do the welding myself. I'm using the following materials:

-- Ten 6-meter (~20ft) galvanized 2" round structural pipes
-- Six 6-meter lengths of 1" x 2" rectangular tubing, galvanized
-- Twenty-two pieces of corrugated sheet metal, ~ 65 cm x 240 cm (2'2" x 8') for roofing
-- 20 meters of 2" hole, 2-meter-tall chain link
-- Two 6-meter lengths of 2" x 2" x 4mm angle iron -- for door threshold and frames
-- Six 6-meter lengths of 1.5" x 1.5" x 4mm angle iron
-- Three 6-meter lengths of 1/2" galvanized pipe
-- Four weldable steel hinge pieces, cylindrical, socket-style for making the doors
-- Paint for preserving the steel
-- Some sheets of flashing for the roof cap
-- Misc. items, e.g. self-tapping sheet-metal screws for the roofing, bird netting to keep wild birds out, etc.

Total cost of materials: About $750 (in my location).

The coop will be 4m x 6m inside, with six 2-meter pipe posts supporting two 6m structural pipes upon which three trusses will be placed. The trusses are simple triangles made by joining two halves of a 6m pipe cut on about 31-32 degrees angle, joined by a vertical member at 120cm length, to the horizontal cross-member at 4 meters in length. This forms a larger triangle bisected in the center to make two right-triangles of 2m x 1.2m x ~ 2.4m. Beyond the 2.4m roof section, the 3m. pipe extends another 60cm for potential eaves in the future (my roofing won't fully cover this at this time).

From the 80cm remainder of the pipes cut for the bottoms of these trusses (4m + 1.2m + 80cm) I weld them back onto the post pieces to extend them into concrete footings in the ground, keeping the full 2-meter post sections above ground so I can walk inside without fear of hitting my head on the trusses.

Cutting and notching the pipes correctly for welding joints requires a little experience/knowledge. For the top of the vertical member in the truss, two straight 45-degree angle cuts, meeting in the center of the pipe, fits perfectly. For the bottom, two 45-degree cuts plus lopping about 1.5cm / 5/8" off of the corners does the job. The welding may still require some filler metal for any gap remaining. Other joints follow the same principle.

View attachment 3144440

(My apologies for the lack of artistic skill, but hopefully you get the idea.)

The doors could go wherever one wished, I'm putting mine in the ends. The six rectangular tubes are to be welded laterally across the three trusses, three parallel strips to a side about 1m/3ft apart, providing support for screwing the roofing metal to the structure. And, obviously, the chain link material will wrap around the four sides, being attached to the vertical posts. The 1/2" pipe is for triangulation support, adding diagonal members between the horizontal and vertical members, and between the trusses (top center of one truss, bottom center of the adjacent truss). I think if I had tried to put all of this into the picture, it would have been too messy to make heads or tails of it all.

The welding does need to be secure, and the posts anchored well to the ground to prevent the possibility of uplift in a strong wind. I'm not an engineer, but using some online tools and some guesswork, have estimated a need to be able to hold down at least 4 tons of weight/pulling force as the open walls allow wind to pass under the arched roof, forming a crude wing effect. Simply put, it would never do to just rest the trusses on the lower structure--the first storm would likely remove the roof.

Have you made a build thread for this?

I know very little about metal working, but I'd find it fascinating to read the details and see photos of the stages.

 

[Ted Brown]

Woods KD Coop, either 8' x 12' or 10' x 16' (larger holds up to 40 full size birds to -22F/-30C or lower).

 

[Aparker080115]

I don't know much about building but I can say do NOT buy plans from Twelve on Main.

They are absolutely terrible. The plans are incomplete, the materials list is incomplete...

 

[Compost Queen]

Has anyone bought coop plans that they’d recommend? I’ve googled, I’ve tried Etsy, I’ve perused this site…I just don’t know enough about building to know what constitutes good plans v so-so or bad.

I really only need the run portion, and those are harder to find…although maybe it’s more simple than I’m making it out to be. I have 14 and counting, they do not free range (we have a lot of hawks, plus some “pet” coyotes and foxes), so I need a rather large run. Want it to be tall enough to walk in and probably 20 feet long / 6 feet wide.

Appreciate any recommendations on where to look, or if you know of a designer who can use CAD or something, I’d be interested in that route too.

Thanks!

pen and paper. Everyone has individual spaces and pest pressures, people make them according to their space and requirements, that's why there are very few standard plans. Most chooks yards aren't by plan, just a bit of practicality. Go and measure space available and write it down. A calculator helpful too. Map it out, draw it, break it down. Measure the perimeter- work in centimetres or inches. note the length of each side. Think about the height you want.

Break it down- fox, racoons etc proofing ( walls, ground access ( digging). poles, walls, roof. Access for humans, and for chooks getting in and out of their house. For each of those requirements there are several ways to interpret them, which is usually determined by resources, both fiscal and practical. Look at other peoples chook yards and how they've done tham and analyse them in terms of the above, this will give you an idea of what you need, can do and like.

First phase of planning is how you're going to do it. This is thinking about options, practicality such as labour tools and who's going to do it and rough costs. Second phase is final costing, detail plan and execution. So the below is for your rough plan. the exact hows and whats will be determined by local resources. If you're not practical you probably don't have tools, set up or knowledge, but if you know what you want you can do a lot and enlist friends or hired help to execute. The more you can do and specify, the cheaper it will be for you.

The above measurements will inform you how much fencing you need ( wire/ mesh, etc. Do not buy the cheapest mesh, this means thicker wire and definitely galvanized. ). Most of the time this will come in rolls- so if the wall height is twice the height that the roll is wide, you'll need 2 linear metres of chook wire for every two metres of fence. Put all of this on paper or excell to help cost, calculate and plan.

Poles- I'd suggest a pole every 1.5 metres or less. You wanted treated pine, or rot proof timber, and make sure it's 100mm diameter or more- thin poles are useless. Account for two extra poles on each side of a door, or if the door utilises a corner pole then you only need one extra pole. Poles need concreting at least 25cm down in if you have sandy soil or compacting in in clay based soil ( about 30cm in ground), and at every few shovels tamp down with end of broom handle or something a bit bigger until soil can't compact any more (- i.e.small surface- more pressure per cm2). have earphones in and listen to podcasts or tunes here- time consuming. Check with level frequently to ensure poles are upright. If you dig in fence underground, poles go in at this stage.

Plan your door- this could be a preformed door, a timber rectangle crossed braced or other designs. If you can pick up a galv door it will be less maintencae and easier in the long run. look at pics. You can pick them up second hand or at fencing and stock supply places.

If you don't dig trench in then fold the chook wire horizontally on the ground on the outside of the pen. On the inside, chooks will injure themselves scratching on it. You need to come out at least 60cm (2 foot or more) ( that could be your 70 cm overlap from above). This needs pegging down with heavy pegs, double layer better. Through the wire, plant the plants you want on the chook yard (comphrey to assimilate rich nitrogenous and phosphorous run off), medicinal oregano to eat through fence, nutritious gotu cola in warm climates, cotoneasters for berries,. goji for sandy soils or grapevines for summer shade, sunflowers, etc. Plant last, after you've finished the yard.

We made our roof cheaper by not going full height- chook wire will be the cheaper part of the equation, and the posts and structural the more expensive ( at least where I live). You can see we have fences about 150 cm above ground and then we attached heavy duty irrigation pipe, and arched it over. It is held in place by what is colloquially termed 'top hat' here- used in roofing. picture attached. This was all bolted together and we put chook wire over it. What I like about this design is we have made long rolls of a) shadecloth and b) greenhouse plastic, attached to a length of wood at each end. In summer we drape over the shadecloth over the arched roof, and in winter we remove the shadecloth, roll it up and store for winter. Then put the plastic over, so they have somewhere dry to dustbath and hang out.

First things first, We hired a mini excavator and dug a trench down 60- 80 cm and threw everything we could down.. old metal shelves, scrap chook wire, weldmesh, anything heavy duty and galvanised.

If you are stuck, you can buy, at a price, pre formed chook yards. If you go down this path try to find some that can be modular.

i've attached pics of how we did ours, but again, looks at everyones elses. Good luck

 

[Disheygirl]

Wonder how the op made out with all this?

I am here and online searching out DIY coop instructions for: sloped roof (whatever that is called); no run needed, ours will free range, BUT large enough for 30 chickens!

This is what I have now - the shed came with the house and we turned it into a coop and added a run + another coop that was the original one before I decided that prefab was a little too flimsy + an Omlet yard. My biggest problem is that the chicken yard w/ the bird netting isn’t under cover and despite scooping poop daily, when it rains, it stinks. And it’s a semi-eyesore to me…I‘d rather have a structure.

I did decide to buy a new larger shed for the coop (have them build it with the chicken basics like ventilation and nest boxes and build out the rest of the inside myself) but still TBD on a run. My dog herniated a disc in his neck and needed surgery so his vet bills have taken the place of my little chicken project this year. Never a dull moment with animals. My girls are happy with their setup; I’m the high maintenance one!

 

[3KillerBs]

My biggest problem is that the chicken yard w/ the bird netting isn’t under cover and despite scooping poop daily, when it rains, it stinks.

Coarse wood chips, the kind you get from a tree trimming service, are often thought of as the gold standard for controlling mud and odor.