Montana

[herfrds]

Karla some lumber yards will sell these little sheds. Those are worth looking at. My kids got one for their rabbits. Just needed to be insulated and have a window on each end for ventilation and it works great.
I need to get one for a new brooder house, my old one is literally falling apart.

 

[karlamaria]

I found the coop I want but man it's so expensive... Sooo I'm going to hire some lucky Montana man to build it for me. Im going to start buying all the lumber, latches and so forth and store it until March when I plan on getting it built. It's going to my moms home . She loves chickens and im putting both buff's into this coop as there always being broody. Putting a clutch under them will let them be Mommies and I get more chickens! The new coop will house 12 chickens!

 

[herfrds]

Be careful who you hire. The guy I hired measured the windows wrong and DH had to cut and re-do the 2x4's for them.
He also left a huge mess for us to clean up.

 

[karlamaria]

Quote:
Yeah, my coop now was messed up, but a contractor friend of his came and did it right and did not charge me. M fault, I paid ahead of time, learned a valuable lesson! Do not pay until the job is done! I plan on getting all the wood and wire and parts but will not pay for the labor until the job is totally done well.!

 

[Azriel]

This is my new coop that I just got done building.

The coop is 14x24 and has a 12' leanto for a sheltered outside area for the main layer flock to go outside over winter. Inside there are 3 pens, the layer pen is 12x14, and then the 2 smaller breeder/growout pens are 7x8, and there is a 4' walkway storage area between the big pen and the 2 small pens. The small pens will have outside areas also, but I won't be able to get them done until next spring. I have electric to the coop, so now I can see to feed and pick up eggs when I get home from work. I'm so happy with how it turned out.

 

[cackleberrycoop]

Azriel - that is wonderful - truly, truly excited for you. (not to mention a little jealous).

 

[karlamaria]

azreil that is one nice coop!!! my goodness, its so purdy I would hate to use it. can you tell Im thrilled for you and yet so darn jelous LOL. Im happy for you hon, looks like a wonderful place for your birds. can not wait to see what you got in there and the inside of it!!!

 

[Azriel]

Thanks, I do love my new coop. My girls settled right into the new coop and started useing the rear roll out nests right away,and they love the new ladder roost. My layers are a mixed bunch, Production Reds, Orps (blue,lav,buff,black), SLW, Blk Aust, a couple of Welsummers, Golden Lakenvelder, Blue Andalusian, and several Marans,(Wheaten & Cuckoo). Right now one of my breeder pens has extra Roos waiting to be butchered, and the other one has my Wheaten/Blue Wheaten Ameraucana. As soon as the extra roos are gone the Orps excluding the Buffs will go in there. The Roos in my layer pen are 1 beautiful EE, and a very nice Blk Ameraucana, so I might hatch out some of the Marans eggs to get some olive eggers untill I can get a Blue Wheaten Maran roo to go with the Wheaten hens, and I would love some mint green layers, so maybe some of the light brown eggs also to see what I get. I have an extra Lav Orp roo I really hate to butcher if anyone is interested.

 

[karlamaria]

Quote:
nice mixture!! you have some of the ones I would love also. who built the coop? Im looking for someone to come build me one also, but I want one off the ground and one that will hold ten birds. Im going to go ahead and keep my small coop that holds my five now and have the new one built at moms. Im going to use my coop at my home for breeding and so forth, that way there is 2 different coops going. I hate not owning land, my yard and moms yard is what we have so we can only have small amounts of birds. I wish I could have more. my girl is so broody all the time that Im anxious to put eggs under her this coming spring, Im betting she will be a great mommy, she never leaves the egg she tries to hatch, poor girl, I hate taking them but she would starve if I did not lift her off the nest every day so she can eat and drink.

 

[Azriel]

I pretty much built the coop my self. My BF's son helped with the roof, and things I wasn't sure how to do, like framing in the door and windows. The lumber came from fire killed trees on both my neighbors and my BF's land, and we cut the lumber on our sawmill. I did go with a metal roof, so that, the electric and the natural cedar stain were the main cost. I think total was just under $900.00. I still have some work to do, like put hdwr cloth on the windows, but I don't think they'll be open this winter anyway, and I need to put another 2' of wire higher inside, some of the girls have found they can roost on top of the gate, so I need to bring the wire all the way up to the roof.