My coop building journey

[mallory2013]

this looks fantastic! I am trying to decide between buying and building... I am off all summer, so I have time to build, with helpful kids and brother in laws...

I would build if you are able!! It's a lot cheaper!

 

[cfluff]

Hello fellow chicken lovers! I wanted to document my coop building journey and share with other people who would understand my egg-citement!
I am using 10x10 shed plans that I purchased off of Etsy. I have to preface that I have limited prior building experience, (despite the fact that my father was a master carpenter... lol) and I am doing 90% of this by myself.

Here is a photo of my pre-assembled coop!! Lumber is so expensive
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Foundation build: aka my "Wow this is so Easy What Was I Nervous about?" Era
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Moving on to the wall framing:

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Next... THE RAFTERS!! This was the hardest part for me! I had a really hard time figuring out the bird's mouth cuts
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Starting to Look like a shed! Next was the siding:
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The plans said to extend the siding up and cut out where the rafters are. I decided to not do that since a few of the boards were slightly warped and it would have been really difficult to cut them correctly.

That's where I have it built up to as of today, I've been delayed by (much needed) rain. The next step is the roof!

 

[TeresaW]

Love your coop. Thanks for sharing this journey with us.

I’m in the middle of building an indoor quail aviary. I’m tempted to post my journey as well, but I don’t feel like I know what I’m doing.

 

[mallory2013]

Love your coop. Thanks for sharing this journey with us.

I’m in the middle of building an indoor quail aviary. I’m tempted to post my journey as well, but I don’t feel like I know what I’m doing.

Thank you!! I honestly had very little clue what I was doing and that ls partially why I posted.... first for others to help give me suggestions and also to show that even dummies can build a coop if nothing else, i really enjoy looking back at the progress photos. I would just got for it and post!!

 

[mallory2013]

Another coop improvement, since it's almost egg time! I made nest boxes out of cat litter buckets. Pretty slick!

 

[BDutch]

Thanks for posting your journey in building this wonderful coop.

I makes me wonder how many chickens you actually have and if you plan to buy/hatch more in the future. Because 6 nestboxes is a good number for about 30 chickens. Btw, just 1 fake egg in every nestbox is enough.

Next thing I would do is to ‘paint’ the inside of the coop and the roosts/joints with a mix of diatomaceous earth with water (stir) . The DE-paint dries quickly and leaves a light brown film on all surfaces. Its a great preventative against red mites and other tiny bugs you don’t want to give accommodation in your hen-house. You only need to re-apply the DE-paint where it disappears, where the chickens sleep on the roosts.

A big pot with dry (playground) sand mixed with a few big spoons DE is great to prevent an outburst of feather lice and scaly leg mites.

My new play-house coop with DE-paint on the walls (not on the roof). The black things under the roost are oil baths, to prevent red mites to walk from the walls to the hens and vice versa after drinking their blood

 

[wrathsfarm]

Another coop improvement, since it's almost egg time! I made nest boxes out of cat litter buckets. Pretty slick!
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Your coop turned out very nice, congrats.

And I like how you used the cut off from lid as an entry stoop.