First and FOREMOST I want to let you know that My DH & I know NOTHING about construction, I work as an entertainer, and he is a marine mechanic, but we both have some common sense we hoped would get us through this!
For our first coop I copied the design from a picture I found when googling chicken coops.
It's a Simple Hoop Coop
It's made from 3 Cattle panels (We used an old boat trailer to get these the 50+ miles home)
(6) 2x10's from an old dock
welded garden wire
and poultry fencing the small hex size.
A tarp
roll of hardware wire for the exterior bottom to stop burrowing.
three bags of quickcrete we dry poured over the hardware wire.
(2) 2x4's for the door
LOTS of Zip ties!!
This coop does not have a support post down the center, but it withstood a fairly large bear for SWFL on the top bouncing to collapse it. You can see the buckle in the middle from his weight, but it held!! We have had Panthers attack too, but nothing has gotten in as of yet. (knock on wood)
The new coop, so far I spent $275.00 at Lowes using the 10% off coupons found in the change of address packages found at your post office that includes two rolls of redbrand welded wire fence.
We used treated landscape timbers for posts since they only cost $2.00 each and pressure treated 2x4's at $2.00 The front 2x10's were recycled from an old dock.
Not having a clue as to how to get started, I staked out a 20ft square...ok not perfectly square...I didn't know how to do that. Then I marked where my posts would be. I wanted 5 pens that were 8ft by 4ft and a walkway down the center. Then my son and I started digging post holes... not so easy. Our property is a thin layer of soil over solid Rock (thus our farm name Rock Bottom Farm) since not many posts could actually get more than 6-12 inches in the ground we decided to hold them level and attatch a bottom board to get our 20x20 square. We got them all attached to the bottom boards up and down the sloping rock, and then poured the concrete in the holes.
Next we did the tops of the posts at the height of our shortest post. Finally we are ready for welded wire, walls and roof and hardware cloth to stop burrowing in the few sections not on solid rock.
So here is where were at....
For our first coop I copied the design from a picture I found when googling chicken coops.
It's a Simple Hoop Coop
It's made from 3 Cattle panels (We used an old boat trailer to get these the 50+ miles home)
(6) 2x10's from an old dock
welded garden wire
and poultry fencing the small hex size.
A tarp
roll of hardware wire for the exterior bottom to stop burrowing.
three bags of quickcrete we dry poured over the hardware wire.
(2) 2x4's for the door
LOTS of Zip ties!!
This coop does not have a support post down the center, but it withstood a fairly large bear for SWFL on the top bouncing to collapse it. You can see the buckle in the middle from his weight, but it held!! We have had Panthers attack too, but nothing has gotten in as of yet. (knock on wood)
The new coop, so far I spent $275.00 at Lowes using the 10% off coupons found in the change of address packages found at your post office that includes two rolls of redbrand welded wire fence.
We used treated landscape timbers for posts since they only cost $2.00 each and pressure treated 2x4's at $2.00 The front 2x10's were recycled from an old dock.
Not having a clue as to how to get started, I staked out a 20ft square...ok not perfectly square...I didn't know how to do that. Then I marked where my posts would be. I wanted 5 pens that were 8ft by 4ft and a walkway down the center. Then my son and I started digging post holes... not so easy. Our property is a thin layer of soil over solid Rock (thus our farm name Rock Bottom Farm) since not many posts could actually get more than 6-12 inches in the ground we decided to hold them level and attatch a bottom board to get our 20x20 square. We got them all attached to the bottom boards up and down the sloping rock, and then poured the concrete in the holes.
Next we did the tops of the posts at the height of our shortest post. Finally we are ready for welded wire, walls and roof and hardware cloth to stop burrowing in the few sections not on solid rock.
So here is where were at....
