My First Coop Build

[AlHawk]

I grew up with chickens but never built a coop. We always had a shed and fenced in area for the Banties and the yard for the full-sized. So, after much reading and thinking about it, I picked up a saw and hammer last weekend and started building. I started with an old shed and an old pool deck. I'm going to post progress pix here and I hope to get this done by Thanksgiving (if we could only get more daylight) so I can get 6-8 girls for eggs. Feel free to post suggestions or mistakes.


This is what I'm starting with. The small attached shed to the left is the "new" coop. Big shed is for storage and an idea is to put feeding access inside this shed to keep dry etc.


This is the old pool deck that's going to be the source of all the wood I need (hopefully)


South side (yes, the doors are falling off).


North side after removing siding and corner post. Carpenter ants had infested the corner and all the wood was eaten. Need to replace those. The cutouts are for laying boxes. Sorry about the rear side of my Basset Hound "Spike". He is not camera shy nor does he care about privacy.


North side again. Replaced corner and added laying box bottom. Only had an hour to work so didn't get much done today.


Cut and Installed laying box dividers. This looks like an easy step but since I was working with all used materials, I had to make sizes fit what I had not design then build. It's not hard. It's just time consuming.


See the top rails on the old deck above? Those built the human entry door here.


Boxes are done & door is made. Just need to install hinges. Starting to see the light at the end of this tunnel.


Old doors off. Wall rebuilt. Going to have to buy my second piece of wood; 2- 4x8 sheets of plywood for siding.

 

[Mahlzeit]

Looking forward to seeing pictures of your progress!

 

[AlHawk]

Sorry for a reply but I don't see a "edit" the original post any more. So, here's the next installment.


This is the first of the 3 pieces of plywood I had to buy. I am building the hatch now but the door is big enough for any chicken including Jersey Giants that our feed store gets sometimes. The blue paint is leftover from our house and is being used a primer only. Final color is cream colored. Paint was all free that I found at our county Waste Management. They offer free paint for county residents. All you have to do is go pick out what you want.


This blue plywood is actually the human door with a nice 29x12 vent in the top. Ventilation also includes all the spaces between the rafters.


Finished laying boxes and painted the final color (that free paint). Only a few floor to ceiling pieces of plywood left before it's ready. Scrounging for roost boards or bamboo now. Chick pickup in less than a week now.

 

[Folly's place]

Where are the windows? Big windows for light and air? Mary

 

[AlHawk]

Mary, the plan is to put "windows" at the top of those missing panels from the top to about 12-14" down (like the human door on the West side. Is that not enough???

 

[gatrapper]

Very cool. I look forward to more updates.

 

[Cheep N Peep]

The more light you have in the coop, the easier it will be for the hens to lay in the winter. Plus the love to look out the windows and scare the dog. If you can open them, than the cooler the coop will be in the summer, too. The coop is looking really nice! What are the dimensions?

 

[AlHawk]

Floor space is 8' x 8'. The run/yard plan is about 10'x12'-15' all for 6 full size chickens. Feed store said they're getting Australorps, Ameraucana and Orpingtons coming in. Probably get 2 of ea.

 

[Folly's place]

I would add at least one big window, with hardware cloth, maybe on the south or east side, for light and air. Mary

 

[Cheep N Peep]

Are you using all the floor space for the chickens? If so, there is plenty of room for more... you anticipating chicken math?

I wish i had room in my flock... I originally wanted an Australorp, but didn't manage to get my hands on one before I filled the coop! Now I have a RIR, two Orpingtons, a Brown Leghorn, a Black sexlink, a Barred Plymouth rock, and a Dark Cornish Bantam 'surprise'.