My first coop build

[THINGUM]

Vertical T&G cedar is so pretty, but tough to paint. That is where the rest of the gallon of Kilz will come in handy, even if you have to cut it a little. Is there any thought out there, that one might apply the vinyl after the walls are up, so you could roll the excess up to form a completely waterproof "pan"? Including the hole in the floor, this would be a wonderful little kids play house, if the sides were open and had some sort of little railing. You dunn good!!

Build her hell for stout, "pretty" always takes care of herself. Charlie Sedlemeyer

 

[M To The Maxx]

 

[CoyoteMagic]

Hey Bird! Did ya'll get more snow the other day? I'm down the BIG mountain and just outside of Charlotte. I have a friend up there in Waynesville. Her DH is one of the Agr. guys for Haywood County. We have a couple members up there in the hills; one in Bryson who took in my chickens when I got sick and couldn't keep up with them.

Coop looks nice and tight. Can't wait to see the finished project!

 

[BlackBrookPoultry]

I just have to say that I love the rock walls in your basement!

 

[bird_is_the_word]

Had a real good weekend for getting things done. I put up the soffit boards and the drip edge all around. I learned real quick that drip edge is not my forte

anyway, we got the whole thing covered in siding. The only thing left is to build the doors for the rear and the nest boxes. I also started painting a little. I got the inside walls finished and the nest boxes almost done. I also started on the exterior. I took some pictures but I didn't load them up

With today being Valentine's Day

I may not have the opportunity as that I told my wife I would take the day off from the coop. rest assured I'll get on it though. I hate to say it but I'm ready for this thing to be finished. As usual I've blown the project out of proportion. When the simple way would have been better I decide to go Taj Mahal style. stay tuned

edit:

Coyote, I'm in Waynesville too. I'm right across Waynesville Mtn. in Bethel. We did get snow the other day but it's long gone now. Hoping the sunshine lasts a while so I can get my painting done.

 

[THINGUM]

Hey;
Am anxiously awaiting the pics of your nest boxes. You said you thought of a cool idea, I'm standing on one foot. (mostly because it snowed again last nite and that's on top of 3" to 4" inches of frost. Kinda holdin' up the build.)

I'm in North Idaho, just a 100 miles from the Canadian border. Best of luck to ya!

"Build her hell for stout, "pretty" always takes care of herself". ... Charlie Settlemeyer

 

[bird_is_the_word]

OK, I'm back at it and trying to reach the goal line. My last update I said I got the siding finished and some soffit boards up. Here's the pics.

Now, I changed my mind mid build... imagine that. the more I thought about the floor entrance the more I thought that I didn't have a good way of closing up shop for the night. I'd rather keep it simple and that required a change in plans. I've decided to turn the hole in the floor into a poop chute or something like that. My idea is to push all the old shavings and mess to the rear corner and put a bucket underneath to catch it all.

So now that this changed I had to build a door with an exit for the birds.

This will allow me to get in there to monkey around with the birds and change the feed and water. I still need to build a smaller door for them to come into that I can close but that's small potatos at this point. The front window also got changed slightly. I'm so used to tight tolerances when I work with metal I sometimes carry those across to wood. that doesn't always translate. because I made the tolerances so tight I was unable to fit the window into the original frame. so my FIL came up with a pretty good idea. check it out.

I can still open it and let the air in when needed

so my plan still happened it just took a little approach to get it done.

 

[Rivulet]

Quote:
It looks great! I wish that my hobbies would translate to working well with wood, as your metalworking seems to have done. Me, I crochet - having a coop made of yarn doesn't sound like it'd work all that well!

 

[bird_is_the_word]

I did a little painting while I was at it and my back was recovering. the inside is now painted and I half covered the nest boxes. The reason being because the flat paint I'm using marks up real easy and I want to make sure to have everything finished construction wise before I put the final coat on there.

Now I had a cool idea for the nest boxes but the reality is that I couldn't make it happen. In the beginning I had big plans for slide options that would use drawer tracks. Well, once I got past that I figured I could still try and make something cool. Since I made the next boxes already I couldn't go the typical route and make the top shingles the lid so I went with a side opening option. The boxes are supposed to be made to look like a solid unit but open downward creating a table to place a basket or small bucket to collect eggs, change out litter or whatever. yeah, it's not so trick but after my original plans didn't work out I made lemonade out of lemons.

now the reason it doesn't sit flush is because I haven't installed the latch yet. Also the table portion hasn't had the chain attached yet. these are small details that I will finish later but you get the idea.

lastly, I put the vents on the upper openings.

tonight I started putting the shingles on the roof. My dad had a stack behind his shed so I took them. problem is that I ran out at the very top

yes, 2 rows from glory and I ran out. so tomorrow my FIL is going to go try to find 10 shingles that we can use to finish the roof off.

I'd say from this point out it'll be pretty piddly stuff on updates so I may just wait till the end. This means after paint and everything. In the meantime I have a lead on some chicks that I might pick up this weekend. I figure I'll have time to raise them up before I have to introduce them into the coop. wish me luck

 

[wolfandfinch]

looks great!