My wife's new house....

[ALLBEEF]

We have always had chickens or goats or hogs or....well...you get the idea.....but we have never had a decent area to keep them. My wife is getting into being all self-sufficient and all....so she decided I needed to build her a chicken house so we could get a few chickens to eat and have our own eggs.
We looked and looked at different coops and finally put several together to come up with our own design. An 8 x 8 with a simple slant roof with several nest boxes in the front, and small window in the front, I will build my own door on the left side and have a chicken door on the right side out to the run.We will use cypress board & batten for siding. We figured up most of our materials and made some purchases.
So far this is what I have in it.

Framing materials- 2x4s, plywood floor, nails...etc - $325.00
Cypress siding - $350
metal top - $70

I'm pretty sure I'll have some left overs....but it won't be much......

I set my floor one day...the next day the walls went up....then it was a few days with church, baseball practice, work and of course turkey hunting...before I could get back on it. Then I braced up everything and built the nest boxes yesterday.....I'll post a couple of pics....which dont include the nest boxes yet....since it was dark when I got them done last night.

I'll post more pics as everything comes together.

 

[drpurl]

Very nice!

 

[ALLBEEF]

I haven't been able to work on the house much in the last few days......had rain coming and had to help bro-n-law bale wheat straw and combine rye......anyway...I did get the nest boxes in on Thursday of last week and a little of the siding up.....hope to finish this week with the roof and siding!! Oh yeah....and the kids got ahold of my tape measure...

 

[PDXcluck]

The tape measure has seen better days

 

[drpurl]

Nice start!

 

[ALLBEEF]

The tape measure has seen better days

For sure....I've got a 6yr old helper and a 2yr old helper.....and between those two...I spend more time hunting my tools than working!!

 

[PDXcluck]

I've got a 2 year old helper and 10 month old 'helper'. The 2 year old usually helps by making sure all the screws and nails are organized, she accomplishes this by dumping them out so that I have to re-organize them, thus assuring they are freshly organized!

The 10 month old helps by keeping me in shape and helping me hone my multi-tasking abilities. She keeps me in shape because I am constantly running after her (she crawls FAST) to make sure the gravel and dirt don't make it past her mouth (I can usually keep her from swallowing any of it, I have given up trying to keep her from putting it in her mouth!). She helps my multi-tasking because building a coop and watching to make sure aforementioned gravel and rocks aren't consumed definitely takes attention in at least two directions at once.

Tip: I have found that giving the 2 yr old a piece of wood with a couple bolts sticking out of and the corresponding nuts and ratchet keeps her busy for awhile. I will also get a bunch of nails started on a scrap board and give her the hammer...this at least decreases the number of times I have to re-organize the nails and screws in a day

Best of luck with the rest of your build!

 

[ALLBEEF]

Sounds like you got it figured out! My grandparents always said that every kid has to eat so much dirt before growing up. With our first child...she's 12....we wouldn't hardly put her down inside...much less out side...but after #2 and # 3.....as long as I've got the keys out of the truck and in my pocket....we just letm run wild! lol

 

[AlicesSilkies]

This is FAB!!! I'm sure your chickens are very excited!!! I know mine would be VERY jelous!!

 

[Vickilynn45]

Looks just like ours- 8x8 and I can't wait till it's finished!!