Need Help with Temporary-Ish Coop Design

[GreyhoundGuy]

Hi all. I'm looking for some advice on a quick and easy coop.

We started with our hens a bit over a year. It's been a tough bit, as we've lost three. We lost two to a hawk a few months ago, and we just lost a gal to heat exhaustion a couple weekends ago. (That one was tough, as it was our daughter's chicken. ) We only have two gals left.

There's a person on Nextdoor that is giving away five hens, all of which he says are healthy and happy girls. We are first in line and are going to see them on Saturday morning. If we'd like all five, we can have that opportunity. We'd LOVE to have more girls in our flock, but we want to make sure we have a place for them.

The coop / run we have now will need to be replaced. It was tight when we had our five original hens, so we know it won't be able to hold seven. We picked up a cedar run and framed together a "tunnel" that links the two together so that the girls can have more wiggle room. They can stay under their coop in the original run, or walk through the tunnel into the extra run. BUT for seven hens, it's just not realistic.

So... what can I put together for a fairly quick design that will accommodate seven hens AND be able to be integrated into a future design, but yet be quick enough for me to put together on Saturday and have ready for the new hens as a quarantine area. (I'm assuming I'll need to quarantine, yes?)

I'm thinking of 4x8 sheets of plywood for a base and top to a coop, as well as 4x8 plywood for the side walls (with 4x4 plywood for the ends). I'm thinking of raising this up on 4x4 posts, most likely 2 or 3 feet off the ground. I'd attach a 10 or 12 foot run off the end so that they have some place to wander, but still stay safe while they acclimate to us. Hardware cloth or chicken wire all around, I'm sure.

So... if this was you, is this the route you'd take, or would you go another way? We don't have a lot of money to make a brand new coop like we want, but I'm hoping to take the materials from this quick-and-easy coop and use it in the future coop.

Okay, enough babbling. Let me know your thoughts.

Thanks all. You're fantastic!!

-Joel

 

[pallas]

sounds like a good plan, make sure you have some type of window covered with probably hard ware cloth for ventilation and make sure you can get in to clean it. good luck with the new hens!

 

[cholland]

My first coop was a 4x8 like you describe. It took me more than one day though.
If I needed something quick I might build a cattle panel hoop coop. I built a hoop run in a day before. Something with a coop might take two days. 8x8 or 8x12, then run a couple of 2x4s across about two feet high and put a trimmed down 4x8 plywood down for a floor. It will be a little shorter than 8 feet. Then enclose that with plywood on the back and a tarp roof, or corrugated roof panels if you want to spend a little more.
Would make a nice temp coop/tractor.

 

[Chad Oftedal]

Sorry to hear about your losses. That's tough.

You've got a lot of really good questions, and you're doing the right thing by thinking this through ahead of time, though it sounds like you're going to be busy with a tight schedule!

OK, a couple things come to mind.

Can you provide a picture of the space that you have planned for the chickens? That might help folks give ideas for a quick build.

Regarding the 5 chickens you're going to go see. Do you know what breed they are? I only like to see the good in people, but you want to make sure that they are of a breed that still has some laying years ahead of them. Certain breeds will lay longer than others. People who don't have the best intentions will sort of slide off hens that are on the tail end of their laying to unsuspecting folks. I've seen this in Craigslist and other ads. I myself found one ad and just for fun researched the breed. I discovered that they only laid about two years, and that happened to be the age of the hens he was giving away. Anyway, I encourage you to share if you know - or find out if you don't - what breed the hens are that they're giving away. I'd really hate for you to go to all this work to get 5 hens that are done laying, or nearly done. The other slight flag is that they are giving them away. A good hen of laying age is worth some money. Again, I hope they are nice, genuine people who are treating you right, but I just encourage you to make sure you're not on the receiving end of a raw deal.

Now, for the coop, I haven't built one myself of the Hoop Coop style, but from my reading and researching here, I understand that they are pretty quick to put up. If it were me, I'd give that style a bit of research. I understand cattle panels can be used, and it can come together pretty quickly. Hopefully, with the space that you have, that might be a good option.

Oh, and yes, quarantine is always a good idea. Perhaps the new coop you put together could hold the new five, and the existing setup you have could hold your current two until it is safe to slowly integrate them.

I'm sure others will share some advice here. It sounds like you have an exciting weekend ahead of you! Keep us updated on what you find out.

 

[rosemarythyme]

First off, chicken wire is NOT predator proof, so whatever build you end up going with, scratch that from your plans.

I think a hoop coop would be a cost efficient and quick way to go, given when others on this forum have had to say about them.

As far as quarantine, if your yard isn't set up for a true quarantine (and since you're dealing with a small backyard flock), I wouldn't bother. A medical quarantine would have the setups be a minimum distance apart (150 ft? probably more?) plus you'd need to wash hands and switch out shoes and clothes between going into each area and do this for a month, maybe 6 weeks? I'm sure all those numbers are off but I know it's not feasible for most people to pull off in a backyard. Rather than a strict medical quarantine what I would shoot for is to use that time period to introduce the birds to each other (see but don't touch) so that at the end of a few weeks you can allow them to start mingling with hopefully little fuss.