Need to build a coop/run. Looking for help

[PirateGirl]

With that many chickens if you are looking for easy solutions I'd propose a middle of the road approach. Consider purchasing a pre-fab shed, or a shed kit (depending how much building you'd like to do yourself) and modify it to become a chicken coop. Some of the construction and planning will already be done for you and this will save you time, but by modifying a shed vs. buying a large coop you will save some money.

 

[lazy gardener]

What JT says. I'm in Maine, my first coop was 8 x 8 hoop coop, which I later added a 4 x 8 extension to. The framing I used was similar to the below example with a center ridge pole. The first winter, I was out shoveling snow off it with every storm. Since building my new coop (standard stick built construction with steep roof pitch) I have not been removing snow from the old hoop coop or my green house, and they have held up just fine to all the snow that this winter has dished out. The design of the coop makes it such that lateral compression counteracts the top snow load, so the structure can be completely buried, and still not collapse. However, I'd not consider building one in snow country without good triangulation on end walls and a good solid ridge pole.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/permanent-hoop-coop-guide.47818/

 

[Blooie]

Aren't there like 3 layers of stuff over the panels...do you have a build thread or article?

If you call the dreaded "chicken wire" we used reinforcement I guess we did. It's just the cattle panels wired to steel fence posts pounded into the ground. We covered it with chicken wire to deter overhead predators and wild birds and squirrels, and then we put a hardware cloth around the bottom and up the sides a bit. But there is no framing of any kind supporting the cattle panels. The panels support themselves with their own outward pressure against the fence posts.

In winter there is vinyl lattice over the top which is to act like a "spacer" to protect the plastic from the chicken wire pokey outies. In summer we just used landscape fabric for shade. I have a coop build page, and the run construction starts about halfway down. At one point we went to reflective tarps for shade, and early in the year we thought we liked that. But when it got really hot, real summer, we realized how much heat they held in at the top and went back to the landscape fabric.

 

[aart]

The panels support themselves with their own outward pressure against the fence posts.

I have an 8 x 8 cattle panel hoop with just a tarp, no internal framing except the ends, the snow laad will bow it down and out.
Having other stuff attached, even chicken wire and lattice, can stiffen/truss it to help hold up the snow.

 

[Blooie]

That could well be. It probably helps some. But we also have a hoops of cattle panels attached to fence posts in the same exact way, and they are wide open with no chicken wire, no lattice panels...no nuffin', and they don't budge either. We use them in summer to support plants in the garden. The fact that they'd been free-standing and strong for over 10 years is what gave us the idea to use them for the run.

 

[aart]

That could well be. It probably helps some. But we also have a hoops of cattle panels attached to fence posts in the same exact way, and they are wide open with no chicken wire, no lattice panels...no nuffin', and they don't budge either. We use them in summer to support plants in the garden. The fact that they'd been free-standing and strong for over 10 years is what gave us the idea to use them for the run.

Are they cattle panels or hog panels or....there's several different configurations, opening are very different sizes.

 

[Blooie]

Ooh, that's a good point, @aart! The ones we use I believe are cattle panels - the taller of the two and uniform size in wire spacing top to bottom, without the narrow part that widens as the panel goes up. (or down, depending on your perspective!)