New coop for 20 chickens

[cheryl98117]

Ok starting a thread to post my coop progress.

This is the building that will house the chickens.

You can see that in front of the house is a large rasberry bush. Would it be better to remove the bush or leave it for the girls?

The house itself is aprox. 22', the storage area at the end is about 13'. There are two rooms inside the house. We are contemplating building the coop off the front of the house, instead of actually converting one side of the house into a coop.

The 6 11x4' trusses will be attached to the overhang of the roof, the length of the house will be roofed off, and the shed end we will have bird netting on top to keep the hawks and eagles out.

We have 8 treated, 8' 4x4's that will be placed 8-10' apart, with 8' tall, 2x3" no climb fencing burried in the ground at least a foot deep. The windows on the house will be covered in chicken wire, "If the windows were not going to be in the fully enclosed run then I would use hardware cloth."

I need to figure out how to keep the birds from going under the house, as it is sitting on skids and has about an 8" gap from the floor to the ground.
Any ideas?

If we do not use the inside of the house for the coop, we will build a 10'x10'x7' coop, off the front to the right of the main door. The door that is seen in the picture will be the entrance into the run," though I am sure that we will want a gate somewhere in the run, to make cleaning out easier." There is a door not seen on the side of the house that will be used as access through the house to the run.

Sorry this is such a scattered thought process. We have the run figured out, and have ideas for the coop itself. Would a 10'x10' "may go larger" coop be large enough for 20 birds?

I will post more as we get more actual work done. And yes I will post pictures of our progress.


LOL, For us nothing is set in stone until it is literally set in stone, or in our case set in concrete.

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
I'd just close off those gaps with wire, with some cinderblocks holding the wire down apron-fashion so that dustbathers do not dig down and then find themselves accidentally coming up on the wrong side of the wire.

Would a 10'x10' "may go larger" coop be large enough for 20 birds?

It would give them 5 sq ft per chicken, which is roomier than most BYCers' coops. If you're in a very nasty-winter climate you might be well served by more space, but, certainly you wouldn't be massively overcrowded with 10x10.

Have fun,

Pat​

 

[cheryl98117]

We have mild winters, it "may" get down to 15 degrees at the coldest. Our summers are also quite mild. I would prefer to make it a bit larger than needed to give the girls space without having any problems, that and I never know when more birds will be brought home.

My entire family has the chicken bug. lol

Thank you for the cynder block idea, I would emagine that would work quite well.

 

[cheryl98117]

Ok, so we decided to remove the bush, and build the coop off of the front of the house.

Today we put all the 4x4's 2 feet in the ground, so our run will be 6' high. We only used 5 instead of all 8. We marked where all the trusses will be attached to the roof. Also we were able to find more material for the coop itself.

Tomorrow I cut down the bush, start framing the floor, poor cement around the corner posts, tack up wire over the windows, build the nest boxes, and if all goes well we may start framing the walls.

Personaly I would like to have this project completed in 2 weeks, but my help is lazy and/or limited. lol I went so far as to tell my mothers fiance to sit in a chair, point and tell me what to do, well at least on single person jobs, he will have to get off his butt and help on two person jobs.

I will post pictures tomorrow after I have more acomplished.