Octagon coop I just finished

[stlmick83]

I built a chicken coop for my mom this year. Its on top of an old cistern. My brother bought a bunch of pullets that were on sale for 99cents because they were too old and jumping out of their tub.

I dunno how many pictures I can post so I'll keep it limited. The first challenge was that the foundation was not a perfect octagon, so I had to find the right length to be symmetrical and still fit on the irregular shape.

I made it 3ft tall so I could use a roll of 3'×25' wire. Cut the length of the trusses so I could get exactly 2 boards out of one 2×3. The $2 liquid nails "projects" is worthless. Buy the construction stuff.

after staining the pine with Thompsons water seal cedar color

I put half inch OSB on for a roof. Stained it and left it that way until it started to flake apart a bit and my mom started complaining about it.

Build some nest boxes and painted them with what was convienent.

Put the top box shelf a little high, so that's my brother adjusting it to his liking

Nest box opens from the back. One tray on top and 3 small ones on the bottom. No particular reason. Today, they laid them all in the bottom right one and left side of the top tray. That was before lowering the shelf. Will see if that helps. MY brother says they tend to walk on and bother the laying hens, so maybe more dividing is needed.

 

[stlmick83]

that post worked, so here's using a retread er to tap holes drilled in a bucket to thread water nipples in. It

works great.
Here's some chickens getting in the way

here's the brown chicken that got paint on it. SHE was not on sale, but worth all 3 dollars. She is not as easily picked up as the others.

that's how many 2×3s you can fit in an 86 camry

that is a chicken on the roost. There are 19 total I believe. Two turned out to be roosters, which is plenty.

 

[Flock Master64]

It looks amazing!