Old Wooden Playhouse Coop Conversion in Progress- Picture Heavy and more to come!

[TXchickmum]

Amazing!!! -what a beautiful coop!

 

[HouseMouseHens]

Today we built the beginnings of the chicken run! The whole left side will have a corrugated tin roof that slopes down to share a gutter with the coop roof (leading to a wine-barrel rainwater collection system), and the right side will have about three feet covered with the remaining 5 feet without a roof to allow for rainfall to reach the grass that will be planted in grazing frames at that end. The section in the front with the board straight across is the door frame (the board was just there to stabilize it while we set the concrete for the posts) and were using a cool old door we found in the attic of the garage(Seen below being used as a lean-to for sleeping by our lazy Aussie.)







We're covering the bottom two feet of the run with boards to keep predators(raccoons and such) from reaching in and grabbing a chicken. The fencing will go all the way up to the roof and there will also be fencing on the roof slant where there won't be an actual roof.







This somewhat gives an idea of how it will eventually all look. The left roof slant on the run will go all the way down and meet the coop roof slant. The patio in the foreground is also a work in progress, and we're picking up a yard of free sand tomorrow to fill the the cracks once we get the bricks all laid down. There will also be a brick pathway from the patio to the coop and another to the door of the run.



We're spending the day tomorrow working on it and will hopefully (fingers crossed!) have it done...
We're getting there!!

 

[Erin~TheChickenLover]

Looks good! I love the shape of the coop and run. Attractive and practical.

 

[cknkids]

You'll have your own little peace of tranquility when it's complete. Hang in there it's worth it!!!

 

[HouseMouseHens]

Man, we got SO much done today! We didn't finish the entire thing like we had hoped, but it's SO close to done now! All we really have left to do is the rest of the fencing up to the top, to put on the roof (though it's a 1/4 of the way on, just not in these pictures), painting the entire run, and to get our rainwater collection barrel put in. Still sounds like a lot, but I think one more weekend will do it!

It has a door! We think we may paint it green like the coop...


The start of the fencing.


And once we got the bottom two feet of boards (instead of hardware cloth since we already had boards.)


The girls having tier first chance to explore thier new space. They LOVED it! They can't be in it without us there though since its not done..



And they all tri

 

[chicken pickin]

This project is absolutely fantastic. I love the style of the house and the run. Id love to have something like this in my back yard. You all did great making something so beautiful.

 

[ChickyBangBang]

I think all of them sitting on the trackboard (or whatever it's called) is a very good indication of their opinion - those chickybabies really like their new home!! I often wonder if chickens and other animals realize what you do for them in order to advance their care or make their lives better. Then I think well, even if they don't - you do! You did and are still doing a FAB job on this project and I want to do one just like it. lol

Any plans to put your creation into a plan/manual for other builders to emulate?

 

[HouseMouseHens]

I think all of them sitting on the trackboard (or whatever it's called) is a very good indication of their opinion - those chickybabies really like their new home!! I often wonder if chickens and other animals realize what you do for them in order to advance their care or make their lives better. Then I think well, even if they don't - you do! You did and are still doing a FAB job on this project and I want to do one just like it. lol

Any plans to put your creation into a plan/manual for other builders to emulate?

Awww, thanks! They really seem to like it too! I would hope so since they went from a 4x4 brooder that was only a foot tall (no flying room) to this in a few days time! They just moved into the coop less than a week ago, and now they have a run too! Though, it wont get finished till this weekend so they don' get very much time in it.

As far as plans, I don't think making plans are even possible for this, since we just kinda flew by the seat of our pants with it. Every time we planned something a certain way, the something would come up and we'd have to totally change our plans. Most of the structure of the coop was already there, we just added stuff (A LOT of stuff, haha!) and the run just became the shape it is because of the lengths of wood we had. Since we are using all reclaimed materials, a lot of which is warped wood with previous holes and weird lengths) we're just kind of going along for the ride. Haha!

 

[Pharm Girl]

Amazing job! The wood around the bottom of the run is going to be SO much better than hardware cloth anyway because the rain splashes into the coop from all sides. Wish I had thought of that! What are you going to do where the two roofs meet? There will be a lot of water heading the same direction. How will you keep it out of the run?

 

[HouseMouseHens]

Amazing job! The wood around the bottom of the run is going to be SO much better than hardware cloth anyway because the rain splashes into the coop from all sides. Wish I had thought of that! What are you going to do where the two roofs meet? There will be a lot of water heading the same direction. How will you keep it out of the run?

Yeah, our backyard is all dirt and may be for a while, so the wood will definitely help with the mud factor. We're lining 3/4 of the run with gravel and sand so that will help too. Where the roof ends meet we have a deep gutter installed that will catch both roofs rain and send it straight into a rainbarrel that well use to water the chickens and the lawn whenever we put it in. We plan to have annoverflow on the rain barrel too just in case.