Our Cadillac Coope Deville [Warning: 39 Pics]

[AlienChick]

Very nice!

 

[kichohana]

nice coop. love the stained color on the wood. would like to note, and correct me if i'm wrong, that it appears your hardware cloth is just stapled on the outside of your framing. i would take a few screws put through washers and screw that hardware cloth down about every 8-10 inches. a determined predator could pull that stapled hardware cloth right off. security is supreme!

your coop flooring is osb? make sure you cover it with a few coats of paint or some type of flooring (sheet vinyl) to make it easier to keep clean. my flooring is vinyl covered in about 4" pine shavings for easy cleaning. if your birds just poop all over that osb it's going to rot out on you eventually. check out mine on my byc page.

what is the overall size of your coop? it doesn't appear to be very large yet you are going to have 8-9 chickens in there? the standard requirements are 4 square feet per bird inside coop space, and 10 square feet per bird for outside run space. they also need about a foot each for roosting space in the coop at night. the wooden dowels you have are not going to be easy for them to balance on. a 2x4 turned wide side up is much better, easier for them to grip and sit on at night. also a round dowel leaves their toes exposed which can be a problem for frostbite in the winter.

good luck on your chicken adventure! you may want to start building an addition pretty soon. study your "chicken math" and you'll know what i mean.

 

[CorporateGranola]

Quote:
RE: Staples
Those are poultry staples that have been hammered into the wood, not from a staple gun. They are a lot stronger than they look. Also, our entire yard is bordered by a 6 foot privacy fence, and my bedroom window is literally 15 feet from the coop, so I can get to them quickly if the girls start raising a ruckus.
RE: OSB flooring
There is going to be about 4" of bedding material in the henhouse, so the girls won't be pooping directly onto the OSB. However, I like your sheet vinyl idea to make cleaning easier [and prevent rot]

Quote:
10 feet wide / 6(ish) feet tall / 5 feet deep. I agree we might need some more roosting space, but since we have so many smallish birds we wanted to start small and add more as necessary.

Quote:
we thought about using 2x4s, but because of the bantys we thought their small toes might be too small to grip. I was planning on "roughing up" the surface on the dowels to give the chicks a bit more traction. Thoughts?

Quote:
Thank you so much for your suggestions. I'm definitely willing and eager to learn from the work others have put into this hobby - best wishes!

-=CG=-

 

[CorporateGranola]

Quote:
RE: Cost
Sorry I skimmed over your post originally and missed the cost question. The trip to the lumberyard cost us about $700 in wood and supplies. We overbought by a bit though, so we ended up returning ~$50-75 worth of extra stuff. The "downside" is I needed to buy some power tools [/mangrunt!] so I could complete this project without pulling my hair out.

EDIT:
These are my twin nieces who are SOOO excited about the chicks - they went exploring the coop today and climbed into the laying boxes. Too cute!

 

[crazyhorse2098]

I only have 2 things to say...BEAUTIFUL!!! And When can you come to my house and build ME one????? LOL!!!!