Some really good friend came out today to help us out with our coop. One is a construction worker who builds houses for a living, so it was great to have him help us out. Him and my husband got it pretty much all framed up today. We need to shingle the roof and figure out where we want windows. I think for the windows we're just going to cut out holes in the plywood, put hardware cloth behind them, and then hinge the plywood. (Sort of like this one.) I can put weather stripping around it in the winter if needed. We were going to go with an open-air coop, but after lots of reading and tons of help from Pat here and Elmo, we decided to go for a more traditional style with lots of ventilation. If we ever need to build another coop I'd like to do a longer/narrower one and try an open-air one, but for this we were limited on the size by what was already there as the base.
We started with an old, dilapidated greenhouse. We were going to keep the framing, but it quickly became obvious it was rotten (we could pull off chunks with our hands), so basically we just used it for the nice sturdy base.
In one day we got from that to this:
It was really neat to see it basically take form right before my eyes. The overhang on the roof isn't going to be as much as we were hoping, because we had miscalculated the length of 2x4 we needed and by the time our construction friend realized it we were all tired and the store was closed. I think it will still be okay though, especially if we do the windows the same as the picture above as the window will still be protected. The front and back overhang will be around a foot still. There is a space between the roof and the walls and we'll put hardware cloth there for ventilation, and we're also going to put a vent on the roof. We'll probably have two windows on either side of the door, and then a long window on each long side of the coop, all of which could open and close. I'm thinking we'll use plexiglass for all the windows so even when it's closed up in winter they'll still get lots of light. We don't get too cold, so in the winter I'm going to see if we can get away with keeping one or both of the front windows open except in really cold or windy weather. I'm debating putting hardware cloth in the front above the door instead of plywood, but that might be too much.
I was just planning on staining it, but with construction grade lumber and the garden ties around the bottom, I think I will paint it instead. I love the red and white coops, though it doesn't really match our house. I might go with dark brown or something, or do something different for the ties and walls. I can't wait for it to be done now!
Anyway, I love looking at the coops in progress so I thought I'd share.
Maybe I'll go figure out how to make a BYC page. If anyone sees anything (in the pictures or my description) that stands out as a really good idea or a really bad idea, please do point it out while we still can probably fix things pretty easily. I'm hoping they're able to come back again to help out with the roof next weekend. Our brooder is about 10-12 square feet, but has eight chickens in it (two of which are 9 weeks old). I'm ready for the older two at least to be outside, and I think they are too.
(Though I doubt I will be able to sleep the first night they are out there!)
We started with an old, dilapidated greenhouse. We were going to keep the framing, but it quickly became obvious it was rotten (we could pull off chunks with our hands), so basically we just used it for the nice sturdy base.
In one day we got from that to this:
It was really neat to see it basically take form right before my eyes. The overhang on the roof isn't going to be as much as we were hoping, because we had miscalculated the length of 2x4 we needed and by the time our construction friend realized it we were all tired and the store was closed. I think it will still be okay though, especially if we do the windows the same as the picture above as the window will still be protected. The front and back overhang will be around a foot still. There is a space between the roof and the walls and we'll put hardware cloth there for ventilation, and we're also going to put a vent on the roof. We'll probably have two windows on either side of the door, and then a long window on each long side of the coop, all of which could open and close. I'm thinking we'll use plexiglass for all the windows so even when it's closed up in winter they'll still get lots of light. We don't get too cold, so in the winter I'm going to see if we can get away with keeping one or both of the front windows open except in really cold or windy weather. I'm debating putting hardware cloth in the front above the door instead of plywood, but that might be too much.
I was just planning on staining it, but with construction grade lumber and the garden ties around the bottom, I think I will paint it instead. I love the red and white coops, though it doesn't really match our house. I might go with dark brown or something, or do something different for the ties and walls. I can't wait for it to be done now!
Anyway, I love looking at the coops in progress so I thought I'd share.
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