Smellsey
In the Brooder
What started out as a venture in repurposing an old shed on our property has turned into a really nice chicken run and coop. I’m so excited with the final product!
We started by breaking down and old shed that was located outside of the fenced portion of our yard, with hopes of rebuilding inside of the fence. Once we took the shed apart, it was clear that most of the wood was rotten and we’d only have enough to build the run.
So we got to work building the run and planning out a coop, which went through several stages of design. We started thinking about buying a used shed, with not much available locally. Then we worked through the metal shed idea, and the worry about heat and moisture ended up swaying me away from that. We priced out building one ourselves, with little building experience, and found that the cost would be about $600 in materials. I ended up finding a nice family in Pasadena, Maryland who builds coops for about the same price as building our own. We decided to purchase one from them since we never find that we have an abundance of time, and we were questioning our building skills. So here is the final product! We're so excited about the run that we built, as well as the coop that was just delivered yesterday.
The coop has predator proof hardware, ventilation, and sealed flooring. I'm really impressed with how it was built, especially for the price and comparing that to other coops we've seen locally. We've buried the chicken wire into the ground and also extended an apron of wire into the yard, so I think our chickens will be pretty secure. Even our 5 year old helped!
Now we're working on feeder locations, perches, and other details while our girls grow their feathers.
We started by breaking down and old shed that was located outside of the fenced portion of our yard, with hopes of rebuilding inside of the fence. Once we took the shed apart, it was clear that most of the wood was rotten and we’d only have enough to build the run.
So we got to work building the run and planning out a coop, which went through several stages of design. We started thinking about buying a used shed, with not much available locally. Then we worked through the metal shed idea, and the worry about heat and moisture ended up swaying me away from that. We priced out building one ourselves, with little building experience, and found that the cost would be about $600 in materials. I ended up finding a nice family in Pasadena, Maryland who builds coops for about the same price as building our own. We decided to purchase one from them since we never find that we have an abundance of time, and we were questioning our building skills. So here is the final product! We're so excited about the run that we built, as well as the coop that was just delivered yesterday.
The coop has predator proof hardware, ventilation, and sealed flooring. I'm really impressed with how it was built, especially for the price and comparing that to other coops we've seen locally. We've buried the chicken wire into the ground and also extended an apron of wire into the yard, so I think our chickens will be pretty secure. Even our 5 year old helped!
Now we're working on feeder locations, perches, and other details while our girls grow their feathers.
