Our Coop Trials & Tribulations..

[4theloveofhens]

Love the storage idea. Now I am on to revise my coop design yet again!

 

[NevadaRon]

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That's where I got my panels. I wouldn't use the shingles - it's overkill, especially since you live in So Cal.

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I did both. I used plywood because it's a sturdier base for the fiberglass panels. But I left an opening in the plywood in the center so that there would be a skylight. My chickens are up at dawn...

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Yes, I caulked the seams and around the roof panels and also between the panels where they overlap. I used a roofing caulk that I also got at Lowe's.

 

[kichohana]

looks great - very similar to my set-up. click on my byc page for pictures of our build! may help you "visualize". as we were building what was in my head was not even close to what the Dh had in mind... but it all worked out in the end as we have a safe, secure predator proof coop and run that looks nice in our backyard.

 

[father-clucker]

I might have to visit a few more building supply places as I wasn't horribly impressed with the color/shape (quality) of the Ondura corrugated roofing product at Lowe's.. Most of their panels were pretty beat up looking and had been sitting for quite some time.. I wouldn't mind having the plain old fiberglass versions but am a bit concerned about noise levels when it rains hard.. I would think they'd be REALLY noisy.. Am I off-base on this? Not that it rains super heavy in the So-Cal area but it can at times.. And I'd like to think I'm not contributing to a bunch of deaf chickens..

 

[father-clucker]

Ok.. 3 more days of Coop/Run work done.. The roof is on using TufTex green Corrugated Panels.. The roof framing with sufficient overhangs was 12' long and something around 5' wide.. Just enough for 3 of the 12' panels.. I'll post some pics this evening..

One question.. The roof for the coop -- we've got this single large roof sitting raised above the coop so the top of the coop is completely open right now (the roof is slanted with the high end over the coop and the low end at the far end of the run -- very much like the pics by NevadaRon and Rainierlass but side to side instead of front to back).. I was thinking that we could either put hardware cloth over the top of the coop or a sheet of plywood. There are large vents just below the roof line so ventilation should not be an issue if plywood was put in place.. I'm concerned that using the hardware cloth would be rather cold in the winter when they would effectively be open-air -- but covered from rain,etc.. Where I live it really doesn't get any colder than the low to mid 40's worst case. Right now I'm leaning towards using a sheet of plywood to keep them warmer.. comments?

 

[NevadaRon]

father-clucker it really depends on the breeds you have. But I don't think 40's will be much of a problem cold-wise. What you really need to be concerned with is draftiness and dryness - that's much more important than temperature. I'd go with the hardware cloth if I were you.

 

[father-clucker]

Thanks for the reply.. I was thinking the same thing (that 40's aren't that cold) -- however, we can get some pretty good wind (20+MPH) a handful of times per year and that's more of what I'm concerned about.. We're only about a mile from the beach (Redondo) and the wind will blow through the run and into the entrance of the coop (or roof).. I'll post some photos here in a few minutes..

 

[ShrekDawg]

i think your coop/run looks very nice, the storage idea is brilliant, ill have to use that on my coop(s)... lol

but very nice job on the coop/run and congrats on the new chickens!

 

[father-clucker]

Latest pics here :

Here's the roof structure made of a combination of 2x4's for the outside 'rectangle' and 2x3's to support the wavy roof boards specific to our corrugated roof product.. We had extra 2x3's on hand that made it a bit lighter.. You'll see why in a few pics :

Here's the next pic showing the coop with nest box framing in place (using 1x2) lumber which worked really well IMHO. You'll also notice the upper roof framing to hold up the roof on an angle..

Here's a pic showing the screen door we recycled from a neighbor that was tossing it out.. it's now a repurposed door! Notice that we relocated the kick panel that is normally below your knees and put it up high.. That was because we had to chop some material off the bottom of the door to match out 6' height requirement

This next photo shows the completed roof structure with the TufTex panels installed and ready to go.. My wife, daughter and I were able to carry it over and sit it up on end on the two saw horses that my older son put in place. If I were to guess I'd say that 11'x~5` roof panel weighed in at about 125lb or more.. Not sure exactly.. We were able to tilt it up into place and then lifted it up onto the roof lift above the coop... It was actually easier than I was expecting for something that large!

Here's the finished roof attached.. You can see my daughter in the coop screwing in some of the hurricane tie-downs for the roof system. As you can easily see, there is a huge gap between the top of the coop/run and the roof system due to the style of construction we chose. We will likely use our spare roll of hardware cloth to cover the ceiling area of the entire run.. The coop is another matter as we were discussing earlier -- plywood or hardware cloth. The wind direction almost always blows through the run to where my daughter is sitting in this photo.. I'm a bit concerned about having too much cold air in the winter months or even sometimes in the summer with the 'late night and morning clouds along the coast' (as they used to say on the local news with Dr. George Fischbeck) which can be much cooler than surrounding areas..

 

[NevadaRon]

It looks really great! I'm impressed by how ambitious you all are.

Now that I see it, I think you should definitely put plywood up there. You've got plenty of ventilation already, and, as you say, it just looks like a place for wind and rain to come in.