Over engineering a chicken coop

[yukotx]

So I always tell my husband when he builds something that he over engineers things - well I guess I will have to quit now. Yesterday we were hit with really high winds and our chicken coop was picked up and thrown about 40 ft. Once the rain let up enough to go out without too much danger I went to see if I had lost my chickens - all 12 are a bit spooked after the ride in the coop but they all lived! My black chicken was laying under the corner of the toppled shed and my first thought was the wicked witch of the West but as soon as I tried to get her she ran like crazy. Where the coop landed there was a 40' morgan building there - its wrapped in a tree on the property (not ours)

 

[KarynVA]

Wow, that's awful but glad to hear the happy ending! Guess your husband's engineering tendencies paid off!

 

[yukotx]

Wow, that's awful but glad to hear the happy ending! Guess your husband's engineering tendencies paid off!

Thats for sure - will have to replace the roof but the coop itself is still square.

 

[Folly's place]

It never hurts to overbuild!
Glad you are all okay too, and a wild trip for your chickens!
Mary

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Now, go out to your local hardware store, invest a pair of $20s in a tie down kit.

Or dig some holes, put some cinder blocks in them, run some steel cable or chain thru them, then over the hen house, and fill the holes in.

Personally, i prefer the augur earth anchors, but you use what you got.


congrats on the successful test of build.

 

[Finnie]

To tie down our shed building, we rented an auger and drilled holes at all 4 corners. We bought lengths of heavy chain and 4 long bolts and some washers and nuts. We bolted the bolts to the ends of the chains, put the bolt flat in the bottom of the hole, held the chain upright in the center of the hole, while we poured concrete into the hole, and bolted the top end of the chain to the foundation of the shed.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

^^^ also a good and respectable way.

Tips include

"use the largest washer you can for the bolt you have chosen. Or double washers if necessary to increase concrete bearing surface."

"make your hole wider at the bottom then the top, to maximize the weight of earth helping to hold things down"

and

"galvanized lasts longer"

Finally, "vertical attachment thru the sill plate - with washers - is superior to horizontal attachment by screw"

But if you have water on property, the old concrete and lag bolt anchor is a superior method to the cinder block method.

 

[Mamatomany123]

Oh man, that's why we screwed ours into concrete. We have had some crazy winds but the coop didnt even shake.

 

[3KillerBs]

Wow!

Good job on the build.

 

[yukotx]

We did have the coop on 3ft 4x4s buried 2 ft deep and the wind pulled them right out of the ground. We were planning to rebuild the coop in a new area of the yard next year but looks like we will be doing it sooner than later