Perkolator's Modern Chicken Estate 2019

perkolator

Songster
Aug 20, 2019
804
2,116
246
Placer County, CA
My Coop
My Coop
I've only been a chicken owner for under 2yrs and my Summer project this year was to build a new chicken coop to replace the one that the previous home owners built decades ago. I'd never really fabricated anything this big from scratch before and I did it all on weekends by myself, so 4 months later it's still not quite finished but close enough that the 17 new tenants will be moving in before the end of the month - so I figure it's done enough to start showing it here!

It all started with last year's discovery of a nice stack of corrugated roof panels stashed away behind the shop at my inlaws place, waiting to be used again in a future project - FREE metal roof for my new future chicken coop, yeah!!! Guess I should start planning something.....

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I looked at A LOT of chicken coop designs over the past year, mentally noting some awesome features I've seen and then sketching out a few things here and there. When I finally got serious about actually making something I consulted with my wife to get her take on preferred aesthetics. We are both fans of modern home design and also fans of "sea ranch" houses like those we've admired when vacationing on the coast here in NorCal, so I suppose the resulting design goes toward that aesthetic.

Had a rough idea of what I wanted and did make some sketches but I never drew up any actual plans because that's just not how I tend to work unless I have to, lol. I knew for sure there were a few mandatory things: ultra secure to keep out predators since it was going to be away from the house and adjacent the 20ac of nothing behind our property; coop floor height had to be tall enough to simply rake out into wheelbarrow; and lastly I wanted a sleek modern design where the nesting boxes weren't protruding from the exterior. I also decided the coop should be similar sized to the existing coop, around 5x8 footprint with a bigger run than the old coop (later I'll be adding more expanded run space). Seemed simple enough, but nothing I build ends up simple, hahahaha

The old coop
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Here's my "Pri-kup truck" in the orchard with materials for the cinder block foundation. Yes, I get a lot of weird looks when people watch me pushing cart loaded full of materials up to a Prius. Jaws almost drop when they see it swallow two dozen 2x4s inside it hehe
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Then I just started digging trenches by hand and laying out blocks so I could get a visual on the footprint....
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To be continued......
 
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Got tired of digging and ran out of cinder blocks anyway, so I got the first section ready to go and just started building something...
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I could likely have skipped making the full perimeter in cinder block, but I like the look. Also I suppose an extra hundred bucks in materials is part of the investment since my kids are probably going to eat a lot of eggs as they grow up and I also might as well do it right the first time. Anyways, I made the wood structure bolt onto the foundation so it could be lifted off if ever need be. The block is minimally mortared together so it could be more easily removed in future too. The old coop has the bottom of the whole run’s fencing set in a concrete footing, that’s gonna be a fun demo project with no tractor

The next weekend I got a little more framing done. Likely not up to any engineering code, but for a chicken coop I think it will hold just fine. The weird wall framing is for a reason
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The next weekend I started getting it sheeted. The bottom box is storage space for feed and supplies. The front and side will open up for maintenance. Nesting boxes will also be in front. Now the weird framing may make sense, it’s a horizontal “window” thingy
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Started getting the front door-in-a-door figured out for accessing nest boxes
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Only three nesting boxes seemed too few so I made three more underneath accessible from the run
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Mixed up all the leftover buckets of exterior paint that was left in the shed - Not my favorite color but works fine for a primer. Wife ended up picking up some new gray paint for the exposed areas
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The next weekend I got a lot more done and started getting the cedar cladding installed so I could mount my doors since I wanted the hinges exposed
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Didn't get anything done for a few weekends and then finally got time over Labor day weekend to slap on a couple roof panels on and started putting up hardware cloth on the run. Really starting to take shape now
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Finished up the hardware cloth and roof
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Couple shots of the interior. This is my side access door with a removable barrier to hold in the deep bedding. Made some hinged flaps to block off the windows a bit, they'll be on a pulley system to open/close
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Last weekend I discovered a mole/gopher already decided to try and tunnel in....so I shoveled out a couple wheelbarrows of dirt and then put down hardware cloth on the ground. I put some galvanized stakes but going to put a few inches of dirt to hold it all down and then later it will get mulch/leaves/hay/shavings or something put on top. I don't think anything's getting in now, unless it can fit through the 1/2" hardware cloth because that's the biggest gap anywhere on the whole structure.
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