Roofing?

[Henriettamom919]

I’ve bribed my closest ones with eggs and the HOA people that enforce rules live at the other side of the neighborhood. Plus, I’m not the only one. 3-4 of my neighbors are confirmed secret chicken keepers.

Sounds like y'all need a rebellion rise up! Hunger Games style!

 

[Ridgerunner]

Are the roosts too high? Not in my opinion. Not sure how many chickens you plan to put in there or physical dimensions of that coop. I'm generally in favor of more room on the roosts than the minimum but do you really need the second one? I'm guessing you are feeding and watering outside and you will have external nests.

Cement raisers will work. The way I set my grow-out coop up was to put in four wooden corner posts (treated wood) being careful about horizontal dimensions, cut the tops so they were relatively level, then put horizontal supports at the top of the posts being very careful to level those. Two sides only. Mine was built differently form yours but if you get the horizontal dimensions right your coop can sit over those horizontals. Then screw the short stubs to those horizontals to hold it down in a wind and give it stability. It will take good dimensional control. You already have a floor on it. I would not put another floor as that gap would be a great place for Mommy Mouse to raise a family.

I'm suggesting the two horizontals on top of the posts as an easy way to level it, getting the top of the posts level can be a bear. I think it makes lifting the coop into position a little easier. But if you use dimensional control set your posts without the two horizontals and fit your short stubs inside or outside the posts and screw them together. Either way it should be stable after it is installed.

For the slanted roof, yes something like your photo and colored lines. When it is raining you don't want water running on you when gathering eggs or when doing food and water. You don't want the run-off going into you run either.

When adding on you have to be a bit careful about the thickness of the material you add messing up your dimensions. Its kind of hard to put it into words and I do not have photos. If I were building from scratch I'd do it differently but you are where you are. I think I'd scab on two verticals on the side I was going to take higher. Angle the tops sort of close to the slope you want the roof to have. Unless you are a good carpenter and have the right tools that can be challenging to get it real close so let's work around that. So take a horizontal and screw it to the top of that vertical but tio the inside so the lower part is resting on the frame at the lower end. Then do the same thing with a vertical with sloped cut at the lower end to hold it in place. Do that on both sides and keep the heights as close as you can. This sloped horizontal should be higher than the verticals. That should give you two firmly attached sloped boards to attach your roof. You can then build your roof in place with lots of overhang for good ventilation at the top. When I do it I put hardware cloth on the verticals, not horizontal under the soffits, but either works fine.

I realize I've done a lousy job of explaining it and I don't have any good photos that i think will help you. This is the best I could find, it's my grow-out coop. Good luck!

Edited to add that this is made from a tractor that I changed into a grow-out coop. In some respects not that different from what you are doing, modifying something not built the way I'd do it originally for that purpose. As you can probably tell I did a lot of scabbing on.

 

[southern chooks]

Are the roosts too high? Not in my opinion. Not sure how many chickens you plan to put in there or physical dimensions of that coop. I'm generally in favor of more room on the roosts than the minimum but do you really need the second one? I'm guessing you are feeding and watering outside and you will have external nests.

Cement raisers will work. The way I set my grow-out coop up was to put in four wooden corner posts (treated wood) being careful about horizontal dimensions, cut the tops so they were relatively level, then put horizontal supports at the top of the posts being very careful to level those. Two sides only. Mine was built differently form yours but if you get the horizontal dimensions right your coop can sit over those horizontals. Then screw the short stubs to those horizontals to hold it down in a wind and give it stability. It will take good dimensional control. You already have a floor on it. I would not put another floor as that gap would be a great place for Mommy Mouse to raise a family.

I'm suggesting the two horizontals on top of the posts as an easy way to level it, getting the top of the posts level can be a bear. I think it makes lifting the coop into position a little easier. But if you use dimensional control set your posts without the two horizontals and fit your short stubs inside or outside the posts and screw them together. Either way it should be stable after it is installed.

For the slanted roof, yes something like your photo and colored lines. When it is raining you don't want water running on you when gathering eggs or when doing food and water. You don't want the run-off going into you run either.

When adding on you have to be a bit careful about the thickness of the material you add messing up your dimensions. Its kind of hard to put it into words and I do not have photos. If I were building from scratch I'd do it differently but you are where you are. I think I'd scab on two verticals on the side I was going to take higher. Angle the tops sort of close to the slope you want the roof to have. Unless you are a good carpenter and have the right tools that can be challenging to get it real close so let's work around that. So take a horizontal and screw it to the top of that vertical but tio the inside so the lower part is resting on the frame at the lower end. Then do the same thing with a vertical with sloped cut at the lower end to hold it in place. Do that on both sides and keep the heights as close as you can. This sloped horizontal should be higher than the verticals. That should give you two firmly attached sloped boards to attach your roof. You can then build your roof in place with lots of overhang for good ventilation at the top. When I do it I put hardware cloth on the verticals, not horizontal under the soffits, but either works fine.

I realize I've done a lousy job of explaining it and I don't have any good photos that i think will help you. This is the best I could find, it's my grow-out coop. Good luck!




View attachment 1787834

Edited to add that this is made from a tractor that I changed into a grow-out coop. In some respects not that different from what you are doing, modifying something not built the way I'd do it originally for that purpose. As you can probably tell I did a lot of scabbing on.

It is 4’x4’. I plan on having 3 birds in there, so the other roost is optional, just wanted to make sure they have options. I love the way your roof is on the grow out pen. The side view is showing that, in an over-simplified way of saying it, you have a piece of wood with 2x4s screwed into it then placed onto the main structure? I’m not a very constructiony person, and am a very visual learner so the side view of your coop helped a lot!