"Room" addition on the barn.

[steveclank]

I went with my construction/do-it-all guy to the store to pick up materials today. Planning on building the coop next to the barn for easier access to water/electricity. It's going to be 16'x6'. I'll post pics tomorrow of what it looks like before construction begins. I'm excited as my eggs are about to hatch. Just bought the house w/ 5 acres, so this is my first time with chickens.

I hope to receive feedback as building moves forward. Till tomorrow...

 

[GardenGal]

Good luck!

 

[Stumpy]

Sounds exciting!

 

[steveclank]

He's pics of the barn from this morning. It's a little messy from redoing the barn doors. They were rotten when we bought the place. A combination of the old fence/doors and new wood helped to create strong sturdy ones. Just need to paint everything.


This is the side where the addition will go. Were going to create a door from inside the barn and have an another door on the front side of the coop. All the materials are in the bed in the truck, so we stuck it inside the barn for now. Bought panels to match the look of the barn. Would black paint be too hot for the coop? The only color options are black/red/white. Red doesn't work because the house is blue and white is too difficult to paint everything.






Charlie snuck into this picture, though he only wanted to show his rump...

 

[steveclank]

Concrete is now curing with the posts set it. Ground is uneven, so taking time to make sure everything is level. Digging post holes is not fun...

 

[steveclank]

I'm making it 6' wide because of the ease of roofing it with barn roof. 16'6 seems big, but now I think it might be small. I have 9 chicks right now, so this should be plenty of room. They'll be outside in the run most of the time anyway.

 

[Jakoda]

it looks like a great spot! I am a newbie to chickens (haven't even got them yet) but am doing the coop..I'm getting 8 chicks, and using part of my 12 x 30 shed, the chicken area will be 4 x 12..nesting boxes outside of that area (into the shed part for more room)

I have gotten some terrific ideas from this forum, will be posting updates on my 'coop area' later..Good luck, I'm told it's never bad to go bigger because we all end up with 'chicken fever' or 'chicken math' as they refer to it here
Diane

 

[loves2hatch]

can't wait to see the finished results.

 

[steveclank]

Here's another 2 days of work. Tried to do a gambrel roof to match the barn, but it's going to cut some space. I think we'll probably go with the generic shed slanted roof. Haven't thought too much about the inside design yet. How many nesting boxes should there be? I want to be able to split the place into 2 6x8s in case I want to. I have 9 little chicks now. I'm sure there will be more eventually.

 

[Leslieb118]

I'm making it 6' wide because of the ease of roofing it with barn roof. 16'6 seems big, but now I think it might be small. I have 9 chicks right now, so this should be plenty of room. They'll be outside in the run most of the time anyway.

LOL, no coop is EVER too big!! That's one thing you'll learn right off the bat! Once you start with chickens, you can't stop! The bigger the better, for sure! You've got a great start though! Don't know how much progress you've made since your last post, but I think you'd only need 4 nesting boxes at the most, and that's only if you plan on getting more chickens. No harm in planning for the future!! Most hens will use the same nest box, and just wait in line. Can't wait to see the finished product!