So I finally got up the nerve to use a circular saw...

[funnybirds]

And I still have all my limbs and digits. So Yay me!!!

We’ve been stalled for nearly 2 months, and have growing chickens living in the house, creating dust, mayhem and asthma. Love them to death, but it's time to go outside!

I have no building skills and an abject terror of power tools. A friend was supposed to help me yesterday and had something come up, so I harnessed my fear and got started.

These are donated rabbit hutches. (Given to us by a fellow 4 H ‘er.)

Here is what I have to work with:

The smaller one will be an isolation cage, or a nesting box, looking for suggestions.

This is a side view of a two level rabbit hutch. I removed the cages, put flooring in both levels. Covered the sides with hardware cloth which plywood will go over and windows will be cut. I will use the lining trays from the cages over the flooring and have separate doors over each space for cleaning.

This one we bought online thinking is was heavier and more solid. It is not. My big dog can tip it over with a wag of his tail. I need anchoring suggestions.

So here it is for your appraisal. I am humbly asking for any suggestions, ideas, etc.
All of this will eventually house 6-8 chickens.
We will likely have problems with country predators, hawks, neighborhood cats, and probably my dogs as well.
I appreciate any help you can offer.

 

[chickerdoodle]

Welcome to the chicken journey! Having backyard chickens is a blast!

IMHO the coop you bought is too small for 6-8 standard sized hens. What are the dimensions? The rule of thumb for housing standard hens is 3-4 sq. feet per bird in the hen-house and 10 sq. feet of permanent run. If they free range every day you can get away with 6-8 sq. feet per hen in the run.

I am not an expert about anchoring but I bet you get ideas form more tool savvy folks on BYC.

I am wondering if there is a way to incorporate at least one of the hutches into the coop or enlarge the hen house that is not too hard for a novice. You may want to check the coops on the coop page and see if something helps you. Sorry I am not much help but I bet others have more concrete ideas.

 

[funnybirds]

Yes, you are right, the online purchased version would fit two birds, if they were madley in love with each other.

The rabbit hutches should house 4-6 more depending on how I get it figured out.

I thought about adding the smaller hutch to the larger hutch but for the life of me cannot figure out how. Anybody have any ideas?


So far, just have flooring and a space for them to climb a ramp from the bottom to the top in the two tiered rabbit hutch . Need to get the interior squared away before I nail up the plywood and windows. I'm figuring this out after having to remove nailed down plywood, yesterday of course.

It's like the Winchester Mystery coop...

 

[gryeyes]

Quote:
Oh, I bet I know what part of the country from which you hail!

I have quite a few of the coop kits, in various sizes, in addition to some I've built and another I HAD built, plus a Little Tike's plastic playhouse made into a coop. Your comment cracked me up! None of mine are connected to each other; it's just a rather eclectic Chicken Compound in my back yard.

 

[funnybirds]

Quote:
Oh, I bet I know what part of the country from which you hail!

I have quite a few of the coop kits, in various sizes, in addition to some I've built and another I HAD built, plus a Little Tike's plastic playhouse made into a coop. Your comment cracked me up! None of mine are connected to each other; it's just a rather eclectic Chicken Compound in my back yard.

I have a feeling I'm going the same direction. Looks like three individual units, which will end up looking like chicken apartments. All they need now is a pool , hot tub, a mini gym and a laundrymat .

 

[Happy Chooks]

My DH made me build my coop. I have never built anything in my life and am terrified of heights and power tools.

I have mastered a compound miter saw, circular saw, framing nail gun, roofing nail gun and drill. (still strip the screw every now and then though) I have used the table saw (with help-plywood is HEAVY) but I'm still terrified of that one. I managed to not hurt myself too bad, other than smashing my fingers with a hammer until yesterday when I tortured my hand by not getting it out of the way of the fence pliers.

 

[Mac in Wisco]

Quote:
When I told my son we were going to frame up an 8x8 coop about five years ago he drove me nuts telling me that we needed to get a power miter saw, framing nailer, roof nailer, etc. I told him that we had a circular saw and a hammer and we really didn't need too much else.

He kept at it though, pestering me and telling me that we actually needed all this stuff. When we went to get the materials I told him, "Yeah, we'd better get that new saw too." He looked surprised until I walked over to the hand saw display and picked out a nice crosscut saw and told him that he could cut everything by hand.

I think he was surprised at how efficient it actually was. With a good sharp hand saw you can trim a stud in a few strokes. What did we use for our project? A hand saw, a hammer, a tape measure, a handy square, a pencil, and I did get out my 20 year old circular saw to cut panels.

 

[Happy Chooks]

Quote:
When I told my son we were going to frame up an 8x8 coop about five years ago he drove me nuts telling me that we needed to get a power miter saw, framing nailer, roof nailer, etc. I told him that we had a circular saw and a hammer and we really didn't need too much else.

He kept at it though, pestering me and telling me that we actually needed all this stuff. When we went to get the materials I told him, "Yeah, we'd better get that new saw too." He looked surprised until I walked over to the hand saw display and picked out a nice crosscut saw and told him that he could cut everything by hand.

I think he was surprised at how efficient it actually was. With a good sharp hand saw you can trim a stud in a few strokes. What did we use for our project? A hand saw, a hammer, a tape measure, a handy square, a pencil, and I did get out my 20 year old circular saw to cut panels.

I didn't go out and buy these tools. My husband already had them, as he built our house 10 years ago, and has built several of our outbuildings like the garage, well house, wood shed, etc.

So if he already had them, you bet your buns I was gonna use them. And after hammering with a hammer for a while, I can tell you how nice it is to have a nail gun!

My husband did buy me my own tool belt, tape measure, pencils, bullet level, T-square and hammer because he did not want me using his.

 

[ZombieChickens]

I love this post! I absolutely love it when my husband comes home and I say "Look what I built today....." and to see the look on his face. This year (between the coop and the new deck) I've actually become pretty comfortable with power tools, which is weird, because I too used to be terrified of them. I've mastered a nail gun (the scariest of them all, I think), a circular saw, a saws-all, and several different power drills. Let's toot our own horns for a minute.....toot.

So, how do you want your coops? If you find a way to attach them all, make the online one completely enclosed and use the other two as a run, it would be pretty hefty. It's really pretty though, I know I wouldn't want to mess with it.

 

[funnybirds]

Quote:
I thought about putting the online one in a dog run, enclosed. But those dog runs are crazy expensive...the larger ones anyway. So going to build a 10 X 10 pen with posts and welded wire, with hardware cloth at the bottom. Course that brings up the gate building issue... And maybe put all three coops inside, if that leaves enough room for the lovelies to run about. Yeah, we'll see. I'm full of good ideas sitting at the computer drinking hot coffee on a rainy day.

Sooo, of course today it's raining and so AGAIN, I am stalled. Yesterday, I managed to get one wall up, the roosting board suspended (we have a Sultan with a feeble grip), two windows cut in and covered with hardware cloth, and the ramp cut. I managed to start a borrowed DeWalt cordless and I am HOOKED. That was so much easier then the 12 pound worm electric circular saw. I was actually dreaming of getting power tools for a holiday present. I've been eyeing that Craftsman nail gun they've been advertising. I know we don't need all of these tools to get stuff done, but my hands are so sore from pounding and screwing wood together. Not to mention the rest of my aching self. All of these power tools are borrowed. We don't really have any hand tools either. Just the basic stuff, and no saw.

We can all bake a cake using a wire whisk, but wouldn't you rather use the mix master? Especially if you already had one. Im just sayin.

I've unleased a construction monster within myself. It sures opens a lot of possibilities when you not waiting for somebody else to help you.