After perusing the net for premade coops and almost fainting at the price, hubby decided he didn't want to buy a coop, but to build one. Bear in mind we have a bunch of little kids, he works FT, we are moving, he is leaving for TDY on Wednesday, and he decides he wants to build a coop. I had told himwe needed one like yesterday....I have 15 6 or so week old chicks I want out of my garage!
So he opted to use the following plan for a tractor, as I expressed interest in having a portable coop
http://www.organicgardening.com/sites/all/themes/zen/og/pdf/coop_plans.pdf Looks nice, right?
So we got in there and realized as we made our shopping list that it does not account for the following:
The back. The author doesn't tell you what size to cut the non-opening back. We bought a sheet of plywood for that.
Doesn't tell you how he made it so there was no gap between the back and the bottom or the front and the bottom. This is from the slats attached to the A frame legs.
Lacks something at the bottom of the legs to hold the hardware wire down, and the plan actually mentions using chicken wire. Yikes. That isn't predator proof.
Doesn't tell you what he suggests for latches for the end and the front.
We didn't buy enough plywood. We had gotten 3.5 sheets for the floor, the sides and the ends. It's still not enough. We need more.
We didn't get enough 1x3 or 2x2 to fasten the hardware cloth to on the sides and the bottom of the run to prevent digging in. We have to go get hardware cloth for the bottom too.
Don't like the hasps we got for closing it. They probably won't work.
Anyhow, we proceeded, and we are working with it, and really, it's turning out to be nice. It's big, which is ideal for the bantams we are putting in it. It will hold the aforementioned group of juvenile birds until we can split them by breed (various Cochins and Silkies).
The handles are not fastened where they will be. So ignore that
We are going to add wheels so I can move it by myself.
However, I suspect I could have ordered a similar coop from Handmade Coops off Amazon for not a lot more by the time we are done, not to mention the time spent.
So he opted to use the following plan for a tractor, as I expressed interest in having a portable coop
http://www.organicgardening.com/sites/all/themes/zen/og/pdf/coop_plans.pdf Looks nice, right?
So we got in there and realized as we made our shopping list that it does not account for the following:
The back. The author doesn't tell you what size to cut the non-opening back. We bought a sheet of plywood for that.
Doesn't tell you how he made it so there was no gap between the back and the bottom or the front and the bottom. This is from the slats attached to the A frame legs.
Lacks something at the bottom of the legs to hold the hardware wire down, and the plan actually mentions using chicken wire. Yikes. That isn't predator proof.
Doesn't tell you what he suggests for latches for the end and the front.
We didn't buy enough plywood. We had gotten 3.5 sheets for the floor, the sides and the ends. It's still not enough. We need more.
We didn't get enough 1x3 or 2x2 to fasten the hardware cloth to on the sides and the bottom of the run to prevent digging in. We have to go get hardware cloth for the bottom too.
Don't like the hasps we got for closing it. They probably won't work.
Anyhow, we proceeded, and we are working with it, and really, it's turning out to be nice. It's big, which is ideal for the bantams we are putting in it. It will hold the aforementioned group of juvenile birds until we can split them by breed (various Cochins and Silkies).
The handles are not fastened where they will be. So ignore that
We are going to add wheels so I can move it by myself.
However, I suspect I could have ordered a similar coop from Handmade Coops off Amazon for not a lot more by the time we are done, not to mention the time spent.
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