Steadfast's 1st Coop (Ton's of Photos)

[Steadfast]

Ok, that's it, so far....

I have 9 adult, established egg laying, chicken refugees coming to my home this Sunday.

I took Friday off (Tomorrow) to work on the coop through the weekend...
So, your QUICK suggestions are WILDLY requested...


How am I doing so far?

What should I change?
Am i missing anything?

 

[sunny & the 5 egg layers]

WOW! I love your idea! I cant wait to see what the finished product will look like! You are doing a great job!

 

[Chickencoop1996]

Nice!

 

[Steadfast]

The chicken wire we are buying for the run looks like normal chicken wire that has been dipped in black "Tool Dip"

 

[Steadfast]

Friday

Today I did a lot of detail construction...

After reading the ventilation articles on this site,
I was worried about ventilation, especially when I board up most of the vents when it freezes.

I didn't want my 9 chickens to humidify and potentially mold up the coop in winter, but I also don’t want them to freeze.

I also happen to own a vintage custom painted 1940 teardrop camper.
Which uses an adapted "pet-cool" A/C and heating system.

When we go camping we have the pet-cool" A/C rigged through hoses attached to the "pet-cool" and attached to a nifty adapter,
which is custom fit into our campers ceiling fan so that cold ac flows in from that roof vent.

We do not camp in the winter!
And the pet-cool has a heating function with an adjustable out put...

Sooooo I figured, If we fit a small window in the chicken coop to also incorporate out camper's Pet-cool adapter,
then during the winter freezes we could blow slightly warm DRY out air through the adapter into the lower side of the coop.
The air would warm the chicken blow softly up through the coop and out the roof vents of the coop taking the nasty coop gases and humidity with it.

Here is my detail work photos:

This one Is of the sliding panel to the window/pet-cool intake, half done.

window open: notice the cut surrounding the window. That cut is there for a reason. check out my next photo.

Window with our teardrop camper pet-cool adapter custom fit to chicken window. Now our chickens won't freeze in winter.

I completed several other changes too, but my phone ran out of power and my wife took the recharge cord to work with her. Thus, you will have to wait for tomorrow’s light before I can take pictures of them.

If you think that is cool.... JUST WAIT until you see how I plan to incorporate all the other venting features into this project...

 

[benjoycei]

I want your pen and coop

but then again I want more chickens...DH used his selective hearing and ignored my request outright

 

[MeowCluckBark]

that is so cool! love your thinking!

 

[ChixMama]

Steadfast, your coop is gonna be way too cool

Of course I'm a little partial to coops made out of old swing sets (you can see on my page). I'm jealous you get to use the whole thing. Can't wait to see the updates

 

[Katydid2011]

Your coop is WAY COOL!

You've thought it out so well and your attention to detail is amazing. I seriously love it. So much so that I just called my hubby to come take a look. Can't wait to see the next progression. Those hens that are coming your way are lucky girls!!

 

[Steadfast]

Saturday
the second weekend of this endeavor

The first change I tackled was to make and install the "cross" shelving
into my chicken coop nesting boxes.

next we worked on finishing the angle of "the run's" roof.
Here is a photo of the roofs new under structure.

Also, we needed to address the HUGE kid sized hole comming off the old climbing ramp. (You can see the hole in the next photo)

here is that kid's payset hole reduced to Chicken Size.

Here is a photo of the chicken run's people door instalation.