Stone or masonry coop?

[WestTexasFarmboy]

Mine is brick, hommade brick built by my grandad in the 40s, with a cement floor. So far, it is slightly cooler when its hot, I think it will stay warm enough in the winter, ours are not too bad. Pics on my BYC webpage. Lots of work has been done since I last posted pics, and I have 7 week olds in there now.

As far as sturdy, I can't imagine anything getting into this fortress. I like the stone idea, it might be costly, but it could be beautiful too.

 

[Dragonfly Ranch]

Quote:
Pick up a copy of this month's Mother Earth Magazine there's an article about building structures using sand bags. Really cool looking and we are considering for root cellar - but could easily be made into a chicken coop. They say a bit labor intensive getting bags together but building the structure is pretty easy.

Sandee

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
Hey, there ya go, make the stone wall the *south* wall of the coop, cover it fairly closely with clear Suntuf (at least during wintertime) and you will have possibly the only Trombe-wall passive-solar chicken coop in the world!

LOL but actually somewhat serious,

Pat

 

[frenchblackcopper]

Garlydog,
Reading your post and another one one here tonight about a coop built in the ground,reminds me of how I spent two months about 5 years ago,down in the bottom of Laraway Stone Quarry,just a stones throw west of the race tracks south of Joliet. Your idea of building a coop out of stone would have been easy with what I was doing that winter.

Everytime they do a "shot" blast for more stone to crush,there are "oversized" pieces of rock that are way to big to even be loaded into the 60 ton haul trucks they have.In order to try and save money,many times when they drilled the holes for the "shot" they would make them farther apart than the normal 20',and sometimes would drill them 30' apart,,less hole drilling,,more stone blasted away from the rock face,,more production from each blast.What would normally result in a 50,000 ton blast would now be closer to 75,000 tons,but because the charges was placed a lot farther apart,many times there were blocks of limestone as big as 12'x12',so they just pushed all these oversized rocks in a huge pile until they ran out of room.

I was called there by the company to use a rock breaker and break these oversized boulders up into smaller sized pieces that could be at least loaded up and run thru the crusher.Many times, I could find the "sweet spot" on the top side of the boulder,and with just a few "pecks" from the rock breaker,split off pieces of limestone about 1' thick,12' by 12',,it was like slicing a loaf of bread.Two months of this,day in and day out resulted in me working myself,out of work,,,so to speak,but it is fun.Flagstone is all over around Joliet,,and if building a coop from solid pieces of limestone would work,each as big as a wall,they too can be located,,or split in pieces that big, I know,,

 

[Garlydog]

Quote:
I can envision a Flintstone's chicken coop with those boulders.

I live 5 minutes away from that quarry.

The rocks I have to work with are about 12" x 5" x 8" give or take. Someone did the hard work of making them manageable building block size.

They must have been planning to do something with the stones but never got around to it.

 

[Garlydog]

Quote:
Hey, there ya go, make the stone wall the *south* wall of the coop, cover it fairly closely with clear Suntuf (at least during wintertime) and you will have possibly the only Trombe-wall passive-solar chicken coop in the world!

LOL but actually somewhat serious,

Pat

That is an interesting idea. With standard framed/insulated construction on the other three walls, several problems regarding ventilation, heating and cooling are addressed. Brilliant!

The coop location I have selected is under some mature deciduous trees.

 

[Garlydog]

Quote:
Pick up a copy of this month's Mother Earth Magazine there's an article about building structures using sand bags. Really cool looking and we are considering for root cellar - but could easily be made into a chicken coop. They say a bit labor intensive getting bags together but building the structure is pretty easy.

Sandee

I will check this out. Mrs. Garlydog is asking for a root cellar too.

 

[Cheep a'lil Talk a'lil]

My Grandparents had a farm outside of Wichita Kansas. Their chicken coop, built by my grandpa, was made with cinder blocks. The back faced the north with many trees and brush, no windows. The front and run faced south and it had a couple of large windows in it that could be opened in the summer if need be.

The coop is still standing sturdy and strong after almost 70 years ( Grandpa is 98 this October!). Even with Wichita ice storms the chickens stayed nice and warm inside just from the heat they all procuded.

I think it is a wonderful idea. And if your coop will look anything like your piers then its going to be beautiful!

Good luck on your decision!

 

[Garlydog]

Cheep a'lil Talk a'lil :

And if your coop will look anything like your piers then its going to be beautiful!

Good luck on your decision!

Thank you for your encouragement. The piers are made from a different stone than I have available. Those blocks were nicely sawed with perfectly flat tops and bottoms. They were also quarried in New Mexico. The rocks I am thinking about using are a dirty white, but still nice rocks.​

 

[Garlydog]

I decided to start moving some stone to get an idea of how hard this is going to be. Ugh!!!! It is going to take me a while to just get the stones into place. I decided to do this on the hottest day of the year so far, just because I like a good challenge.

If I move forward with this, I am thinking about a combination flagstone/river stone for the design. Flagstone for the building corners and more rounded river stones for the walls. The creek that runs through the property is loaded with stone too.