The Garden Coop - Minnesota

[Rani]

We've almost finished the coop. The plan/design is from The Garden Coop. The plans were easy to read with only a few moments of scratching our heads. We have no previous building skills so it took us three full weekends plus a few weeknights, but I am so pleased with it. It is stable, secure, thoughtfully designed and pretty to look at. We needed a coop with an attached and secure run since we have a fox den about 100 yards away.

Another angle. The wire screening is dug down about 14 inches into the ground and extra rocks were added to discourage digging.

A few shots of the interior. We have a heat lamp in there because the chicks moved into the house at about 5 weeks of age. Temps were dipping into the high 30's, so the heat lamp was necessary. We are currently only using it if the temp drops into the 40's at night. In a week or so, we will remove it. A piece of insulation is on the top of the hen house to prevent it from getting too cold at night. We'll remove that as well.



Next winter, we will probably close up the floor hole and move the feeder and waterer into the hen house. On warm days, we can open the side door and let them hop down. We may add a second hen door to the side wall so we can install an automatic door.

This is the large door - useful when cleaning out the hen house - airing it out - or just keeping it open for light and air.

The feeders are hanging underneath. If you are a newbie - you need to raise those feeders to about chest height so that they won't make a mess of the water and scratch out all of the feed. Raising it will mean that you don't have to change the water as often or fill the feeder as often.

A shot of the happy hens and their ladder.

Security.

The egg door. We still need to make the nesting box and add a roost to the hen house.

The door - padlocked. We have small children that don't always remember to close the door and two bird dogs that are waiting for an opportunity to get into the coop.

Pretty little coop. The paint colors were inspired by another coop I saw online. I will try to find it and add the link.
I need to finish staining it, too. I recommend 1.5 gallons. We did a double coat on almost everything and that was only using 1 gallon. I'll have to get another 1/2 and finish.
Enjoy!!

 

[Lacy Blues]

Very nice coop Rani! You'd never know you were inexperienced builders. Very good job.

I do have a couple of concerns though. I can see you have hardware cloth over the coop area... I'm wondering what you have that attached with?

Do you have hardware cloth over the entire structure, including the outside area? The places where your hardware cloth overlaps... do you have it secured there? If not, most hardware stores sell a device called a "j-clip" that is for making cages. They also sell the specific pliers needed to attach these clips to your wire. I would strongly recommend securing your seams.

As raccoons are mostly nocturnal, I would suggest some kind of door for that floor vent that can be locked just in case a raccoon gets through your outer perimeter. If the hardware cloth is attached only with little 3/4 staples, I would strongly suggest you either add screws with washers or 1x2 furring strips screwed into place all around the edges of and through the holes of your wire to be sure it cannot be wrenched off. Raccoons are a lot stronger than most people think. They won't dig under your set up but they will scale the outside walls easily and if your hardware cloth is not super securely fastened, they'll get passed it. Make a habit of going out each and every evening and locking that coop up so nothing that gets passed the perimeter can get into the coop with your chicks.

Your floor opening... you might want to add a lip around the perimeter of that, say the depth of a 2x4 to keep all your bedding from being scratched out as they get older. They'll still get it out because litter flies when they fling it but a lip around the opening will keep most of the bedding in the coop. I realize you want to close that door up by next winter but that still gives them 5 months and lots of litter to throw out the door til it starts getting cold again where you are so if you were to build a square out of 2x4s that had the same dimension as the opening, you could screw it into place from the underside and then remove it easily when you're ready.

Your open ceiling is good but you need an opening at floor level, say 4 - 6 inches off the floor on the side you receive the least amount of wind, and as wide as the short side of your coop. It should have securely attached hardware cloth over this opening so that only air can enter the building and rise out the top, keeping the air inside fresh and cool for your birds which will also keep your litter materials drier and thereby keep your birds healthier.

I wish you the best of luck with your coop and your birds and with keeping the predators out.