My wife and I began building our new coop in April. We figured if we put in some hours on the weekends, we would have it completed in two or three weeks. We finished it July 11th. We didn't account for the fact that we aren't as young and energetic as we were when we built our first coop some 12 years ago.
We hit the ground running, getting the floor built and covering it in vinyl.
This took us the first weekend. It was at this time that I realized we had grossly over estimated our abilities. But we stuck with it, managing to frame in the walls during the following week.
Plywood was next. We moved from the garage and out to it's forever location and cut in the pop door.
I had never built a lean to before, so it was a learning experience when I put in the roof rafters. I was surprised at how little I know about this kind of stuff, but we managed.
We recruited our youngest son to climb up and attach the osb to the rafters, then we finished with the vented soffits and such.
Next we moved on to adding the hardware cloth, 1/2" mesh, for the vent areas. Then I built the roosts and attached the door. This is now 4 weeks in.
We moved the girls in and prepared to paint the exterior. Apparently, that takes two weeks, because we didn't touch it for that long.
We first painted the exterior walls, then the trim. Next time the trim will be painted, then installed.
But it looked pretty cool anyway.
We built and painted the run, then attached it to the coop. We waited a couple of days before opening the pop door. When we did we sat and waited for them to come out. They eventually did.
At this point, we knew we had to build and add on the external nest box, so we did.
As you can see, there is a tarp on the roof. Yup, we didn't get to the roofing until Saturday. It was the last thing that needed done. We officially finished the build.
For good measure, I built a roost to put in the run.
I call it The Monet Chicken House because, like a painting from the artist Monet, when you stand far enough away it looks amazing. But when you get up close you see it's actually a hot mess.
We hit the ground running, getting the floor built and covering it in vinyl.
This took us the first weekend. It was at this time that I realized we had grossly over estimated our abilities. But we stuck with it, managing to frame in the walls during the following week.
Plywood was next. We moved from the garage and out to it's forever location and cut in the pop door.
I had never built a lean to before, so it was a learning experience when I put in the roof rafters. I was surprised at how little I know about this kind of stuff, but we managed.
We recruited our youngest son to climb up and attach the osb to the rafters, then we finished with the vented soffits and such.
Next we moved on to adding the hardware cloth, 1/2" mesh, for the vent areas. Then I built the roosts and attached the door. This is now 4 weeks in.
We moved the girls in and prepared to paint the exterior. Apparently, that takes two weeks, because we didn't touch it for that long.
We first painted the exterior walls, then the trim. Next time the trim will be painted, then installed.
But it looked pretty cool anyway.
We built and painted the run, then attached it to the coop. We waited a couple of days before opening the pop door. When we did we sat and waited for them to come out. They eventually did.
At this point, we knew we had to build and add on the external nest box, so we did.
As you can see, there is a tarp on the roof. Yup, we didn't get to the roofing until Saturday. It was the last thing that needed done. We officially finished the build.
For good measure, I built a roost to put in the run.
I call it The Monet Chicken House because, like a painting from the artist Monet, when you stand far enough away it looks amazing. But when you get up close you see it's actually a hot mess.
