Phew, how am I? HOT! I am done working outside for the day. But the new coop is nearly done, all that's left is the roof and to figure out how we are going to do outside access for the nest boxes, the feed/water system, and a little bit of hardware. We bought a can of Oops paint at Lowe's for $5 and it turned out to be OSU orange! Haha that's Lonny's alma mater so he was happy.
Here it is! The things we were looking for were easy maintenance, easy feeding and watering, 100% removable roosts, and lots of summer ventilation that is easily covered in the winter. We also wanted it semi-movable since it is going in the garden this year but not next year. So we designed a main rectangular coop and then a feed/water bay on one end and a nest bay on the other end, they butt up to the coop and we will hook them somehow to hold them up tight. The plan for feed/water is 5 gal buckets that sit on top and PVC that runs down to bowls inside. We designed it with deep litter method in mind, also the fact that is it IN the garden so we can just MOVE IT when we want to spread the manure and bedding around. We made lock blocks that pivot on a screw to hold the roosts in place, also designed the nesting boxes so that all dividers slide out of the way for cleaning, etc. Main coop is 4ft x 6ft, feed and water bay and nesting bay are 15"x15"x30".We were given some old office cubicle dividers, we are going to use the iron frames to frame up a storage shed and peeled off the fabric to expose the 1/4" plywood underneath, so that was free, the treated runners were on clearance at Lowe's- a whole wrap (maybe 25 or 30 pieces) for the price of 2. Some of the lumber was left over from other projects but some we did buy. Chicken wire was left over from another chicken run. Clear bubble window will go in the roof, it was $5 at a garage sale.
Comments and critiques welcome. This is the first coop we have built and are not too proud to admit we may not be thinking of all the angles.
And here's our4 week old blue Ameraucana, Chubby.
And one of our four week old crested cream legbars, I call her Fancy since she was the first to get a crest!
Here it is! The things we were looking for were easy maintenance, easy feeding and watering, 100% removable roosts, and lots of summer ventilation that is easily covered in the winter. We also wanted it semi-movable since it is going in the garden this year but not next year. So we designed a main rectangular coop and then a feed/water bay on one end and a nest bay on the other end, they butt up to the coop and we will hook them somehow to hold them up tight. The plan for feed/water is 5 gal buckets that sit on top and PVC that runs down to bowls inside. We designed it with deep litter method in mind, also the fact that is it IN the garden so we can just MOVE IT when we want to spread the manure and bedding around. We made lock blocks that pivot on a screw to hold the roosts in place, also designed the nesting boxes so that all dividers slide out of the way for cleaning, etc. Main coop is 4ft x 6ft, feed and water bay and nesting bay are 15"x15"x30".We were given some old office cubicle dividers, we are going to use the iron frames to frame up a storage shed and peeled off the fabric to expose the 1/4" plywood underneath, so that was free, the treated runners were on clearance at Lowe's- a whole wrap (maybe 25 or 30 pieces) for the price of 2. Some of the lumber was left over from other projects but some we did buy. Chicken wire was left over from another chicken run. Clear bubble window will go in the roof, it was $5 at a garage sale.
Comments and critiques welcome. This is the first coop we have built and are not too proud to admit we may not be thinking of all the angles.
And here's our4 week old blue Ameraucana, Chubby.
And one of our four week old crested cream legbars, I call her Fancy since she was the first to get a crest!
But my up and coming 4 week olds are getting pretty rambunctious, too!
