We finally started building our coop today. Our original plan was to go with converting our old shed but time & money constraints prevented that so we decided to build an 8x8 (for now until we can expand) inside our dogs pen. They're great boys & we felt like the extra security of knowing that a predator would have to jump inside their pen to try & get to the chickens made us feel better because our boys are always on alert. Below are some pictures. We're only about 1/2 way done & with the chance of rain tomorrow (thursday) it will probably be friday afternoon/night before I can post the final ones but I couldn't wait & wanted to get some out there already 
**the start of the project--digging the 1st post hole. we used (2) 2x4x8s & just screwed them together to form 4x4 posts. buying the 2x4s saved us some money in the long run rather than buying the actual 4x4s. the already built frame that's in the background is all 2x4x8s and covered in chicken wire but this is what we built the dog pen out of. our coop is entirely going to be hardware cloth and we chose this end corner of the dog pen so that we already had a frame to build off of. the outside of the dogs' chicken wire will be covered with hardware cloth and a hwc apron will be attached around all 4 sides of the coop**
**this is after we got 2 posts inserted which will be used as the door frame as well. you can our black dog Kojo's rear end & his brother Kuma investigating our supplies
**
1st set of hwc added. our store only sold this in 2'wide & 3'wide lengths so we had to use zip ties to hold the separate strands together.
a shot of what will be the inside of the coop
full shot of the first wall panel put up. I wasn't able to take a picture of this before we lost the light but we have the top board screwed on which has sandwiched wire and you can see the bottom board sandwiching that wire. we will also be adding some lumber to the posts to sandwich that wire which will help to keep it sturdier & safer for the girls
these are our boys. Kojo is on the left & that's his brother Kuma
they're sheltie/hound mixes & we rescued them when they were about 4 wks old & bottle-raised them. they just turned 1 yr old last month on the 3rd. they will be sharing their pen with the girls (the chicks will be in their coop though and not out with the boys) & will be their watchmen 
a cute shot of Kuma trying to balance on our 2x4. he thinks he's that good
Like I said we will update this friday with the end results but I wanted to show people what we had going so far thanks guys & check back friday to see it all finished & decked out
**the start of the project--digging the 1st post hole. we used (2) 2x4x8s & just screwed them together to form 4x4 posts. buying the 2x4s saved us some money in the long run rather than buying the actual 4x4s. the already built frame that's in the background is all 2x4x8s and covered in chicken wire but this is what we built the dog pen out of. our coop is entirely going to be hardware cloth and we chose this end corner of the dog pen so that we already had a frame to build off of. the outside of the dogs' chicken wire will be covered with hardware cloth and a hwc apron will be attached around all 4 sides of the coop**
**this is after we got 2 posts inserted which will be used as the door frame as well. you can our black dog Kojo's rear end & his brother Kuma investigating our supplies
1st set of hwc added. our store only sold this in 2'wide & 3'wide lengths so we had to use zip ties to hold the separate strands together.
a shot of what will be the inside of the coop
full shot of the first wall panel put up. I wasn't able to take a picture of this before we lost the light but we have the top board screwed on which has sandwiched wire and you can see the bottom board sandwiching that wire. we will also be adding some lumber to the posts to sandwich that wire which will help to keep it sturdier & safer for the girls
these are our boys. Kojo is on the left & that's his brother Kuma
a cute shot of Kuma trying to balance on our 2x4. he thinks he's that good
Like I said we will update this friday with the end results but I wanted to show people what we had going so far
thanks guys & check back friday to see it all finished & decked out 
