UrbanMike's No Idea What I'm Doing Coop & Run

[BackyardJulz]

I ike that you have a nice big overhang over the nest boxes- collecting eggs in a downpour will be much nicer!

Good work, you're making a nice coop for your happy chicks!

 

[tralfaz]

Looks great. New here as well and we bought laying birds two weeks ago so I only had a week to build my terrible shack with mostly lumber around the house. Our coop and run dimensions are about the same for our 6 hens

 

[urbanMike]

If those are regular staples holding your hardware cloth on, think about reinforcing that with screws/washers. Looks good so far!

So I plan to put trim over all of the window pieces. So I wanted to staple/install that before I finished all the sides and then finally trim over the top.

At least I think this will work in my head, lol.

We shall see. Rained yesterday evening and today. So.. hoping I can wrap up this project this weekend and start on the run.

 

[urbanMike]

Well, I finished the chicken coop portion of the project. It's ready for use!

My Nest Box, I wanted one that opened from the back because I have small children, vs reaching in from the top.

Using natural wood for the roosting bars.

Now onto PHASE 2: which is building the chicken run, attached to the coop.

I've got a lot of dirt to shovel to get the ground graded. JOY :|

 

[oldhen2345]

Howdy. Just documenting my coop build. This is a work in progress. I'm making this up as I go. And I have no idea what I'm doing. Also, somehow I don't know how to use my speed square as well as I think I do....

My wife and I purchased six Buff Orpington chicks for our family of 5. They've already brought us so much joy. And it's been fun to watch them grow. They just hit 3 weeks old this Friday.

The Coop I'm building is 52 inches by 60 inches. It was supposed to be 4 by 5 feet, but I measured wrong, soo....... whoops. I'm reusing some old scrap lumber and a bunch of new. I had dozens of old posts and an old desk that became the base of the coop. They should have about 21.62ft² in the coop. So about 3 sq ft per chicken. Hopefully, these big ladies have enough room.

The chicken run for our coop is planned to be 8 feet wide by 16 feet long. If my math is correct, that should give us 128 ft² of room for our six hens.

Did I mention I have no idea what I'm doing?

Hopefully, the ladies will have plenty of room. We also built a small chicken tractor to let them out and drag them around the yard. Well I mean drag the tractor around. Not my chickens.

This looks awesome. Only one question- how are you gonna clean out inside of the coop? It needs to be easy to reach. Everything else looks fabulous- a real palace of a coop.

 

[urbanMike]

This looks awesome. Only one question- how are you gonna clean out inside of the coop? It needs to be easy to reach. Everything else looks fabulous- a real palace of a coop.

The back of the coop is a door that swings down so I can sweep it out into a container.

 

[oldhen2345]

The back of the coop is a door that swings down so I can sweep it out into a container.

View attachment 2113047

View attachment 2113048

Absolutely awesome

 

[rosemarythyme]

FYI the chickens may or may not use the branch that's sitting at an angle - they'll probably walk up and down on it, but not as likely to want to roost on it.

 

[urbanMike]

FYI the chickens may or may not use the branch that's sitting at an angle - they'll probably walk up and down on it, but not as likely to want to roost on it.

Yeah..... I think that might need to be redone. Luckily I have lots of logs and wood.

These ladies are afraid of the dark. Like clockwork, they start crying at sunset and they all make their way to the top of the coop. To sit against the windows, which are barely ledges.



Sigh. It's quite comical as they each bump each other off. But yeah, they aren't roosting where I wanted them.

UPDATES:

Today we started working on the chicken run. Made a lot of progress. I thought I should probably have enclosed the roof first, but whatever. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

There will be a roof, an access door and more trim.

In the morning I'm going to add some more grip pieces to the little chicken ladder. But it was 7pm when I stopped and didn't want to get the table saw out and drive my neighbors nuts by ripping strips of wood in the evening. Tomorrow morning's project.

I need to figure out what we can put down in the coop for flooring. This used to be a raised planter that I tore out and leveled. So right now it's just all dirt. I thought I could seed it with grass, but that takes WAAAY to long to germinate.

If anyone has recommendations.....

 

[rosemarythyme]

Ok, the photos of them mashed up against the windows are really funny! My guess is one of them made it up there one day, and the others followed the example. Their instinct really is to sit up high.

I suppose you could close off those ledges. Just chicken wire or even bird netting stapled in place should do it, since you don't need it for predators, just to ward off chickens.

So I know this sounds contradictory to all the information about not having vents right at roost level, but... I think chickens kind of like being able to look out while on the roost. My top roost is nestled between two windows (yes I leave them open, no it's not a problem), and the window-side spots seem very popular. So wondering if your birds are wanting that same sort of view...