Vermont Chicken Coop Build Log

[Hawkeye95]

YAY for your first eggs! I'd avoid hay-- but that's just because I have read the "crop surgery" on all the hens that eat hay and it gets stuck in their crop. Pine shavings seem to be fine. You can line the bottom of your nest with the rubber shelf liner first and then throw your shavings in. A cat litter box with a top will work great, too.

 

[TheJuan-n-Only]

Congrats on the 1st egg!!! Looking good so far!!!

 

[NHchicks]

Wow. I am getting some super great tips. One tip was not to use hay. I lost my handsome rooster to sour crop this spring, and I believe it was because of the soggy hay outside the coop (from when I would clean the coop out). I don't ever want to go through that again. Are they really happy just laying in shavings? I thought I needed hay.

And about this nice coop, I can't wait to see the stages. I hope you post pictures of every stage, because at this point, I'm looking at this and thinking - I may be a 50 yr. old female, but so far, I think I could do that, as long as maybe my husband cut the boards for me, or even Lowes would probably do that when I bought them. I've been leaning towards a shed kit from Lowes, but the quality isn't the same as this one. I'm going to keep watching to see if it gets too complicated.

 

[MadChickensVT]

Thanks for all the nice comments

I set up a nest box this evening using a small plastic tub. Put some straw and wood chips in it. We'll see what I find in the morning!

 

[MadChickensVT]

Day 5

Tomorrow is supposed to be rain so I decided to work on the coop today. I can sit at my desk when it's raining. I setup my laptop on the porch so I could keep an eye on client emails without having to take my boots off. I probably managed to get in about 5 hours on the coop minus setting up and putting things away.

I started off by adding rocks under the middle of all the sides. This really helped stiffen things up, prevent sag, and keep things plumb and square for setting the rafters. Next I framed up the back wall and put it in place after painting the bottom of the bottom plate and the floor in that area. Then I picked out a nice straight 2x6 to use as a ridge board and setup some temporary supports for it. I'll set the rafters from back to front, and will need to remove the temporary 2x4 across the front before I can set the front rafters. I'm going to have collar ties on all the rafters so things will be stiff enough by then that it won't be needed anymore. I used screws on all the temporary pieces so it'll be easier to take them back apart.

It's great to finally see how tall it's going to be! It was nice to walk around in the coop at the end of the day and confirm there will be plenty of room for my 6'4" height. I'm going to frame up the front wall after the rafters are set, so I can run the studs right up to the rafters instead of a top plate at 6' like the rest of the walls. That will allow a full height door. I hate hitting my head going through short doorways.

Gotta love it when things work out like they should! The ridge board was dead nuts level with no adjusting needed.

I was done early enough that I had time to put things away and then take a nice evening walk on our dirt road with my wife, baby daughter, and our dog. The setting sun nicely highlighted the fall colors. Life is good.

 

[binders]

I really love looking at your pictures! Good work today. You're making good progress. Keep the pictures coming

Surprised that things are still so green there. Thought the trees around your coop would have changed by now. My parents live in Brookline, VT just a little bit south of you. How I miss the colors of spring and fall there! Enjoy.

 

[NHchicks]

Yeah, pretty soon you'll be sweeping leaves out of the coop everyday to work on it - ha.

Glad to see your progress. The already-level was amazing. It really doesn't look THAT hard to do - just a lot of work. We have rocks under our current [too small] coop too, so far no big shifting that I've been able to tell.

I think 8 x 12 is the perfect size too. Well, maybe 12 x 12.

 

[MadChickensVT]

I was really tempted to do 12x12. I don't need a permit in our zoning district for anything agriculture related up to 400sf, I just need to give the town notice of it. However, under 100sf means I don't even have to tell them about it. Each property can add one structure under 100sf without needing a permit or giving notice.

The main reason for 8x12 was to try to keep the cost around $1000. I've spent about $700 so far which includes materials that I haven't used yet like the rest of the framing and 1" XPS (blue board) for the ceiling. I still need to get roofing and sheathing for the walls, which'll be about $400+, and another roll of hardware cloth for $100. Hinges and plexiglass and misc add up fast. I'm guessing $1500 will be the total once it's all done. 50% over budget isn't too bad

I'll also be using some rough cut pine that we already bought and got a good deal on because a friend works at the lumber yard. And of course later we'll be running power, and a web cam, and....

It's designed and positioned so it can be easily expanded out the back; I can just keep building more identical modules. And stacking rocks

8x12 gives 6sf each for our 16 birds. That's a little low for winter from what I've been reading, the general consensus on BYC seems to be 10sf per bird when they're stuck inside. I'm going to setup a variety of shelves and roosts in the coop to give them places to hang out. The next boxes will be external. Also, even though they free range I'm going to setup a covered run for winter to give them someplace to spend time outside the coop without snow on the ground. And they'll be able to go under the coop. We should be fine

 

[NHchicks]

Expandable - yes! Good thinking. Even for a broody pen, a second flock down the road of turkeys/ducks, whatever. And the winter accommodations (the covered run) is a great plus, too. Last winter I was shoveling snow for mine because they're free rangers but they were NOT stepping out of that coop into the snow. Then I put hay on top of the shoveled part and tricked them. Altho actually I wouldn't do that again because my beloved rooster ended up with sour crop in the spring, I think it was from the soggy hay...

One idea I saw in these threads was someone had used clear corrugated roofing for part of their roof, and this way gained light and I assume some amount of solar heat in the winter.

I can't wait to see how you design the interior. In my dream coop, there will be nothing fancy, just wide open space that's easy to clean and double-door accessible, with deep litter. But every coop, like every snowflake, is unique.

Thanks for sharing your progress. I know photo finagling can be a pain.

 

[yankeefan]

I think your coop looks awesome! I have an old shed on our property that I converted into a coop, so thankfully I didn't have to build a new structure. But, I'm paying close attention to how you're building yours. You see, I was never meant to build anything, but when I do, I try to do a good job. So thanks to your carpentry skills and lots of helpful pictures, I'm watching and learning. I'll bet a few other chicken lovers are too.

Keep up the good work and pictures too. Hopefully the weather improves so you can finish things before it gets too cold outside.