Weekend one of my coop build

[21hens-incharge]

Thanks @Smuvers Farm. I love a good coop build.

Great progress!

I am wondering only 2 things.
Do you get much rain? The roof is sloped toward the fence and could cause wash out at the bottom if you do.

With it close to the fence how will you be able to maintain both the fence and that side of the coop?

I like the progress. I am an overbuilder too. Better to strong then to weak.

 

[aart]

Thanks @Smuvers Farm. I love a good coop build.

Great progress!

I am wondering only 2 things.
Do you get much rain? The roof is sloped toward the fence and could cause wash out at the bottom if you do.

With it close to the fence how will you be able to maintain both the fence and that side of the coop?

I like the progress. I am an overbuilder too. Better to strong then to weak.

Ditto All Dat^^^
Had the same 2 questions.

 

[KarlK]

Thanks @Smuvers Farm. I love a good coop build.

Great progress!

I am wondering only 2 things.
Do you get much rain? The roof is sloped toward the fence and could cause wash out at the bottom if you do.

With it close to the fence how will you be able to maintain both the fence and that side of the coop?

I like the progress. I am an overbuilder too. Better to strong then to weak.

21 Hens-

You ask two very good questions...

As far as the rain is concerned and washing away the soil...honestly, I hadn't thought of that. For 3 reasons: #1, we don't get much rain (12 inches per year or so) #2, the soil is really heavy clay...not much washout.

But more importantly, #3, I really was making a mistake! Thanks for catching that! Even with little rain, and heavy soil- I need to mitigate the run-off erosion issue. I will come up with something to solve the problem. Whether it is a way to channel the rain away, or just provide something 'safe' for it to land on.

Thank you very much for pointing this out!

As far as maintaining the fence and that side of the coop....same thing, hadn't really thought of it. The fence has been trouble free for a while (10 years) and I would hope that continues. I can access the fence from the other side if there is a huge calamity of some sort.

My bigger picture plan for this is about 3 years. As I am building this, I am thinking, "Okay, if I get 3 years of use out of this, I will be happy." Hopefully I get much more, but I am just looking at my hoped-for return on investment. 3 years would be good. If I need to move the coop (it is possible) for some reason, I can do that.

I'm glad I posted this, because these are two questions I really need to have in mind. For instance- I think I will make sure the fence is 100% solid before I get to the point where the coop will block access (hardware cloth). Make sure all the nails are fully set, add more if necessary, check for bad boards, etc.

For the water- that may end up being a fun project where I can turn it into something cool. We really don't get much rain here, so this won't be at the top of the list of things to do- but the last thing I want is to be be outside in a storm with wind and rain, trying to figure out how to divert the water away from the foundation of my coop. If I had to guess, I'll end up with some sort of 'hippie river' situation with rocks and maybe some Tibetan bells for something. (No, I won't really have bells...thought that does sound kinda nice.)

It is funny...my neighbors think of me as the local hippie- because I have a garden. Now with the chickens I'm sure I'm just going further down the path of the unwashed. That's okay, their kids will have fun with the chickens!

 

[21hens-incharge]

Your kids will have a blast with the birds!

Not getting much rain makes things easier. Maybe put in a shallow trench with cobble stones in it to divert any rain run off.

My coops are many years old and just as nice as when fresh built. Although there is a lot of dust and some poo inside.

Sssssoooooooo what breeds are you getting???

 

[staceyj]

21 Hens-

You ask two very good questions...

As far as the rain is concerned and washing away the soil...honestly, I hadn't thought of that. For 3 reasons: #1, we don't get much rain (12 inches per year or so) #2, the soil is really heavy clay...not much washout.

But more importantly, #3, I really was making a mistake! Thanks for catching that! Even with little rain, and heavy soil- I need to mitigate the run-off erosion issue. I will come up with something to solve the problem. Whether it is a way to channel the rain away, or just provide something 'safe' for it to land on.

Thank you very much for pointing this out!

As far as maintaining the fence and that side of the coop....same thing, hadn't really thought of it. The fence has been trouble free for a while (10 years) and I would hope that continues. I can access the fence from the other side if there is a huge calamity of some sort.

My bigger picture plan for this is about 3 years. As I am building this, I am thinking, "Okay, if I get 3 years of use out of this, I will be happy." Hopefully I get much more, but I am just looking at my hoped-for return on investment. 3 years would be good. If I need to move the coop (it is possible) for some reason, I can do that.

I'm glad I posted this, because these are two questions I really need to have in mind. For instance- I think I will make sure the fence is 100% solid before I get to the point where the coop will block access (hardware cloth). Make sure all the nails are fully set, add more if necessary, check for bad boards, etc.

For the water- that may end up being a fun project where I can turn it into something cool. We really don't get much rain here, so this won't be at the top of the list of things to do- but the last thing I want is to be be outside in a storm with wind and rain, trying to figure out how to divert the water away from the foundation of my coop. If I had to guess, I'll end up with some sort of 'hippie river' situation with rocks and maybe some Tibetan bells for something. (No, I won't really have bells...thought that does sound kinda nice.)

It is funny...my neighbors think of me as the local hippie- because I have a garden. Now with the chickens I'm sure I'm just going further down the path of the unwashed. That's okay, their kids will have fun with the chickens!

I am loving your attitude and see that you are already embracing the collaborative nature of BYC!
Be one with your inner hippie, when your children are grown they'll look back on these times with great fondness and I'm sure a lot of laughs. I only wish we done this earlier in our lives.

 

[aart]

If possible, I would move the coop away from fence, not only for access but to help with ventilation. Will kinda crimp your path but, function trumps form every time.

 

[lazy gardener]

I added tons of diagonal bracing. Possibly (probably?) overkill, but my grandfather told me, "if it's worth building, it's worth over building." Or something like that...I always go overboard, but this thing is rock solid.

You sure you're not related to my husband? In his mind, if a 2 x 4 will do the job, then a 4 x 4 or a 2 x 6 should be just about right! I scavenge the dump, he shops Lowes...

Harmony...my help (x3) is 'reward driven'. "if I help, do I get a new Lego set?!?!"

Your helpers need to reassess their goals. Building a chicken coop is Lego's for grown ups.

It is funny...my neighbors think of me as the local hippie- because I have a garden. Now with the chickens I'm sure I'm just going further down the path of the unwashed. That's okay, their kids will have fun with the chickens!

Are you composting yet? That should cement your "granola head" status.

As for your roof run off, do you have enough room to put a gutter to catch that rain and divert it to a rain barrel? In even a mild rain, the cascade effect off the roof will create quite the spatter effect against that fence. If your town/county/state has the foolish "no rain barrel" rules, then you could simply have it run into a down spout, and divert it to a garden bed.

 

[KarlK]

Are you composting yet? That should cement your "granola head" status.

I used to compost big time. But, the county I live in (Yolo- yes, it's real, and I hate the fact that my phone autocorrects to 'YOLO' all caps) has one of the best greenwaste disposal plans in the country. They use the greenwaste to cover trash in the dump. Then they run pipes through it, and let everything breakdown. The pipes are there to harvest methane, which is then used to generate electricity. It's a really good system- so in order to avoid the mice in my compost pile, I now send my greenwaste to the landfill.

I do live in California, and of course you've heard about our droughts. (Rain runoff? What's that?!?!) And I was a huge proponent of peeing in the compost pile. Mainly because it's just convenient- no dirty shoes in the house. But think of the water savings! But I think that cemented my place in the hippie hall of fame for my neighbors.

But really- just imagine saving 4-5 flushes per day, AND adding to the compost pile. AND keeping the compost pile wet. Do you know what a dry compost pile looks like? It's a museum of old leaves...wouldn't make sense to use the hose to put good water on the pile, then flush the toilet all day long. (Okay, possibly too much info, but hey, we talk chicken poop here)

But for the runoff, my mind is working on that...possible gutter. Possibly just rocks on the ground. Maybe with a 2x6 to keep most of the splashes out of the coop. (we're only talking about a 3" gap between the coop and the fence)

 

[KarlK]

Just popping in to say I adore your yard. The walkways and river stone with the built up boxes really complement each other .

Granny-

Thanks! I will be adding more stone soon. I want to put something cool in front of the coop to stand on. I may end up with a bunch of round stepping stones with rocks in them, or something else. I want something a bit different. I am really, really looking forward to landscaping around the coop which is my primary driver to be in a hurry.

As this goes on, I hope to be able to show more of the garden. I have at least 500 bulbs planted in there- mostly gladiolus. It's really, really nice in the spring.

I had actually completely forgotten about the bulbs until I was doing some digging for this project. I ran into about 10 bulbs and thought, "Oh yeah!" I guess my memory is pretty short, but that makes it fun. I'm always surprised at what pops up in the yard.

Last night I was on Amazon looking for more bulbs, and there was some message like "Because you ordered these before" and it showed me a bunch of dahlias I had completely forgotten about. I don't even know where I planted them, but there is some vague recollection of digging a hole.

Being surprised every day is one of the fun parts of getting older.

 

[lazy gardener]

3" gap would be enough for a gutter. And, it would keep the moisture from degrading the wood structure of the fence. Water + wood = rot.

I'm with you all the way regarding the famed benefit of yellow liquid fertilizer. It's used to great advantage in my yard. The big disadvantage to it's use I have is associated with the double X chromosome. I've bypassed that problem by saving quart sized plastic yogurt containers. They are very helpful when it comes to directing the fertilizer to the garden bed instead of filling the sneakers!

Have you done any hay bale gardening? You might consider directing your gutter system to a hay bale set up. Of course hay bales benefit greatly from the yellow fertilizer. That might also be a mouse deterrent.

I live in the boonies, and one of my long term goals is to build an outdoor combo shower house/fertilizer recycling booth.