Well .We got er done!!

[Heather J]

Wow, very impressive. Now I need to go pull out my pen and paper and see if I can plan materials for my own coop! (I need a second because one just isn't enough. lol)

 

[Ladysonja]

My DH would give up beer to have your workshop!

I love it your coop design...

The whole time I was watching the slide show

I was wondering how you were going to get it out in the yard... The lawn tractor answered that questions!

 

[Omran]

you did realy a very profissonal job,it looks to me that was not your first rodeo,is the roof steel panels or fiberglass?I am intersted of finding a good fibeglass for economic coast!please let me know if you don't mind.
Thank you
Omran

 

[Hangin Wit My Peeps]

Whoa! That is a NICE hen house! Great job!

 

[birdy_num_nums]

Fantastic! So professional- you should do this for a living. Gorgeous coop! Thank you for sharing.

 

[newchickmom]

WOW!

It's nice to see the step by step process also for someone like me who is getting ready to build a new coop. Lots of nifty ideas!

 

[Trublu112]

Thanks for all the compliments on our coop! I'll try to answer some of the questions asked All of the materials, including the roofing, came from Lowes. The roof is not metal but some sort of poly-type material. You can find it in the roofing department in Lowes easily enough. The design was inspired from woodenart.org coops. They are in the UK I believe, so not really an option to purchase from them, but using their design was easy enough if you have a guy around that can figure it out, LOL! I used a solid stain on every exposed surface except inside the coop. We did lay a piece of vinyl floor in there and have pine shavings over it. We are housing 10 chicks in it and this size coop should accomodate that number easily once full grown. Our plan is to let them free range around our place once old enough and smart enough to know to go to the coop at nightfall! I will have D/H add some pictures of the girls now in their coop and run. I moved them into this when they were about 10 days old and they have just been thriving. For the first week or so I had to help them down the ramp and back up into the coop at night to close them in, but now they are doing it themselves and I do not even have to close the ramp up at night anymore. They are almost 4 weeks old now. This coop is secure enough I do not have to worry that anything can get to them, plus we have a Golden Retriever and a Lab, that are on night patrol around here, LOL! Thanks again for liking our little coop! Oh, and yes, D/H does have many building skills!

 

[Firefyter-Emt]

Awesome job there guys.. I will even "share" a couple ideas into mine I think!

I would highly suggest one change though. I would add a layer of preasure treated 2"x6" around the base. Run them flat side down with 45 degree mitered corners and centered under the 2'x4" 's that you have for the base. This will keep the wood from rotting much better than the way you have it right now.

That roofing looks nice, is that the Odura roofing material? I almost went with the same roof on mine too.

 

[dixygirl]

Yes that does look like Ondura Corrugated roofing from Lowes. I have that on my peafowl house but i cut mine in strips so it looks more like spanish tiles.

 

[Firefyter-Emt]

Quote:
When I did my roof, the steel was cheaper than all but the very low end plastic roofing. ($16.99 for 24" x 8') That roofing on this coop I am pretty sure is the Odura that Lowes sells. It is the same cost per panel and 48" x 6' if I remember properly. I was able to keep my roof panels at a hair over 4' long per side so the metal roofing cut in half was the way to go.

The Odura ridge cap was cheaper, yet smaller. (10' metal vs 8' Odura) However, the Odura was $10.00 vs $20.00 for the metal cap.

My concerns with the Odura were: (A) Durability: I found a lot of the panels damaged with either folded edges of gouged surfaces that then would show the black substrate. (B) Weight: I started to pull a few panels out to find good ones at Lowes and this stuff is HEAVY! Due to a rather light weight design of my run wall structure I was worried that it might be too much with a snow load. (C) Snow Load: In New England and snowy areas we have to think about the weight of a snow load. A good foot of wet snow can add serious weight to the roof. I felt that the smooth tin roof will be eaiser to shead the show off the roof than the Odura that is heavily textured. Just a little sun will heat the metal roof and allow the snow to slide off.

That said, I think the Odura is much better than the plastic panels that tend to crack, break and be flimsy. Given that the Odura and Tin roof is the same cost and even less than the plastic/fiberglass panels, it is a no brainer to me.