This build began in the 3rd week of August this year and culminated today. The design was based off of about two month's worth of research and development, mostly gained from this website. This design is for a small backyard flock and thus will not be geared towards those of you looking for extreme functionality and bang for your buck. We have six birds and the coop is a central feature of our small backyard so it had to both be aesthetic as well as functional for the birds. So we probably spent a little more than most when it comes down to it. I am not a framer nor a master builder, my experience comes from my time working as an electrician as well as my education in civil engineering, and this is my first building from the ground up. Here is our version of the Wichita coop.
I started with preparing the ground for the coop. I had extra pavers that I had torn out when I built the dog run so I decided to use them for the base of the coop. Our backyard has quite a few flooding issues when it does rain so I decided to incorporate some pea gravel into the foundation so that it will drain better. I also used the less expensive chicken wire to secure the bottom of the coop and save some money over the hardware cloth...I had hoped this would keep me from having to buy more rolls towards the end of the build. Here is the foundation:
Once I was able to get the pavers relatively plumb we went vertical. I chose to raise the front and back frames first and work from there. I ended up dropping a foot vertically in about 5 feet horizontal for my roof slope. I had just over 6 feet in height on the front frame and around 4.5 feet on the back. My goal was to leave myself enough room to be able to clean out the run when needed (I'm 6'1" tall) and later I wanted to ensure that I could support all my weight on the flooring of the hen house (I'm 220 pounds).
The focus now shifted to getting the roof on so that I can figure out my siding dimensions. I chose to use house siding for the roofing material and a "fancier" siding material for the actual sides of the hen house. My goal here was to correctly frame out the window, nest box and to set myself up for success with the floor although I had not decided yet how I would accomplish these things.
Time to get the siding on as well as add some extra bracing to the floor boards. I decided to cover the boards with OSB then to go over the top of this with some cement board to add some good moisture resistance. I began to close in the side with the egg box but left the others open. I also needed to decide how to construct the hen house door.
I was able to score a pretty good deal on vinyl flooring strips so decided to stick them to the cement board once I screwed it down to the OSB. The hen house door was made by taking a siding panel and framing it with smaller boards. I also began construction on the egg house.
Focus shifted to the chicken pop door that I wanted to install so that I could close them up completely on cold winter nights. I had left two sides of the hen house open at this point without siding so that I could make some corrections freely. This was one of the trickier parts of the build for me but turned out to really work well. I built the pop door to be fairly heavy and left a slot that allowed it to travel fully to the bottom of the hen house. The door can be raised and lowered via the attached rope from the outside of the coop.
With the pop door framed out it was time to think about the remainder of the siding and getting the first coats of paint onto the coop. My wife handled the painting as I continued to work on the intricate cuts that were ahead of me.
Going to call it a night at this post...will do my best to continue it to the end before the week is over. Up to this point in the build the only mistake I made that cost me some money was to cut a board too short. $3 mistake. I do have some pics of my roosts, the egg box divider and the vent holes I cut in. All will be on full display later in the week!
I started with preparing the ground for the coop. I had extra pavers that I had torn out when I built the dog run so I decided to use them for the base of the coop. Our backyard has quite a few flooding issues when it does rain so I decided to incorporate some pea gravel into the foundation so that it will drain better. I also used the less expensive chicken wire to secure the bottom of the coop and save some money over the hardware cloth...I had hoped this would keep me from having to buy more rolls towards the end of the build. Here is the foundation:
Once I was able to get the pavers relatively plumb we went vertical. I chose to raise the front and back frames first and work from there. I ended up dropping a foot vertically in about 5 feet horizontal for my roof slope. I had just over 6 feet in height on the front frame and around 4.5 feet on the back. My goal was to leave myself enough room to be able to clean out the run when needed (I'm 6'1" tall) and later I wanted to ensure that I could support all my weight on the flooring of the hen house (I'm 220 pounds).
The focus now shifted to getting the roof on so that I can figure out my siding dimensions. I chose to use house siding for the roofing material and a "fancier" siding material for the actual sides of the hen house. My goal here was to correctly frame out the window, nest box and to set myself up for success with the floor although I had not decided yet how I would accomplish these things.
Time to get the siding on as well as add some extra bracing to the floor boards. I decided to cover the boards with OSB then to go over the top of this with some cement board to add some good moisture resistance. I began to close in the side with the egg box but left the others open. I also needed to decide how to construct the hen house door.
I was able to score a pretty good deal on vinyl flooring strips so decided to stick them to the cement board once I screwed it down to the OSB. The hen house door was made by taking a siding panel and framing it with smaller boards. I also began construction on the egg house.
Focus shifted to the chicken pop door that I wanted to install so that I could close them up completely on cold winter nights. I had left two sides of the hen house open at this point without siding so that I could make some corrections freely. This was one of the trickier parts of the build for me but turned out to really work well. I built the pop door to be fairly heavy and left a slot that allowed it to travel fully to the bottom of the hen house. The door can be raised and lowered via the attached rope from the outside of the coop.
With the pop door framed out it was time to think about the remainder of the siding and getting the first coats of paint onto the coop. My wife handled the painting as I continued to work on the intricate cuts that were ahead of me.
Going to call it a night at this post...will do my best to continue it to the end before the week is over. Up to this point in the build the only mistake I made that cost me some money was to cut a board too short. $3 mistake. I do have some pics of my roosts, the egg box divider and the vent holes I cut in. All will be on full display later in the week!
