Yaye! Worked out how to post pic of my coop build progress!!

[kiwiegg]

{sorry about double post, I'm having a heck of a time posting to BYC with my desktop}

I'm so happy. Been trying to post a pic and with help from a fellow BYCer finally have success! What do you think? I took the "Building Chicken Coops for Dummies" walk-in coop plan and modified it so I could put in a proper door etc. Do you like the hen weather vane?? I would love to hear any suggestions going forward and I can take constructive criticism - so be honest! The people door wall faces East and the sawhorse wall is south.

My plan is to have the chicken door coming out of South wall to run. North wall has matching 2 louvred vents with no window and west wall matching vent with no window. I put in the ridge vent to help long term roof health too.

I need to staple hardware cloth to the cedar trim around the exterior windows and predator proof the gap caused by concrete blocks - does anyone have any ideas how to effectively do this? I cant decide how to orientate the run. I could just make a large rectangle coming out from the sawhorse side but it would be nice to utilize the pine trees/shade too. I have plenty of room for a run - how big would you make it for 16 hens? My 16 Gold Star chicks don"t arrive till next week so I have time - just want to get the run right the first time.

Thanks for any input or suggestions - this is the time I can change things if needed!

 

[Melinda35]

Very nice coop! Love the color. As for the run I would go whichever direction has the best drainage and shade. I would also put linoleum down in the bottom of your coop for easy cleaning. Trust me I have learned my lesson! My coop is about to get a complete makeover before my Salmon Favs arrive May 9.

 

[kiwiegg]

Thank you Melinda. My wife asked me to match the color with a playhouse I built for our kids a couple of years ago. I am taking your advice and putting down linoleum this weekend - I picked up some really cheap stuff yesterday. Drainage over there is really good in each direction but I had thought about shade too - I just want to cut in the chicken door ONCE so I need to figure where the run starts first. Maybe a "L" shaped run coming out the south side and wrapping around the west side. We live In Minnesota and I just keep picturing them soaking up every second of sun in the winter on the south side. Heat will be an issue in summer though.

 

[fiddlebanshee]

By the looks of it you have a lot of room. So why not have your run enclose all three sides that don't have the people door in it. I have 14 chickens, my run is 20x32, it's already bare. I thought that would be plenty of room for the girls, and it is, but it is not remotely the same as having them free roam. For runs, I think, bigger is better. I'm going to extend my run with electronet fencing that I got to deter a bear from taking any interest in our chickens and cordon off a section to give them at east twice the amount of space that they now have. If I can figure out a cost effective way to cover this new area we're all set, putting down the electronet is really easy. My run is completely covered with hardware cloth, so they have a safe area they can retreat back into.

Also, if you get a lot of rain it may be worthwhile to cover part of the run with a roof to give them shelter while they still can be outside.

 

[kiwiegg]

Hey thanks fiddlebanshee. I like the 3 sided idea! The only worry I have about that (apart from the work

) is the cost of the hardware cloth as I would still have to have it sides and top with enough room to walk under, right? Those pine trees are only about 10' from the north side of coop too. I REALLY like your suggestion though. I am confident in framing a run and stapling cloth to it but still cant visualize how I predator proof the bottom perimeter. In the future I really hope to let them free range our yard while I am here but its such a mystery to me regarding neighborhood dogs, will chix stay around etc.

 

[HippieChick76]

Lovely coop! I bought that book and like some of the ideas in it. I just keep doubting my carpentry skills since they are virtually non-existent, lol!

 

[kiwiegg]

Oh, I think I get it. Did you mean to go around 3 sides of coop with run but actually use the coop as part of the run wall instead of all that extra wire? I would just need to attach overhead wire to the coop (maybe put up some sort of ledger board to attach it to?)

 

[kiwiegg]

Hippiechick - you can TOTALLY do it! You learn carpentry skills from DOING!!! Mistakes are not a big deal, just always think one step ahead.I would help you through this forum and I'm sure others would too. Just be wary of the walk-in plan from dummies book. The initial framing plan is flawed but was easily fixed once I realized what they had done. It's really satisfying building your own. Start looking around for used vinyl windows etc. Mine were $20 each!

 

[fiddlebanshee]

Yes that's what I meant. Incorporate the coop in one of the run walls.If you scroll down on my member page you'll see how I did this. I wanted the coop under the roof since we made some error in judgement on how the water would run off the roof of the coop itself creating a mud mess in the run so I didn't want any rain to hit the roof of the coop, but in your case you could let the coop itself stick out a bit.

On attaching hardware cloth -- as you can see in my pictures I fastened this with screws and washers. Staples are usually considered not strong enough. On the cost -- yes the hardware cloth was easily as expensive as the entire coop, but it is worth my piece of mind. The lowest point in the run is about 6 ft so we can comfortably walk in it.

 

[kiwiegg]

Great ideas and advice, thank you. I guess if I'm going to attach the run on 3 sides I could think about a covered section? It gets pretty darn windy up here, not to mention snow - maybe a temporary tarp system would work.