Anchoring a coop

[Skipcurt]

I'm in the process of designing & building my own coop/run. The henhouse will be 4' x 6' and the run will be 9' long x 6' with extra ground underneath the house area. It will look generally like the photo included but that is just a random generic photo.

My question is: Does anyone actually anchor the coop down anyway? I'm building on an unlevel area so I am putting down solid 4" x 8" x 16" concrete block and then pressure treated 2x4 on their side for the bottom apron.

I'm in the construction/building industry so I tend to overbuild but all I keep thinking is what might happen if a big storm blows in and moves the coop or worse yet, just lifts it away.

Thoughts?

Skip

 

[Hamiam]

I'm in the process of designing & building my own coop/run. The henhouse will be 4' x 6' and the run will be 9' long x 6' with extra ground underneath the house area. It will look generally like the photo included but that is just a random generic photo.

My question is: Does anyone actually anchor the coop down anyway? I'm building on an unlevel area so I am putting down solid 4" x 8" x 16" concrete block and then pressure treated 2x4 on their side for the bottom apron.

I'm in the construction/building industry so I tend to overbuild but all I keep thinking is what might happen if a big storm blows in and moves the coop or worse yet, just lifts it away.

Thoughts?

Skip

I didn't see a picture attached. I think if you should anchor it if you live in a high wind area & have no plans of moving it in the future?
We live in tornado alley but didn't anchor ours. We wanted to be able to move it if needed. We did make concrete squares for the legs to sit on.

 

[Pandasbecats]

Here is my 3x5 area coop (about 6 feet tall, more with the blocks). The place I put it was also uneven ground so I used pressurized wood and concrete blocks just like you're doing.

Don't know your design but when lifting the upper house part onto the stand for mine it took us 4 people and we still had a rough time. It was so heavy when finally finished that I never bothered to put an anchor on it. Live in Seattle though with the coop on the edge of some wooded area though, so your situation might be different.

 

[Skipcurt]

View attachment 1240598
I didn't see a picture attached. I think if you should anchor it if you live in a high wind area & have no plans of moving it in the future?
We live in tornado alley but didn't anchor ours. We wanted to be able to move it if needed. We did make concrete squares for the legs to sit on.

Sorry, forgot to upload the pic.
Being North GA we're not in a high wind area but we do get some remnant hurricane weather sometimes and well tornadoes do happen too but with no regularity. The coop will be in my fenced backyard so it probably would never happen but it was just something I thought about.

 

[Skipcurt]

View attachment 1240602 View attachment 1240604 View attachment 1240605 Here is my 3x5 area coop (about 6 feet tall, more with the blocks). The place I put it was also uneven ground so I used pressurized wood and concrete blocks just like you're doing.

Don't know your design but when lifting the upper house part onto the stand for mine it took us 4 people and we still had a rough time. It was so heavy when finally finished that I never bothered to put an anchor on it. Live in Seattle though with the coop on the edge of some wooded area though, so your situation might be different.

I see your setup is screwed/lagged together but not down to the blocks from what I can see. I will be doing similar but was thinking about mounting down to the blocks.

 

[Hen Pen Jem]

Greetings Skipcurt,

Sounds like your chickens will have a great coop to live in.

Consideration of weather conditions is so critical when planning the coop. We recently covered the run, so that the chickens could still go outside during rainy days, and so I wouldn't have to get drenched while tending to them. We also live in a flood zone, so we placed the coop on a small hill to prevent it from flooding out, which has also paid off! High winds are another weather condition we have to deal with living in a mountain pass. But, if you pitch the roof just slightly, water will run off and the wind force will be reduced.

Our coop is 12" off the ground, but 18" would be easier for me to rake out the poop. Stack concrete blocks, on the West side of the coop, provides wind protection for the chickens, as they sit under the coop in bad weather.
Here is a picture of our coop and run.

Here it is before the covered run addition. We had to use camo netting in the Summer for extra shade too!

There is a recreation pen that was also added, but not visible in these pictures. Also, predators have not been able to penetrate the perimeter of the pen, since we filled a 12 " trench with concrete and boulders, and set concrete pavers outside the pen to prevent digging into the pen.

Yup, if you get it right in the beginning, that will mean more to time to spend enjoying your flock!

Hope this was helpful.

God Bless.

 

[Skipcurt]

Here is one of the conceptual drawings of the side elevation. There is definitely pitch to the roof. I'm not locked in to the 2' 6" henhouse height. That floor can go up or down based on the slope of the ground.

Skip

 

[PirateGirl]

Following.
I live in a wind prone area. Anytime the weather forecast mentions high winds, it applies to our area. Tonight we are expecting 50-60mph winds, this is normal and average with storms bringing gusts closer to 100mph.

My chicken coop is on 4x4 stilts. The stilts are also the corners of the coop itself so they are fully incorporated and it's not a coop just sitting on top of a platform. To anchor it, they are dug into the ground at least a foot, as is the attached run fencing and fence posts. I do not have a concrete slab. The coop has approximately 24 inches of space underneath it that the chickens use as part of the run. So far, so good.

Our camper blew over onto it's side once. Other people's sheds and trailers (much larger than my coop) have blown over or blown away. There is no doubt in my mind that my coop could end up in the beaver ponds at the end of the street if not adequately anchored.

I am now building a small duck house (about 3.5 ft square). It is an A-frame that sits on the ground. (Apparently ducks don't like ramps or houses on stilts). Since it's smaller and not as high as the chicken coop it won't catch as much wind, however since it's smaller it's also lighter and won't take as much wind to move it. We are brainstorming now how to best anchor the duck house. So I'm following this thread while the duck house is under construction to see how others have anchored their various coops.

 

[Hen Pen Jem]

Here is one of the conceptual drawings of the side elevation. There is definitely pitch to the roof. I'm not locked in to the 2' 6" henhouse height. That floor can go up or down based on the slope of the ground.

Skip

Oh, and yes, our coop is bolted/anchored onto extra large concrete deck blocks, like the one shown below.

By the way, Skipcurt, your images are not uploading.

Are you using the blue, "Upload a File" button below?

 

[Skipcurt]

By the way, Skipcurt, your images are not uploading.

Are you using the blue, "Upload a File" button below?

They do upload when I don't zone out and forget to attach the jpg. My bad! I went back to both posts and edited to include my pics.