A simple chicken coop idea

[handrosilva239]

Need ideas for a simple chicken coop for four with a run.?

 

[limaro]

DH and I are construction impaired. Maybe this will inspire you? We wanted to keep cutting to a minimum and keep the design as idiot proof as possible.
We just finished a simple coop by putting together 2 used doors and 2 shutters. Painted it and added some roost bars, cut an opening in the bottom and made a ladder.




I wish I'd taken pictures of the assembly. The doors and shutters are screwed into a simple square of 2x4's at the top and bottom. The floor and roof just sit on top of the squares, and the corrugated roof is tacked on top. The front shutter is hinged to swing open as a door.

The run was a bit more trouble, but not too bad. We made 4 8ft x8ft panels (one has an opening for a simple screen door), covered them with the hardware cloth. Then raised them and screwed them together into blocks of wood at the corners.

 

[handrosilva239]

DH and I are construction impaired. Maybe this will inspire you? We wanted to keep cutting to a minimum and keep the design as idiot proof as possible. We just finished a simple coop by putting together 2 used doors and 2 shutters. Painted it and added some roost bars, cut an opening in the bottom and made a ladder. I wish I'd taken pictures of the assembly. The doors and shutters are screwed into a simple square of 2x4's at the top and bottom. The floor and roof just sit on top of the squares, and the corrugated roof is tacked on top. The front shutter is hinged to swing open as a door. The run was a bit more trouble, but not too bad. We made 4 8ft x8ft panels (one has an opening for a simple screen door), covered them with the hardware cloth. Then raised them and screwed them together into blocks of wood at the corners.

Thanks .! But what size wood did you use to build the run.?

 

[CHIKENROOKIE]

Coop in pic, next to fenced off old garden area covered with aviary netting.

 

[RichnSteph]

DH and I are construction impaired. Maybe this will inspire you? We wanted to keep cutting to a minimum and keep the design as idiot proof as possible.
We just finished a simple coop by putting together 2 used doors and 2 shutters. Painted it and added some roost bars, cut an opening in the bottom and made a ladder.




I wish I'd taken pictures of the assembly. The doors and shutters are screwed into a simple square of 2x4's at the top and bottom. The floor and roof just sit on top of the squares, and the corrugated roof is tacked on top. The front shutter is hinged to swing open as a door.

The run was a bit more trouble, but not too bad. We made 4 8ft x8ft panels (one has an opening for a simple screen door), covered them with the hardware cloth. Then raised them and screwed them together into blocks of wood at the corners.

That is adorable!

 

[Going Quackers]

DH and I are construction impaired. Maybe this will inspire you? We wanted to keep cutting to a minimum and keep the design as idiot proof as possible.
We just finished a simple coop by putting together 2 used doors and 2 shutters. Painted it and added some roost bars, cut an opening in the bottom and made a ladder.




I wish I'd taken pictures of the assembly. The doors and shutters are screwed into a simple square of 2x4's at the top and bottom. The floor and roof just sit on top of the squares, and the corrugated roof is tacked on top. The front shutter is hinged to swing open as a door.

The run was a bit more trouble, but not too bad. We made 4 8ft x8ft panels (one has an opening for a simple screen door), covered them with the hardware cloth. Then raised them and screwed them together into blocks of wood at the corners.

very different! clever use of general materials. Love the footprints!

 

[Going Quackers]

Coop in pic, next to fenced off old garden area covered with aviary netting.

very nice, love the fencing and the 'porch' did you re purpose skids?

 

[limaro]

Handrosilva - the run is made from 8 ft long treated 2x4's, with a 2x2 horizontally across the middle. The 2x2 is for extra support, and to give us a place to attach the 48" hardware cloth strips.
We just made each panel an 8ft square because that is the length they sell them. We made the panels, then we cut 4 ft wide hardware cloth into 8 ft 4in lengths ( the extra 4 inches is for wrapping around the sides of the wood). While the panels were still flat on the ground, we used screws and washers to attach the hardware cloth.
Once they were all covered we set them upright into a square and set a block of scrap 4x4 wood at the top and bottom then screwed the panels into the blocks.
One more 2x4 runs across the center of the "roof" so we could cover it with hardware cloth too.

Am I making any sense? I feel like I'm probably not getting all the construction terminology right, but I hope you get the idea. It was really pretty easy.

One of my neighbors came over to admire it last night. He knows our skill level is vastly lower than his, and he generously called it "a marvel of engineering." I don't think he was being sarcastic....

 

[CHIKENROOKIE]

very nice, love the fencing and the 'porch' did you re purpose skids?

Yes, I used both pallets and one very large crate that housed a transmission for super huge dump truck. My brother in law has endless supples of that wood at his work lcation, so I am constantly creating!

My wife said it had the look of a old general store, she wants me to put up posts and extend the roofline out now. I have since stained it and looking for old tin signs to decorate the outside.

 

[duck hatcher]

My dad just took a kinda old playhouse from when my brothers were little, ripped the bottom off and replaced it, replaced the deck in the front, built some windows with screening, built a door, (otherwise it was just an open arch), filled in most of the small holes, and put some roosting bars up there. Then when they started laying eggs, he built roosting boxes. Then took some chicken wire and put it around it with tons of space to roam, put some clear fishing wire on top so if any eagles etc. swooped down, they would get stuck, which I thought was genius of him! Then he took the door to our old pool fence and connected it to the fence. Which the fence only comes in handy if there are eagles nearby, (otherwise they're always dirt bathing in our yard or digging in our neighbor's yard, and they have cats that luckily get along with them). When we had our bunnies, my dad also built them a bunny cage instead of buying one, and I'm glad he did. So he kinda took the idea from the bunny cage and just put it on the old playhouse! My dad was luckily wanting to build the coop! Then when we got our pekin ducks, he built a box in the chicken coop for them to get away from the chickens when they used to pick on them! Sorry I cant get a pic of it, I'm on my little chromebook OS, and it's pretty hard to get a decent picture of other things than my face. Plus its freezing in Ohio, snow is covering the coop, my laptop cant handle 2 degrees, and I cant either!