I've only been a chicken owner for under 2yrs and my Summer project this year was to build a new chicken coop to replace the one that the previous home owners built decades ago. I'd never really fabricated anything this big from scratch before and I did it all on weekends by myself, so 4 months later it's still not quite finished but close enough that the 17 new tenants will be moving in before the end of the month - so I figure it's done enough to start showing it here!
It all started with last year's discovery of a nice stack of corrugated roof panels stashed away behind the shop at my inlaws place, waiting to be used again in a future project - FREE metal roof for my new future chicken coop, yeah!!! Guess I should start planning something.....
I looked at A LOT of chicken coop designs over the past year, mentally noting some awesome features I've seen and then sketching out a few things here and there. When I finally got serious about actually making something I consulted with my wife to get her take on preferred aesthetics. We are both fans of modern home design and also fans of "sea ranch" houses like those we've admired when vacationing on the coast here in NorCal, so I suppose the resulting design goes toward that aesthetic.
Had a rough idea of what I wanted and did make some sketches but I never drew up any actual plans because that's just not how I tend to work unless I have to, lol. I knew for sure there were a few mandatory things: ultra secure to keep out predators since it was going to be away from the house and adjacent the 20ac of nothing behind our property; coop floor height had to be tall enough to simply rake out into wheelbarrow; and lastly I wanted a sleek modern design where the nesting boxes weren't protruding from the exterior. I also decided the coop should be similar sized to the existing coop, around 5x8 footprint with a bigger run than the old coop (later I'll be adding more expanded run space). Seemed simple enough, but nothing I build ends up simple, hahahaha
The old coop
Here's my "Pri-kup truck" in the orchard with materials for the cinder block foundation. Yes, I get a lot of weird looks when people watch me pushing cart loaded full of materials up to a Prius. Jaws almost drop when they see it swallow two dozen 2x4s inside it hehe
Then I just started digging trenches by hand and laying out blocks so I could get a visual on the footprint....
To be continued......
It all started with last year's discovery of a nice stack of corrugated roof panels stashed away behind the shop at my inlaws place, waiting to be used again in a future project - FREE metal roof for my new future chicken coop, yeah!!! Guess I should start planning something.....
I looked at A LOT of chicken coop designs over the past year, mentally noting some awesome features I've seen and then sketching out a few things here and there. When I finally got serious about actually making something I consulted with my wife to get her take on preferred aesthetics. We are both fans of modern home design and also fans of "sea ranch" houses like those we've admired when vacationing on the coast here in NorCal, so I suppose the resulting design goes toward that aesthetic.
Had a rough idea of what I wanted and did make some sketches but I never drew up any actual plans because that's just not how I tend to work unless I have to, lol. I knew for sure there were a few mandatory things: ultra secure to keep out predators since it was going to be away from the house and adjacent the 20ac of nothing behind our property; coop floor height had to be tall enough to simply rake out into wheelbarrow; and lastly I wanted a sleek modern design where the nesting boxes weren't protruding from the exterior. I also decided the coop should be similar sized to the existing coop, around 5x8 footprint with a bigger run than the old coop (later I'll be adding more expanded run space). Seemed simple enough, but nothing I build ends up simple, hahahaha
The old coop
Here's my "Pri-kup truck" in the orchard with materials for the cinder block foundation. Yes, I get a lot of weird looks when people watch me pushing cart loaded full of materials up to a Prius. Jaws almost drop when they see it swallow two dozen 2x4s inside it hehe
Then I just started digging trenches by hand and laying out blocks so I could get a visual on the footprint....
To be continued......
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