Pictures of the coop I built and my chickens

I've been promising this for years and guess now is an okay time to reveal my reality. :) Yes, I built it with my own hands, and I know it isn't that great and was never really finished, but I'm still very proud of myself, having never built anything like in my life and not a clue to what I was doing. DGer's encouraged me or I would never have even tried it.

I have to say it was the most difficult thing and the most fun thing I've ever done in my life!

Yes, I'm a bit embarrassed, but I suspect I'll get over it.

This message was edited Mar 22, 2011 4:11 PM

Another angle.

Inside the box.

The door and the ideal chickens. You can't see them too well, but they are really not too "poofy" like the four better silkies I bought later.

What I like about it, is it has a box for them to be in at night and be safe and warm, and it also has the small run to get out in during the day if I need to go out of town and keep them locked up. The bottom has the 1/2 inch hardware cloth and nothing can get in.. I hope. Usually I have a blue tarp over the top since I never did put the roof on it. The plywood I put on the top should have been the thicker kind. This one has started to warp, and the wire is not fastened good, hence the brick. :) The tarp covers all that up.

I have eleven hens here and all seems to be going okay for them.

Since silkies like to be close to the ground it is sufficient. Other chickens probably need a high place to roost.

I think you did a great job,I would like to try to build something like that but I have no confedence in my self as far a building anything,Ha d to edit so I could tell you that I love your silkies,I just love mine two,I have no really fuffy ones but thats ok they are just two cute no matter what they look like.

This message was edited Mar 22, 2011 5:09 PM

Kind of funny when I think back about it. I went to the hardware store where they sell lumber and told them I wanted to build a chicken coop. The man asked "How big, I mean what size" and I had no idea. So first, you have to figure that part out. :)

I like Michael's better, but I doubt he's as proud of himself as I was, and still am.

It is a great coop! You got the door done well.. that is really hard! I'd like to have a few just like it for chicks.. It's perfect!

I know the pain of trying to figure it out.. trust me.. LOL My big coop was so frustrating cause I didn't have plans, and as I went, I realized I needed something other than what I was doing! LOL

Thanks Z, I appreciate that. Yours are very pretty. This one is an eye sore, but oh well, it serves it's purpose.

I never had anyone teach me anything about carpentry. I had to learn to saw a board into. All I had was a circular saw and a drill to put the screws in.

Maybe you guys can help me plan something for the horse lot. This time I want a big one that I can walk inside. I know it must be predator proof, you all have taught me that. Michael's cement solved his predators from digging under. Cement here is quite a bit more expensive I think.

LFJ, it's a nice coop for your Silkies, you did a great job!

Thanks AnnieB, that made me laugh. I really did work hard on it, and it took me months. I put together the two sides and bottom with boards and hardware cloth then put the sides together. It was much more difficult than I anticipated. It was very hard to envision what I was supposed to be doing. It didn't turn out like I was hoping, but it turned out. The materials cost more than I thought they would. The hardware cloth gets dingy looking after awhile too.

It would probably look better if it were painted, but I don't like paint. I'm afraid of the birds eating it.

I would like it better if the eggs were easier to get to. The way it is now, I sit down inside the box to get to the eggs. I tell myself it is good exercise.

The fact that you were determined enough to do it say's a lot. I think you did a great job. It works and is very functional, A pretty house, maybe even a larger house someday is in your future, in the meantime the eggs and the fun you have are always going to be the same. You should be proud of your self. I love that white silkie sitting in the box, she looks so content...Hay

I think you did a good job on your coop! I find it fun to build my own too even if they are not architectural marvels.

Yes, I might be dangerous if I had any energy. :) As it is, I mostly sit here and dream.

You did a good job! That coop is very functional and the chicks really don't care if it is painted or not.

I have to get that horse lot cleaned up. It's in a sad sad state, and needs equipment brought in and all that junk hauled out of there. All I want to keep is my wood pile and the two bathtubs.

I know I can't do it myself. Sometimes I can't even wash my own dishes. Not whining, those are just the facts.

Is any of the "junk" usable, recyclable? I have had guys with a truck offer to haul off trash for the scrap metal that was in it.

As a matter of fact I just took two men out there last week that wanted the metal. So, yes some of it is. They may help me clean it up, the only problem is, they are a bit shifty if you know what I mean. I don't usually let people in my lot, but found myself showing them my roosters. Later, I thought, "What in the world was I doing?"

Who knows, they may be ok. You just never know. They hauled off an old water cooler and swing set for me from my backyard. They seemed happy to get it, and I was happy to be rid of it.

They say they build fences, so that's a plus too. After the junk is gone and the donkey can move around in the back, a fence of some sort will have to go up. If I was brave, I would take pictures. It's really terrible though. The wasteco company wants $175 to bring out a rolloff for the weekend, and then $30 a ton. I have old railroad ties too. Not sure if I want to keep those. They might be useful to bury around the chicken coops to keep animals from digging.

One of my problems is, I can't decide what I want to do. There are fences that made two pens in the front that have been there 60 or more years, that seem normal to me, and I kind of like them there, but the posts are wood and rotting and starting to fall down. So part of me wants to just tear it all down, another part of me says, put up new posts and leave the fence. The metal part is old but still usable.

I read a website the other day about serotonin and dopamine. Serotonin is the chemical of the brain that makes us feel happy and calm. Dopamine it said, helps us make decisions. My mother, grandfather, and great grandmother all had Parkinsons disease which is partly a lack of dopamine in the brain. So, I wonder about myself sometimes. Should I do this, should I do that... on and on, until I finally just say "I don't know" and give up. :)

It really does need to be cleaned up and I have some money to do it now. It's just deciding how and who to get to help me.

Oh and yes, another thing I have to decide too very soon. Do I put a new motor in that Tbird sitting out there or junk it. :( My daughter blew the motor out and I had it towed in there. So, that's another thing that has to be done. Decisions decisions. It's a 96 and was a pretty little car. I hated to see it mistreated. There is a man that puts motors in for $500. It's been sitting there under a canvas tarp for three years, so I'm not even sure what it looks like now. The donkey's large bale of hay is in front of it , so I'll have to wait until he eats his hay down to tow it out anyway.

Yes, I'm a mess. Maybe I'll take some pictures and you can all help me figure out what to do. It might be quite entertaining.

Hi, Light,
Was just looking at your coop, is it just for chicks or for the full grown ones too? I am planning to get chicks, but need to have a place for them to stay. We have the room for a pen but this would have to be a project i could handle on my own. Hubby isnt sold on the idea of haiving chickens, rabbits, ducks etc. Im thinking i could built a small coop like yours, but then after the chicks are grown wouldnt I need a regular house for them to roost and lay?
I know i would have to cover the top of the pen to keep predators out.
So, my question is, should i just build a small pen and call it good or get a handyman to go ahead and build a regular sized chicken house?
BTW your little coop looks fine, it works, and thats what youre aiming for.:)
thanks :)

This small one would be ideal for introducing new chickens or chicks to the established flock,Put it in the run and leave them in it for a few days or weeks and everyone would be used to the others and when you let them out it would be easier on everyone as they have seen them and heard them.

My chickens are silkies and they don't seem to mind being on the ground to sleep. I have 11 bantam hens and no problems whatsoever. They probably would like a few roosts in there, and maybe that'll be my next project. These usually get in the nest boxes and sleep. When it's really cold there might be 7 in one nest box. They know how to keep warm. :)

Regular sized chickens that are not silkies like to roost up high, or so I've read and been told. People are making chicken tractors they move around the yard and they are all low to the ground, so I just imagine the chickens do with whatever they are given. If they think it's home where they sleep for the night, they will go in, especially if they were raised in there as chicks. Some chickens fly up into the trees and roost at night. I had an online friend that had fighting chickens at his house, and they all roosted in the trees, right over his jeep. He wasn't happy about that. Silkies do not fly and was one reason I prefered them. In my neighborhood chickens running around outside my fence just would not do!

How I am going on. What was the question again? I forgot. Just so thrilled somebody asked me something and wants some chickens. woohoo

I knew NOTHING about building anything. I went with 1X4X8 boards, which was not really sturdy enough and ended up doubling them all around. My original plan was to make it light so I could move it around. I would suggest you use 2X4 by whatever length you are wanting. Here's what I did. Took the boards and set them parallel and put the 3 foot high, 1/2 inch hardware cloth on them. My coop is 3 feet high, four feet wide, and 8 feet long. People staple the hardware cloth but I didn't have a stapler so I used screws and metal washers. I saw that done at a feed store I buy chicken feed from. I thought it looked neat.

Then, at the end I cut my plywood 3X3 and screwed it on at the end. Of the 8 feet, 5 feet are wire for the run, and the other 3 feet are the plywood. I made three of those. Probably I should have made four and used it for the top.

It's the planning and trying to figure out what you want to do and how you are going to do it that is the most difficult part. After you have a plan, it will probably go smoothly. Did you see Zz's coops she builds?

Google chicken tractors and you'll see so many. I used to save pictures of chicken coops and tractors.

Chickens are the best things since peanut butter, I promise. You won't regret it, at least I don't.

Karen

Chickens are addictive. I don't know very many chicken people who have been able to kick the habit.

That's how I put the wire on.

Pretty clever!

I feel better :). I did one of my newest coops that way, too. Staples seemed too flimsy. The most recent one I used small heavy fence staples and the screws and washers, as I didn't have enough of either to do the whole thing. Worked out okay, the screws are in the corners and stress points, and the staples in between. Hopefully it will suffice :)

Here is the inside.

Do you have the impression I like blue? The painter has been here painting for me, I am so happy about that. The tree trimmers trimmed the trees too and left me all the branches to burn. Now, if I can only figure out a way to get a laptop and a lounge chair I can sit outside at night by the tiki light and the new firepit, bought on clearance last week, and surf the internet this summer in the backyard. I can hook the phone wire right into that phone box on the house and get dsl.

Wouldn't that be bratty of me?

Eufaula you will appreciate this. That cat was my first trapped catch. She is wild and has been eating outside on the porch with my old fifteen year old cat. So, I trapped her the other day and sent her to the vet to be spayed. My window is tinted so she couldn't see me or she would have run away.

Guess you can tell the painter is working in the front too. Can't tell you how happy I am about the painting. The wood was starting to look really bad. I am blessed.

Did we miss a picture?

All our barn cats are feral cats that we have trapped and "fixed" before releasing back in the barn.

Yes sorry

LFJ, You worked really hard on this!! IT paid off, good going girl!!

Thanks for taking care of the kitty. She'll be happier in the long run...

Um, don't the chickens get a blue house too? It looks so sad from the chicken's eye view. That lovely blue on the Human house, and nothing on the Chicken house....surely there's a bit of leftover paint....

Sorry, couldn't help it :)

I keep thinking what if the paint starts to peel later on and the chickens eat it? That's my whole objection, plus paint is so toxic to breath. I really don't like paint, it makes me sick.

Eufaula, yes I really did work hard on it, and it took me three months I think. With my health it was slow going. The doctors have finally discovered that lupus attacks the nerves to the muscles, not the muscles themselves, but the nerves to them. That is what makes us feel so tired and weak, though we look perfectly normal. Very frustrating, but I am SO very grateful to know what is wrong with me. So many years I suffered and never knew why. At least now I know why and that is such a relief. Half the people with lupus are undiagnosed. That's a tragedy.

So sorry about your health :(.

Yes, paint can toxic, but it also protects the wood. I use latex, and haven't had issues, but it's very much a personal choice. I certainly understand avoiding it :)

An antique store near me sells "milk paint" which is supposed to be non-toxic, but I doubt it's going to last long in the weather.

We have an old unused dog pen that could be turned into a chicken pen! All i would do is put chicken wire over the top to keep predators out.

I love the idea of a chicken tractor.:)

awesome, I love homemade projects...