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The Baker's Dozen Chicken Coop
The Baker's Dozen
So one day
my wife tells me the feed store has baby chickens and wouldn't it be
wonderful to raise our own chickens. I gave her that look, you know the
one that could pierce concrete, and remind her that we know nothing
about raising chickens. She suggests that perhaps we should at least
research it. That research brought us to the most concise pool of
chicken information on the web, backyardchickens.com.
That's when it happened... we were trapped by the romance of dozens of
free eggs and a SIMPLE little project for our home schooled children to
tackle. And so it began, the quest for our own Baker's Dozen.
A quick
visit to the feed store found us the proud new parents of 13 day old
baby chicks. We had no idea what the different kinds would do for us
but we decided on two of each kind they had plus one that the lady
promised us would lay green eggs. I was awestruck, I couldn't wait for
my first plate of green eggs and ham. Here are the 13 lucky additions
to our family.
We built our brooder out of a store shipping crate, you can see the rest.
I began
researching the different coop designs on the Internet and finally
decided that I would just make my own. I evaluated the location I had
chosen for our coop and then researched how much space would be needed
for each chicken. The following design was what I settled on.
Here is the
floor of our coop, the next picture shows the vinyl being installed.
This of course makes for easier cleaning. Not my idea but I sure do
like it.
I
would like to mention that while I did have to purchase much of the
wood, I also recycled anything that I could. The vinyl here is a scrap
from our local Lowe's. I think it was around $8. The landscape timbers
and the blocks used to level the chicken house were already sitting
unused in my yard.
The next
thing I did was to actually make a window. I did this now because I was
using a piece of Plexiglas and again some recycled scrap wood I picked
up at the local habitat for humanity resale shop.
After I made
the window I designed the rest of the coop. I made sure that the
opening for the window fit the window I had made. If you wanted to
build this coop I would recommend that you adjust accordingly to what
you have available. Simply resize openings, door frames, etc to your
needs.
The walls
were built one at a time on the ground. After we had constructed the
four different walls we then raised them on the already built platform.
This is the wall for the window.
Here the walls are going up. The end to the right is where the door will go.
Another view of the framed coop.
My next part
of this project after installing the back wall was to construct a
roof. I did this by simply building an 8x8 frame, studding it in like
you would a wall, and then attaching metal roofing to the frame. We
lifted it up on the coop and attached with small blocks in the front to
create the needed pitch for drainage and snow melt in the winter.
You'll
notice the overhang in the back. This will later provide a sheltered
area for gathering the eggs from the nest boxes. I attached this with
metal braces I picked up at Lowe's.
Next came
the siding. We decided to begin painting as soon as I began hanging the
siding mainly because the weather had been anything but cooperative for
several weeks.
My children were all a big help during this project.
Don't want to forget my Dear Wife.... Painting into the long hours of the night.
We decided to dig eight inch deep trenches all around the area that would become the chicken run.
We set the fence down into the ground and then doubled it over before burying it in an attempt to ward off predators.
A layer of wire over the top completes the run.
The run is complete, now it's time to move back to the other side of the coop and build the nest boxes.
The nest box
area is constructed by extending pieces of 2x4 out 18 inches and then
boxing the opening in to create an extended area where the chickens can
nest.
I used
pieces of trim to make slots for thin wood to slide into. I did this so
I can remove the dividers if needed for cleaning and also it makes it
reconfigurable if necessary.
A hinged door over the nest boxes makes outside access and egg gathering easier when the time comes.
The door was a leftover one from the previous owner of our house. I cut it down to fit my six foot tall chicken house.
The window
functions perfectly. It helps to keep the temperature regulated by
allowing air flow into the house. The window opening is covered with
1/4 inch hardware wire as is the opening up by the roof which serves as
the vent. In the winter I will close the window and stuff newspaper
into the vent opening by the roof.
Here are some pictures of our finished coop and chickens in action.
This was my
first attempt at a home made feeder. It is simply PVC pipe with a
pretzel can on top. I quickly realized that the can was not enough food
for these fast growing chickens.
My new and improved model.
Here is their now in use nest area...
My version
of the automatic waterer....auto-fill dog bowl, hooked to a bucket.
There is a stove grate in front of the waterer that has all but
eliminated the lady's climbing into the water bowl. The slots are big
enough for their heads to go through to get a drink when they need one.
All that's left now is to gather those wonderful eggs. Thanks for visiting and stop by again soon...
I hope you
have enjoyed seeing our chicken coop. Sometime in the future I plan on
adding small sliding doors over the vent area near the roof. This would
allow me to better regulate the temperature for the upcoming winter.
After building this coop I also added a rope with a hook on it in the
middle of the run. We often hang cabbages from this line. It will
tickle you silly to watch the chickens playing a game of edible tether
ball. I want to add a board in front of the nest boxes to keep the
girls from throwing the straw out to the floor. We are using a deep
litter method and I don't really want straw on the floor because I have
heard it is more likely to mold and hold moisture. I will get to that
pretty soon. Thanks for stopping by and visiting The Baker's Dozen.
My Nephew... The Chick Magnet. (We threw a sheet up for this picture and photoshop'd the border)
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