build a chicken coop

My dear husband got half the roofing up today – tar paper, flashing, shingles. I did things like find the tape measure, hold the ladder and hand shingles up the ladder to him. Can’t say that I did any actual building, but at least I’m helping, right? As a thank you to my husband, I even cooked dinner (and I HATE cooking).

It’s taken me forever to post photos on my blog, but the photos from June are now up: http://highdesertgardening.blogspot.com/2008/08/coop-building-part-one.html ... not sure when the next set of photos will be posted, but we have outside walls, floors, a locking door, a little porch and roof trusses so far. And the run is completely fenced in. We still need a window, vent, fan, roof, inside walls and the “finish” for the flooring (linoleum? paint? ??)

I have been wanting to do this for months now. Since Im job less I think i can get it done. it is a fun project to do with my grandfather i hope i finish soon cause Marcos and Pingüino are getting too big for there cage.

Here are some pictures. I finally finished it. Excuse the clutter around and on it right now lol. I just finished it and took the pictures before picking up all of my tools and scrap. On top, I have rocks holding down the ridge cap while the caulk dries. Then I will trim it up. Inside there are two heat lamps on a thermostat, astro turf in the nest boxes (leading down to a gutter), and an egg gutter so we can collect eggs from the outside easier and the eggs stay cleaner. The floor is all wire and sets on the ground now that it is finished. Total cost $300.
Enjoy.

Half of one wall left to put on, then I have to paint the whole thing. If all goes well (no rain), I will be done tomorrow evening. Then it will have time to dry. The chicks are scheduled to hatch friday through sunday. It all has to be done by then. We will see.

We bought the plans for the Playhouse Chicken coop off of ebay and I made a few adjustments. I love the look of this chicken coop, but I wanted to have one big enough to house closer to 10 chickens. So I made some adjustments and wah-la! It’s done. We love it, and our chickens love it, too! We learned a lot and got a lot of good use of our tools and built our confidence as well!

My wife is tired of paying so much for eggs so she came home with 9 dozen eggs and 2 incubators. After hearing her reason, I ran the numbers and found it would take 6 years to break on fresh eggs after building a coop and feeding 25 chickens. I told her the only way to be worth it is if we butcher our own chickens to eat also. She agreed so I started building. In a couple days it will be complete. I also candled all of the eggs today and narrowed it down to 42 eggs with live embryos in them. Now all are in an modified hovabator I bought for her with turners, digital thermometer/hygrometer, custom industrial aluminum 60mm 11cfm fan, and push-button power switch for the fan so it can be turned off the last few days when we need higher humidity.

I will take pictures of the final coop when I am done.

Im hatching chicken eggs but im only going to get one chick! I want t obuild a tiny cage for it so no dogs cats coyotes foxes or any other animals can get into it but i dont no how to im still in elemenary school and i want to no how to have a nice living space for my new chick!! :)

Im hatching chicken eggs but im only going to get one chick! I want t obuild a tiny cage for it so no dogs cats coyotes foxes or any other animals can get into it but i dont no how to im still in elemenary school and i want to no how to have a nice living space for my new chick!! :)

I got the shed, but I am clueless about what to do on the inside…I have 4 hens coming, when I am ready for them…but, I think i have to get something for them to nest in, and build a fence??? Anyone KNOW???