Building a Chicken Coop

I don’t consider myself to be completely inadequate when it comes to doing manly things, like working on cars or using power tools, but there are a few things I probably should have taken into consideration before we tackled the project of building a 6’x12’ structure that would house live animals. First, neither of us have a whole lot of building experience. Sure, I helped my step-dad frame the addition he built onto our house growing up, and helped him frame a house in Felida, albeit, only one wall. But I was 13 at the time, and I’m really sorry to whoever is living in that house if the wall fell down due to my inexperience! Second, we should have thought about materials we were using. We were doing this on the cheap, so we used the cheapest 2x4s and plywood we could find, to which so far the only downside is the plywood is a little warped, but still attached, so that’s a good thing. And third, we probably would have benefited from actual instructions, not unlike those for Lego models, instead of just a picture of somebody else’s coop we liked and copied.
 

It wasn’t difficult finding a location for the coop. Our backyard is practically split in half by a rock wall with stairs leading up to the upper half, where we have our dog do her business, so we can have a human yard that is free of poop. The only thing to think of now was which part of that upper half to place the coop. So, I would watch where the sun hits, noting how much each part of the yard receives, and decided the sunniest part got too much sun for chickens, but just right for a vegetable garden, and the opposite side got the least, perfect for keeping a chicken house cool in the summer.

With location figured out, and a picture to get us started, I mentally deconstructed the coop to figure out how much lumber we would need (thanks Lego building skills!) My partner felt we needed a second opinion, so we talked to his dad, who said that since we weren’t burying posts, we should build a trench, fill it partially with crushed gravel, and build the coop on 4x6 pressure treated skids. The lazy in me said FTS (sorry kiddos, what I said is not child friendly.) But, the real in me said that he was right. We needed the outside structure to be able to support the weight, and we didn’t want it flying off ala Wizard of Oz style during a wind storm. So the extra was added to our shopping list, along with a trip to the nearby feed store his dad had called to see if they had any chicks, and they did, so we picked a couple up to add to our other two we had in the garage before heading home.

So with our list, we went to the hardware store and picked up most everything we needed, adding a few more 2x4s and an extra sheet of plywood for safe measure. And when we got home, promptly unloaded everything into the backyard to cure for a few weeks… okay, so we really weren’t all that motivated to actually start the building process, gosh, get off my back! Dug the trench, filled with gravel, placed the 4x6 skids down and nailed them together with steel reinforcements, and now it’s time to build. Let me just say that the old rule of measure twice, cut once doesn’t help when your measurements are off. So we quickly followed a new rule, where all three of us (my partner, our friend, and myself) would each measure, and if we all came up with the same number, we cut! And just like that, the coop was complete… over the course of a month… during a particularly hot summer.

 

It hadn’t rained at all that summer, so we felt safe leaving it unpainted before moving 6 of the 9 birds into their new home. A week later, as I am priming the hen house, lo and behold, it starts to rain. So I decided to just leave it primed on the three sides that aren’t covered, and paint the rest at a later date. And of course, this means that after I had started to paint, it began raining again. But fortunately it was only a sprinkle, and a passing one at that, so with three sides primed and painted, I’d finish the one wall inside the coop come spring.

 

Now, the only thing we had left to do was stain the exposed 2x4s that were not outdoor grade, and we figured we would do that when we stained the deck we had just built… okay, my partner’s dad had just built with his help. So, after getting a great deal on a 5 gallon drum of stain the following July, we stained the deck, and decided to do the coop later. And so, yeah, you can probably guess that we still haven’t stained it. But soon… hopefully.