First Comes the Chicken

We have now been in our current house for a year and even though we don't believe this to be our final move, we can't help but get settled in and make the best of what we have. As we develop plans for our own personal space out back we have two goals in mind; make the yard fun and rewarding and have it help us become self-sufficient.  Just so you know, I'm your average stay-at-home mom who has NEVER done any wood working before.  I was starting from the very beginning.

This last spring I was inspired by neighbors to start my own little chicken flock.  After reviewing my city's regulations in regards to owning chickens I bought my first three chicks.   (I don't recommend doing it in that order)  I bought myself a Golden Blue Laced Wyandotte, Golden Wyandotte, and  Plymouth Rock.  My GBL ended up being a BOY so I gave him to a dairy where he is making GBL chicks.

 Something I learned while I was convinced he was a hen was that if you have a chicken that seems to be developing way faster than the others (red face, enlarged comb, pronounced waddle), doesn't tend to scare easy, has thicker legs, and the dead give away, your chicken begins to crow- you have a rooster.  I was shell shocked the first time he began to crow as I was so convinced he was a hen and thanks to "her" accelerated development would give me an egg any day.  Ummm, nope, no eggs, but yes, lots of crowing.  You can see his differences compared to my hens beside him.  See how he stands above the others?

My city's rules allow an unspecified amount of hens but NO roosters, so away he went.

I found a design I liked and I believed wouldn't be too hard to assemble.  I found my choice here:

http://www.backyardchickens.com/a/the-triple-c-the-crouches-chicken-coop

I didn't include all the "bells and whistles" that they did, but it did provide me with plans for a basic coop.  And just so you know, it was WAY harder than I anticipated to do by myself.  If I had more help, then it wouldn't have been so bad.  Just wanted you to know before you jump into this.

Next I bought my power tools (circular saw and rotary saw), read up on how to use them and watched many YouTube videos before I attempted to use the noisy, scary machines.  I got both my tools from Amazon: (to be coming)

I had my tools, now I needed my materials.  Here's a most comprehensive list as I can recall of the materials I used:

27  2x4x8s (I actually used 2x3s because they were much cheaper)
4  2x4x12s
2 2x4x12 pressurized treated wood
2 2x4x8 pressurized treated wood
14 small hinges
7 large hinges
4 latches
5 hook and eye latches (for the windows)
6 4x8 plywoods (two for top and bottom (less expensive plywood) and three for the sides (better looking plywood)
At least 1 gallon of paint if you plan on painting yours.  The plywood I bought for the sides was prepainted a color I liked so that saved a little on paint.
Hardware cloth (36x50 ft with 1/2 in squares) I found the best deal from Amazon: (to be coming)
Hardware cloth (24x50 ft 1/2 in squares)  I got this from Amazon, too: (to be coming)
1 pulley, 2 eye hooks, and nylon rope if you want to do a draw string door
5 door handles
5 1x4s for the door
wood plank (10 ft) for the ramp
A lot of wood joint hardware.  Almost every joint you'll need hardware to attach so I would say about 50, just a rough estimate.
Two wood cut outs made for stairs
4x8 linoleum
contact cement (medium can)
If you want to add trim, measure the amount you'll need and buy accordingly (I used many, many feet of trim.  More than I care to admit.)
I used gorilla glue to attach the trim
Lots of nails!

I have yet to put a roof on but from what I can figure you'll need
3-4 roof panels of your choice (depending on size)
8 2x2x14 ft purlin strips
5 2x4x10s
10 roof wood joints
I imagine I will simply nail in the purlin strips to the support beams
I'm not sure yet how to secure the roof paneling, but I will let you know when I decide to put the roof on.

First I removed the grass in the area that was to be the coop.  I'm not sure how important this step is as chickens like to eat grass and it would probably eventually die anyway due to the concentrated amounts of chicken waste.  Those who assembled triple C coop put down chicken wire, then rock, then sand for the foundation of the coop.  The chicken wire would prevent predators from digging in, but seeing as my yard is a fenced in urban yard my concern for predators is not very high.  I believe the rock is for drainage, and the sand so they can rake the run out.  I just used the natural dirt and lay out grass clippings which the chickens love.  Then I rake that out each week and replace with new clippings.  My system seems to work so far and the grass clippings/chicken poo can be thrown in a compost pile, which I don't do, but I guess some do.  I'm not sure what I'll do come winter, but I'll cross that bridge when I get there.

I then laid out my pretreated wood planks out and secured them to each other with wood joints.  I'm going to stop you there, because I made a pretty big mistake from the start.  Be mindful of your perimeter measurements of your frame, and that they line up with your foundation boards.  I came up short by several inches which I ended up having to cut my already secured frame and resecure it.  I cut too much off and it didn't exactly lay out how I wanted, but I've since forgiven myself as this WAS my first wood project.

Next, I had my kids help me paint the  wood that was to be the frame to the run.  Doesn't he look so happy to help?  Unfortunately, their enthusiasm didn't last near long enough and I did most of the painting.

I then assembled the frame using the wood joints at each joint.  This is the easy part.

Next, with the help of my awesome husband we were able to get the frame up and secured to each other using large nails (3 in?).  When doing this part be mindful of the ultimate direction of your roof.  You'll want it to face south (if it's a north/south facing coop) so the sun can melt the snow and allow for the precipitation to run off.  So set the higher side of the coop on the north side of it.

I continued to work on the parts that I could do myself.  This included the assembly of the door, which I used two layers of 1x4s with the hardware cloth sandwiched in between, like those at Triple C did.

I then moved on to framing the coop.  When doing this make sure your frame is level and make sure you are leaving enough inches to be able to nail the walls to the frame.  These are mistakes I made that resulted in a less than perfect coop, but it still totally works and I was able to improvise.  As you make the frame to the coop I put additional 2x4s around the middle to add more support to the coop structure.

I cut out my doors and windows before attaching to the coop, but I added the trim, after.  I'm not going to give measurements, because it depends on your preference.  Just remember the bigger the doors and window the greater amount of trim you'll need if you're doing that step.  Here are pictures of each side so you know where and what to cut.

The birds have learned good things happen when I approach the coop so all come lining up in front of the door

During this time I used contact cement to attach my linoleum to the floor.  Make sure to read the instructions because you're supposed to apply to the surfaces to be glued (both sides), LET DRY, then put the two layers together and allow bonding.  I just put the other plywood piece on top of the glued linoleum to get it to bond.  Despite me not following the directions it worked great!

I painted the coop roof with a sealant because I was getting pretty tired of building the thing and knew I wasn't going to add the roof until later.

With two people it wasn't too difficult to put the roof on top and nail it on.  I just added more wood to any gaps in my structure.  I had lots of it around anyway.  For the coop floor you'll need to cut out the areas where the coop frame interferes with the floor insertion.  That's where I used my rotary saw- no problem.

Then add the sides.  This is where I found out my coop frame wasn't exactly straight- but I worked around this.

Hinge on the doors and windows.  If you're using trim under the hinges like I have, you'll want to apply the trim first, then the hinges.  After that it's just cosmetic stuff.  Add trim where you want it!  I also added a flower bowl.

Don't forget the roost and once they learn to use it vs sleeping on the floor of the coop you can add nesting boxes.  I'm not sure if I'm going to use boxes or just straw yet.  My birds haven't started laying yet (anytime now) so I haven't put anything in there for now.

By this time my birds were getting pretty anxious to get out of the brooding box so I moved them in with what I had done.  I still put wood shavings in the floor of their coop, but once it is gone I'm just going to scrap out the poop directly into the garbage can.  Their poop is generally dry and it is removed from the linoleum surface with ease.  I put an extra strip of linoleum underneath the roost since that is where they spend most of their time and most of the poop collects.  Then all I have to do is pull that out and scrap and/or rinse it off and the coop stays pretty clean.

Between the time of my first chicks and the finished assembly of the coop, I bough two more chicks; a Rhode Island Red and White Leghorn.  After completion I decided to finish my flock up with a Wellsummer, Maran, and Amauracana (can't wait for those blue eggs!).  FYI my Wellsummer is by far the friendliest in my flock and lets my kids handle her- even my four year old.

You can see in the picture on the right my cockerel is already showing his differences from the hens.  See how proud he stands above the others?  The comb is changing, and his legs seem to be held straight beneath him.  Also, in the above pictures it explains why he was the only one that would allow himself to be pet.  Overly confident means you might have a boy.

Here are some more chick pictures because they are just so dang cute!

From left to right are my Amauracana, Plymouth Rock, and my favorite bird, the Wellsummer.  Even though she was a good week or more older (which is a lot for chicks) than my Amauracana she and the Plymouth were always accepting of the littlest one.

  My Wellsummer and Plymouth having some time out of the brooder

 

  My Plymouth, RIR, Golden Laced Wyandotte, and GBL Wyandotte, and Leghorn

Now the birds are all grown up! (Well almost)

Wellsummer (Wilma) with my photo bombing Amauracana (Amy)

Maran (Minnie)

Amauracana (Amy)

Barred Plymouth Rock (Penny)

Rhode Island Red (Rosie)

Golden Laced Wyandotte (Willow)

Thanks for letting me share!  Let me know if you have any questions or comments.  I would love to hear any helpful tips or additional information with this new adventure of ours!