Chicken Coop

Here’s the coop I built for my four chickens.  I was trying to keep them inside for eight weeks, but they were getting big and creating a poop mess in their 2′ x 2′ box, so I got on the coop and this is what I came up with.

I didn’t have any detailed plans, I just looked around on-line at other coops and came up with what I thought would work well and fit in the back yard.

The materials cost around $450 and it took me two weeks working an hour or two here and there.  However some days I did put in more than an hour or two in; a lot more.

I also considered the dimensions of my building supplies.  Sheets of plywood are 4′ x 8′ and 2 x 4’s are cheep in 8 ft. lengths.

And I used what I had laying around.  If I did it again, I probably would not have tried to salvage some of the extr wood I had because it took me extra time to put out nails and some of it was already warped.

I would also reduced the thickness on many of the pieces…The posts I would still keep at 2″ x 4″, but everything else probably could have been reduced.  The 1″ x 2″s could have been 1″ x 1″ and the 1″ x 1″ could have been 1″ x 1/2″.  Once everything is tied together it gets very rigid and the reduction of wood could have saved money and weight.

Much of the work can be done with hand tools, but it is nice to have a table saw to make a variety of angle cuts and for ripping long pieces to your required needs.  I also recommend having a few drills: one for making pilot holes (don’t want to split the wood), one for driving the screws in and one for whatever.  You will save a lot of time not changing bits.

Tools:

*Table saw

*Saws-all

*Miter saw

*Hand drills (3)

*C clamps

*Bar clamps

*Belt sander

*Tin snips

*Power stapler

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