[RichardH]

Morning all. A bit of a photo essay for you 

Having been captivated by our neighbours' chickens (they have an Omlet Cube), we've decided to keep a few chickens in the garden.

I blanched at the cost of the cube, and also at the poor quality of the eBay specials, so I decided to make my own. I'm using WBP ply, 15x105 shiplap plus tanalised 45x45 for the main structure.

To get my head round things, I had a play in Google SketchUp



I had intended a nest box to sit on the left hand side of the coop. However it will be going in a corner of the garden, so the back and left sides will be a bit inaccessible.



...So as I've gone on, I've tweaked the design a bit.

Off to collect the timber


Cutting the ply


The dogs check my progress


Starting on the back


We have a structure!


Change of mind about the top horizontal members, plus a removeable side panel built


Used some scrap hardwood and routed a channel down it for the pop hole


So now the nest box is going to be on the same side as the pop hole


Here it is with the front door and nestbox in place


...and with the door open, the roof structure hinged up (I'll be meshing that and then fixing Onduline to it)


Now for the cunning plan bit. I designed the floor of the coop to be the correct size to accept two large growbag trays, but I took a risk and ordered them online, and while they were on their way built the coop to the published dimensions. They fitted!


And here it is stripped down and painted with preservative


Phew!

I did all that lot over the course of a weekend plus a couple of evenings after work, while hiding the evidence from our 10 year old son (it was intended to be a suprise for his birthday). Thankfully that's now happened, so I can get on with the rest of the works in the open.

Here's the design for the run. I've bought 16ga 1/2x1" mesh from Hills of Devon. They only had 4'x15m rolls in at the time, but that has worked out well - I'll be building a set of frames using lighter gauge mesh that will be used to create temporary containment areas for the chickens depending on where we want to allow them in the garden.



The run will sit under the nest box and butt up to the coop, and that narrow section will have a separate high meshed box for the pophole and ramp down - well that's the idea, anyway....

[leena]

Nice post. loved the pictures and the drawings (loved the one of the dogs too)

looking forward to seeing the end results.

[Aunt Sally]

Wow...  that is brilliant 

How lucky the trays fitted and what a great idea !  Should make cleaning so easy.

How many hens will you get Richard ?

[snowflake]

Oh what a lovely birthday surprise, you son must be so proud of you.
Is your lad going to choose the hens?
it looks lovely and I love the photo of the two dogs .

[AmandaH]

Gosh, you're a bit of a whizz, aren't you?  Can you pop round and build me one when you're done?    And what a useful husband you are - mine's only any good if your PC breaks...

[beulah59]

I knew when I married him that OH wasn't a practical man ...

*sigh*

[agingchick]

mine isn't either but he does do my ironing

[oddpaws]

That looks fabulous, my oh is a carpenter therefore nothing ever gets finished in our place. :lol:Im lucky if it even gets started

[RichardH]

Thanks folks... Yes, I was lucky re the trays - the width and length were exactly as stated on the manufacturer's website, but unfortunately the height (4cm) was the internal depth rather than the actual height of the whole tray, so I did have to adjust the bottom timber strut on the door so it would close. They're really nice trays though - strong, and slightly flexible so I don't think they'll shatter. I had considered using a tray from a dog crate, but they were quite expensive, and this way you can pull one tray out at a time and sweep it off into the compost bin.

We're intending to have 3-4 chickens, and our son will choose two of them - they'll be "his" - he's old enough to be responsible for them. Here he is with next door's last winter



I reckon this coop and run will end up costing about the same as one of the eBay imports, but it'll be much stronger and it's designed to fit our garden. Mind you, will all this faffing about, I have thought on occasions that maybe we should just have bought an Omlet Cube....

[nzdunn]

great post and fantastic photos really enjoyed looking at them, thats one of the things i didnt check when i married my hubby, is he D I Y man (that answer to that was no), good luck in finishing it all off and look forward to the piccy of your girlies.  nickyx

[Aunt Sally]

Lovely picture of hens in the snow and sunshine Richard 

[karlooben]

wow thats an amazing job  so wish i could build something like that

[grumpydad]

well done. lovely job, more satisfying than buying one, now after a few months, you will be wanting to do a few modifications..lol..

martyn

[RichardH]

Did some work yesterday on the run.

Here's the printout of my full CAD design for calculating how much wire I was likely to need


...After which it turned out they only had one size in stock anyway - but at least I knew I'd have enough.

Tip when cutting 16ga weldmesh - even if you have good cutters, riggers gloves on etc - always wear long sleeves as well, as when it sproings up at you, it WILL get you


Anyway, here's a work in progress shot


I had the timber yard cut most of the timbers to size, as they have a nice chop saw that cuts nice and square, so I was able to get the preservative on to all the end grain before putting it together. However I already had some timber here, which had already been painted, so I made sure any untreated ends were on the top, so I can drop some more goop onto them easily.

Since that pic I've got almost all the mesh on - next the high bit that will enclose the ramp, plus the mesh round the coop itself.

[joyfull]

Thats brilliant - my birthdays in December any chance of a birthday pressie for me 
By the way nice bass  - sorry ignored your injured arm on that piccie