Building a Chicken Coop

I married a very handy man. I am so thankful for his skill set. His dad taught him well. ;) Jake built this coop and the yard from scratch based on a design we made together.

Later, I will do a post on the chickens themselves, a post on the automated feeder and waterer, and a post on the chicken yard. This post includes only the coop itself.

Jake built the chicken coop from wood and nails found in our backyard (remember, our place used to be a landscaping supply company) and pallets from his workplace. He bought the tin for the roof, screws, random hardware, and plywood from hardware stores. I found the door hinges at a yard sale. Jake's dad contributed some leftover hardware cloth.

Cost List:
Plywood—$23.35 (Lowe's)
Tin Roofing—$33.60 (Home Depot)
Door Hinges—$2 (yard sale)
Lag Screws for Hinges—$8.48 (Home Depot)
Gate Latch—$4.24 (Home Depot)
Nesting Box Hinges—$9.94 (Home Depot)
Roofing Screws—$9.68 (Home Depot)
Reciprocating Saw Blades—$5.94 (Home Depot)
TOTAL: $97.23

Since pictures are always worth a thousand words, I'm just going to do the building story in pictures with captions underneath.

Enjoy, and be on the lookout for the follow-up posts!

My sketches

We placed the coop in a strategic place where the chicken yard is already mostly fenced in by concrete legos.

Bottom of the holes are filled with compacting gravel.

Framing the coop

Cross beams added

The roof slants down towards the rain barrels

Door frame

Finished door

Framing the nesting box

Nesting box dividers

Siding

Starting flooring

Nesting box lid

Siding almost done

We left vent holes across from each other to catch the breeze and get some fresh air in the coop.

Chicken door

Finished coop!