My intentions were not to wait this long to post, but my site was down since February. Why you ask, my WordPress theme and my hosting company were incompatible to say the least. Day after day and weeks have gone by, and NO ONE from either platforms could solve the issue. Finally, we just decided to go with a different hosing company and they fixed the problem right away (insert “shaking my head” emoji). My site is still not 100% perfect but I’m getting there.

In the midst of all the technological shenanigans, my husband and I purchased little baby chicks from a local breeder. We purchased 6 in late January 2023. One passed away (RIP Sunshine) but it happens sometimes. As the weeks went by, they grew and they grew fast.

Part of the reason why we purchased our home was because we wanted chickens and a garden of course. We also wanted a bit of land. So it was so exciting to see that there was already a chicken coop in the backyard during our home search. Less work we would have to do.

Knowing our chicks were growing out of the cardboard box we kept them in, we had to start thinking of a plan of action on building this coop.

The first step was to plan our design. We had two chicken houses and our challenge was how can we keep them separate, but have them together. After looking at Pinterest and googling chicken coop designs, I found this drawing here.

For reference, our existing chicken coop looked a little like this. There was an enclosure, but we took it out due to the house not being on a firm foundation. As you can see, it leaned a bit. As a beginner or advanced builder, when it comes to houses, it should have a great foundation. This was our second step.

After the foundation was settled, we then had to buy all the materials. We did our best to reuse any lumber around our home to keep the cost low.

We placed pavers and rocks under the coop house for the foundation

We then proceeded to build out the frame. We didn’t have a miter saw, so we bought an easy DIY friendly one. We drilled and screwed and put the framing together while making sure everything was leveled.

The next step was to paint. It is important to paint before adding hardware cloth. That way you’re not painting the hardware cloth. We used a paint sprayer. It made the process so much easier and it was quick. We also started building the roof. We used a poly corrugated roof and hurricane ties for the roof pitch. The roof was actually green, but we spray painted it black to match the vibes of the coop house.

As you can see from the picture above, we started adding hardware cloth before finishing the roof. We were doing all this in conjunction of building the door frames and finishing the roof.

Working with hardware cloth can be tedious, but the big take away is wearing gloves due to the metal ends and using a metal cutter. We also added hardware cloth to the perimeter of the coop and dug it in the dirt just incase a predator decides to dig its way in the coop.

I added free pine needles in the run for added comfort.

Here is the material list:

Framing- (8) 2×4’s

Roof framing- (6) 1×3’s

OSB- 4×8

Hard wire cloth– 48″x50 ft

Poly corrugated roof– (2) 26″x 8 ft

Roof ridge cap– (2) 4 ft

Roof closure strips– (2) 4 pack

Door hinge– 10 pack

Screws for hardware cloth

We spent about $300 when it was all said and done and we worked in phases. It was a great project and a learning curve. But we got it done.

Until next time…