If you’ve been following my blog posts, you’re aware that our family embarked on the adventure of hatching some chicks in an incubator.
Out of the 14 chicks we had in the last batch, only 3 are surviving. The rest have been gobbled up by whatever could snatch them through the bottom of the chicken coop wire. (Something even popped the heads off 2 of my hens, NO Kidding!).
So, since the 18 babies are too small to go in with the rest of the chickens (with no “mom” to protect them”, I’ve decided to add a new 8’x’8 Nursery Coop. I found while attempting to build the previous coop without any help, that 16′ walls were too difficult to wrap in the wire without assistance.
Since this is a project of my own undertaking and I have to complete it alone, I thought it best to stick with walls that even a Girl can lug herself.
So ladies, here are my directions for building your own Chicken Coop- when you don’t have the muscle power of a man to help. (Or don’t want a mans help! haha).
20- 2x4x8
5 – 2x4x10
2 sheets 4×8 Plywood (roof)
1 50′ Roll 72″ Chicken Wire
1 25′ roll 24″ Hardware Cloth
Bunch of Screws
scrap wood for the “eaves”
First, lay 4 – 2x4x8’s out- Since it’s a pain in the rear to screw the screws in sideways, I started the screws Before I set the lumber out.
If you’re also using hardware cloth, measure about 2 feet up, add a 2×4 for strength. Here I stretched the wire as tight as I could (since I had to tackle this project alone!), and attached the hardware cloth on the bottom 2 feet.
Once you’ve completed the 4 walls, it’s time to stand them up. I did ask my oldest son to come out for about 15 minutes to help with this part. Unfortunately, as we were standing up the walls, we were hit with a massive Storm which struck the tree we were working beside. You can view the photos here.
Next, once the walls are standing, screw them together. Here you can see I’ve begun adding the rafters. (Simply cut the 2x4x10’s in half, angle 1 end of each “rafter” piece based on the pitch you need for your roof.) Since we rarely have snow issues here, my concern was for rain only. You’ll need 2 full 4×8 sheets of plywood for the roof. I really REALLY suggest you get help on this one, it was really difficult to walk the plywood up the ladder without help!!!
On the front wall, I left the bottom (2 foot) opening, 6 feet wide so that I could add a shelter for the chicks. The box was made out of various scraps of plywood that we had laying around from other projects.
Here’s a view inside the “shelter” area for the chicks. As you can see I built a small removable “shelf” of hardware cloth with a heat lamp set on the top. I added this because I was concerned about the cool night temperatures and wanted to be sure that if I added heat the hay/bedding that was in the bottom of the box, I wanted a barrier to prevent accidental fire.
Here’s a view from the inside. I used an old 4×4 post and added a few “perch” posts in various directions.
I did happen to have a partial roll of some roofing paper, so I put that on as well to help keep out the rain. I’ve been keeping an eye out at the local lumber yards for cheap shingles. On occasion, you can purchase a bundle for $2-3.
Another thing to consider, due to the high number of predators in the area, I dug down 6 inches all the way around the entire coup and buried bricks all the way around. This means that raccoons and possums have to dig for a while to get underneath the coop and inside.
It seems that my chickies are pretty happy in their new home!
