Chickens are simple, straightforward, and (dare I say it) cheap. My own research found the uses for chickens is meat or eggs. Mary and I decided we wanted to have eggs since as long as you can shop and wait for sales meat can be had at the store very effectively and we already had a good “store and use slowly” system.
Looking into needed supplies and infrastructure, the main part was always the chicken coop itself. Premade coops and kits are available online, but for the size coop we wanted, seemed to cost $4000 or more. However I am very inexperienced in building structures of any quality so I had managed to find a online design that included a supplies list.
The actual build became quite an event. I have a rule that I don’t want to work with powered saws/drills etc., without other people around. This allows me to at least believe if I get into trouble, there would be someone to extract me from underneath or call for emergency services. I only had the help for a day and a half, so the construction was limited to a day and a half.
Stage one was collecting the materials. I do not have a trailer or truck so gathering anything over 8ft long had to be done with a borrowed trailer. You can see the collection here.
The only mistake I really made at this point was I did not pick up roofing cement and I should have been more careful about warping 2x4s (more on that later). Not shown here are the nails (exterior and interior), rolled asphalt roofing, metal drip edge, and tools.
I was able to assemble and frame the floor and the walls on the ground so I could stand them up and attach them to the floor deck without having to balance and maintain 90 degree angles and straight lines.
The floor was weather resistant cedar (shown above) and the walls were made out of interior 2x4s (shown below)
OSB decking was simple enough to add to the floor but Some of the seams did not line up with supports without some modifications. I have not decided if that issue is normal or a result of my inexperience.
The walls were filled in with plywood paneling and then the roof rafters could run from front to back. This was when the warped lumber became an issue but the structure stiffened up when the roof OSB was added. Below is show more issues with framing not lining up to the paneling.
And finally it was paint, cut windows, install door and latches, frame in the wire to keep enough ventilation and keep predators out, place the rolled roofing (once I went and got roofing cement), and the whole thing was finally done.
