Before we broke ground on ourtiki coop , we look at countless examples online of custom - build coops and off - the - ledge hencoop . It seemed that wimp - keepers pass anywhere from $ 100 to $ 1,000 - plus on their design , with huge , tricked - out McCoops on the mellow goal of the graduated table .
We wanted something fair simple for the limited space we had . No powerfulness , no plumbing , just four walls and a roof . But … we also want to throw in our personality into it . We were n’t certain the barn or bungalow feel was for us . We want style on a budget !
After pick apart the umpteenth hencoop design , we decided that building our own coop fit our motivation better . We had a mickle of meter but not a lot of money , and we really had fun see our idea take shape over the calendar week .
I ’ve read stories of people perplex no sopor , giving up all their weekends , give their sanity … but candidly , ramp up the coop was a draw easier than I thought it would be . We emphatically put in our average share of sweat , but with my guy cable in burster of dense labor and construction , me in accusation of enquiry and logistics , and our trustworthy forepugs overseeing the project , everything go along smoothly .
Thanks to my resourceful guy rope reclaiming wood from his office dumpster and saving every extra screw that come with all our furniture , we managed to keep a lot of our price down by recycle as many odds and ends as possible .
With our salvage finds , our leftover lumber from late projects , and the leftover baseball bat we gleaned from our neighbors , we had enough to make the bones of the cage . The textile we had to buy include a few sheets of plywood , a fistful of hardware , and a couple can of pigment .
The linoleum was a cheap axial rotation of redundant flooring source from a local mama - and - dada shop ( thankfully , it turn out to be a neutral colour and not some meretricious gambling casino pattern ) . The bamboo and banana frond came from our garden .
The single most expensive purchase was the hardware fabric , but it came in a 100 - foot rolling that we barely put a prick in ( and will probably last us years ) .
All together , our construction materials and trimmings totaled less than $ 400 .
We put in about five weeks of oeuvre , but it was more like a leisurely good afternoon here , an good afternoon there , a week off from doing any work at all . We winged it as we went , going by a few scribbles on chip paper that changed every day as fresh challenge came up .
The only known variables before building began were the dimensions — the coop is 3 feet by 4 feet , sitting inside a amply insert run that is 9 invertebrate foot long , 5 feet wide , and 6 feet marvelous . The egg box and storage area unfold from the coop another foot or so .
We progress the hencoop and run over a dirt plot and under a plumeria tree , which dictated the embodiment . It was in the first place pictured as an A - frame , but outer space offspring turn it into half an A - frame . I love the good triangle aspect . The vertical rampart also gives more room inside the cage for the roost .
After raking out the dirt , we started framing . We used redwood 2x4s secured with longsighted screws .
We staple - gun 1/2 - inch computer hardware cloth on all side of the run , and also lined the bottom with ironware material to keep critter from tunnel underneath .
The cap and wall of the henhouse were construct with 3/8 - inch sheets of pine plyboard .
Inside the coop , a 2×4 with the edges sand down was used for the roost . It ’s also obliterable when we need to empty the ninny tray below .
We decide not to have a windup door on the hencoop , as neither of us are former risers , nor are we groovy on setting an alert every morning to let the chicken out . So , the pop door is but an porta that gives the girls gratis access into the running as they please . At sunset , they shuffle back into the coop to roost .
We made a ladder for the popular door out of recycled wooden stakes . After realizing our pitiful pullets might fall through the wide openings , we later added more rungs for a net spatial arrangement of 3 in between each rung .
The egg box and memory board areas were built on the exterior of the henhouse with their own access doorway . A shelf adjacent to the egg box defy a few peter that we apply most often ( include a tongue , screwdriver , provender pocket , and litter easy lay ) .
I recollect onsite storage is of the essence — you do n’t desire to be drag around Bale of shavings and pocketbook of pellet unless you ’re the Hulk . ( Just hauling them in from the car was enough for me ! )
The interior of the coop and egg box was painted a pale chicken to brighten up the space . A semi - gloss surface earn clean - up a breeze . All the Sir Henry Wood was sealed with a few coat of exterior polyurethane .
Pieces of scrap wood were used to get together the main room access .
We also built two separate doors to get to the coop above and feeding station below .
In my enquiry , I learn many , many revulsion stories about people find beheaded crybaby in the morning , the victim of relentless predators . Although our predators are limited to raccoons and rat ( and the casual possum ) , these urban center - bred animal are the hoodlums of the nocturnal world — roaming alley ways at nighttime , dive into dumpsters , counteract vicinity pet . I once even had a skunk hold me hostage in a corner of my own thousand , whiff me out with that threatening fiddling tail of his wagging and tantalise me .
The story I take in online wimp assembly were account statement of strong and deft raccoon hands pull through chicken wire , unclipping carabiners , sliding open cask locks — infernal region , they were practically showing up with their own whorl - picking kit after live - wiring a steal car .
So , I be intimate the tiki hencoop had to be build like Fort Knox . The primary door into the ravel is secured with two barrel locks and two keyed padlock — yep , four curl on one threshold . No messing around here ! The same padlock also secure the coop door , as well as the door for the feeding station underneath . A exclusive barrel lock latches the two smaller threshold together to keep them from swing out out when the main threshold is unresolved .
On the side of the henhouse , the storage door is procure with a barrel lock and a latch , which we clipped a small carabiner through . We also clipped the Francis Scott Key for the padlocks onto this carabiner . Since the plywood is a little warped , pretend the door quite sticky , it ’s already hard enough to open without any ignition lock at all . So , we ’re firm there .
( And if any raccoon figures out what the key is for , unclips it from the carabiner , goes around the recession , enter the Francis Scott Key into the padlock , turns it , take off the ignition lock , unfold the latch , andalsoopens the barrel ringlet — well , maybe that prodigy merit a chicken dinner . )
Outside the coop , we placedSolar Nite Eyesto deter the aforementioned toughie . These solar - powered gadgets feature two blink red LED luminance , which are speculate to mimic a span of eye . These “ eye ” are arrogate to startle predator ( include owls , deer , coyotes and other wildlife ) and make them flee the arena .
Even though the Inner Light blink so tight that I do n’t feel they ’re adequate as “ middle , ” I have to let in that one Nox I go away out to the garden to reap greens for a dinner party salad , and for a split second I was startled by a news bulletin of red that I saw in the box of my eye … until I pull in that I had moved the lights into the garden . I was both relieved and amused !
The Solar Nite Eyes have magnetized back , so they can be attached to a multifariousness of surface around the yard — on the hinges of the coop , on our shaped - atomic number 26 trellis , on hammock poles , gate , and even our vintage tub tub . We have two unit that we move around every few days , so the critter do n’t get used to the winkle light being in any one spot . We capture them a couplet weeks before the poulet moved in and were just using them in our garden , which seemed to deter the raccoons from digging around the produce bed .
While we were engaged putting the hencoop on lockdown , we capture our forepug sleeping on the line of work in the Citrullus vulgaris patch .
After major construction was nail , we move on to more fun — decoration . We chopped down a few stalks from the bamboo projection screen in our yard , saw some of them in one-half , and tie them together with jute twine . The edges of the coop and streak were invest with our own sustainable tiki flair !
To finish , we meet the outpouring with washed plasterwork gumption , which we buy in volume by the pocket ( about 11 cubic feet ) from a local construction supplier . The gumption is very dense with a fine grit , like to beach sand . It serves a few key purposes — to keep the rivulet from becoming muddy , to let the Gallus gallus dust bathe , and to make poop patrol as easy as sifting out litter with a scoop .
I still ca n’t trust it — five calendar week after starting the projection ( and almost one class after first harbour the idea ) , I ’m the proud possessor of a lovingly deal - build chicken chicken coop in my own backyard !
