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Evolution of a Chicken Coop
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| This is where we left off in my last chicken coop post, The Master Plan and The Chicken Coop. You can see the floor plan there too. |
Have you ever measured twice and cut once only to discover you've still made a mistake? Such was the case recently for Dan and me, when we realized that the 15 foot by 10 foot chicken coop we'd designed on paper was actually 14 foot by 10 foot. Wot happened?
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| Second wall up |
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| Third wall up |
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| 4th wall and roof rafters. The windows are old storm windows we took from the house during the kitchen remodel. They'll go into that 4th wall. |
It was only a one foot difference, but the last thing I wanted to do was short change my chickens. Not that we have that many (17 at the moment), but I don't like the idea of overcrowding. If we didn't want to make the chicken area smaller, the other option was to make the storage area narrower. My original storage was to be 4 by 7 feet. This would enable me to line up three feed containers (heavy duty trash cans) along the wall with enough room to get to them easily. I contemplated making it 3' by 7', but losing that one foot would make things tight in there.
It was Dan who came up with the idea of making an extending the roof out over the people door.
It will create a porch-like overhang where I can store extra containers of chicken feed or anything else that could benefit from not being exposed to precipitation.
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| New “porch” area measures 4 feet by 10 feet |
Also accomplished -
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| Bridging stiffens up the roof. |
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| This is how one supports the roof when using scraps. Lumber prices have gone up and quality has gone down to the point we hate to buy it anymore. |
We eventually figured out that when we staked out the coop, we did it right after measuring the old coop and storage area, which is 10' by 14'. We just repeated that without looking at the new plans(!) The new coop, then, will be the same size as the old. Because we're going to rearrange the coop area we will actually have more room for the chickens. With that mystery solved, we went ahead with the 4' by 7' storage area.
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| Close up of the beginnings of my storage area, dug out & ready for a floor. |
When we first set ourselves the goal of feeding our animals from our land, we didn't realize how much space we'd need to do that. It's not just the growing of it, but you need someplace to cure it, process it, and store it. And not just a week's worth, but a year's worth. With only a few small outbuildings, difficult! Because of our error, I will have both an enclosed storage area and a wide overhang as well. Happy Providence indeed.
What do the chickens think so far?
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| I wish I could tell you they are admiring the new coop. The truth of it is that they're eyeballing the pile of dirt Dan made when he dug out to level the storage area. |
Source: http://www.5acresandadream.com/2014/03/evolution-of-chicken-coop.html
