here we go it's finally done our unique
chicken coop
let's take you on a tour and show you
exactly how we built it but before we
take you on that tour we wanna jump back
in time just a few weeks and go through
the construction process with you let's
go and don't forget we always have a
full list of the materials that we use
on each one of our projects and they're
listed in the description below we
created the base with some scrap before
by four that we had laying around and
then we made the frame with some treated
2 by 10 and the floor joist with treated
two by fours we then hung those with
joist hangers and the entire thing is 4
foot by 6 foot on the outside if you're
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let's get back to the build there's a
few reasons why we constructed this
platform before foot by 6 foot one we
didn't have to make any unnecessary cuts
on a full sheet of plywood and two
chickens need an average of 2 to 3
square feet per chicken we have eight
chickens so 24 square feet is perfect
for them next we started cutting our
studs to length we cut them at 6 feet so
that we had room inside to actually walk
upright in our coop this was really
important for us I've been in way too
many coops that you have to stoop down
hurt your back we just constructed this
using regular wall type framing and put
our studs 2 feet on center
after we assembled the walls we stood
them up straight and secure them to the
top of the decking with some three inch
deck screws you can see that the framing
looks a little different Ness because we
did use some scrap in this project use
what you have is what I always say
next comes our nesting box now this
nesting box we made out of some scrap
half-inch plywood that we had we used
our brad nailer and put it together
mostly with Brad nails we did use a few
screws in a few spots but nesting boxes
for your chicken should be roughly a 12
inch cube these are a teeny tiny bit
smaller on the width of them and that's
no big deal
you can see my girl helping me out here
she always loves to be outside helping
me with these things and I love having
her there with me gives me a great
opportunity to teach her what needs to
be done in building things we put a lip
on the front and the back of the nesting
box so the chickens didn't kick out
their nesting material as well as the
eggs and that's really kind of standard
on any nesting box make sure you put
that in there we secured it into the
frame down opening and just attached it
with some screws from there we needed to
get working on the door for the nesting
box port so we can get into our eggs
so just mitered some two by fours secure
them with some screws in the corners and
that is serving as our door perfect fit
look at that
on to the next step hanging our sighting
so we pre hung our siding and then
traced out where our openings were from
there we took the siding onto the ground
and cut out those openings now I know
you what you're saying it's a little
backwards you push it up with the siding
on when the walls were on the ground but
this is just the way we did it worked
out fine for us and things were
precisely cut out for us next thing is
we're gonna attach our cutout to our
door frame for the nesting box we're
just gonna slide that in there attach it
with a few screws and then we need to
shim it out to get the proper spacing
and clearance to put our hinges on after
that just put it on a handle so we can
pull it up and down and then put on a
nice latch so that it is secured from
there we're just gonna move around the
rest of our coop and attach our doors
the same way putting the rest of the
siding on the frames and attaching
everything with the hinges that we
purchased look at that perfect
all right let's move on to the inside
run we're gonna level out and start our
framing for our inside run we just
assemble the indoor run the same way we
did our outdoor run with those special
connectors that we talked about in that
video and we assembled the door the
exact same way with our special corner
these are Simpson ties you can find them
in the description below if you like
alright let's move on to the stairs now
the first thing we did when making the
stairs
we had a template for our stair stringer
it was three steps high we just cut
those out
put them into place now make sure that
you have your wiring in place you can
see here that we didn't get there your
wiring in place before you do your
stairs because I had to take these back
off and put them on again all right a
little added extra protection floor the
coop here with some roofing tar paper
this is a really cheap way to protect
the floor as you can see the first thing
about it is that it's indoors that's
really different from a lot of chicken
coops usually you're sitting outdoors
with them we have this unique
opportunity to take advantage of this
space in our stable to build it and
there's a couple advantages of this
let's go over those unique features and
tell you exactly why we did what we did
and putting it in a location that we did
some of the advantages of putting it
inside our stable right here are it's
gonna keep it better insulated from the
really hot weather that we have here in
Texas and - it's going to better protect
it from predators we have to do a flush
egg box here and that was simply a
design decision I think it's pretty cool
that it sits nice and flush with the
exterior of the coop here there's not
something kind of protruding out and
right inside of here you can tell that
it's really going to be easy to get to
the eggs we made sure to build these
boxes with this lip here right in front
of the boxes so that when we open the
door no eggs are gonna roll out and
crack on the ground one of the unique
features of this coop is that it has
this indoor run and that is so our hens
can get some relief from that hot Texas
Sun so the inside area here is really
sandy that's going to give the birds a
great area to have a nice dirt bath this
is the opening for the birds to go into
our outside run if you haven't seen the
video and how we built the outside run I
want you to go check it out right now
here we are inside of our chicken room
we got this really cool feature here on
the back side of the coop there's a
little trap door right here open it up
what do we got we've got a drawer that
drawer sits right underneath our
roosting bars it's gonna give us the
ability to empty out the chicken manure
really easily we're just gonna roll the
wheelbarrow right in here dump it out
boom we're done and right back out again
supercool feature we added additionally
on the backside of the coupe here we've
got a hole cut in the siding that's
bringing in some nice fresh air for the
coupe now how's it going to get into the
coupe well we made this little sliding
glass or plexiglass window right here
and we've got some hardware cloth the
inside for some added extra protection
so we can get that cross breeze going
all the way through the coupe out that
front window that you saw us install at
Christmastime we all know how fresh air
is really important for chickens so we
built the coop about 18 inches up above
the ground we think that's really
important to keep air circulation
underneath the coop
additionally the girls can use it to
cool off take a nice dirt bath
underneath the coop but here we built
just a simple set of stairs to get up
inside of the coop let's head inside so
over here we've got our roosting bars we
just made them out of some scrap 1by
material and for the girls to sit on
we've got some bamboo and then right
underneath it is that rollout drawer
that we've created to take that chicken
manure and get it out of here we've got
that framed out opening on this side
covered with chicken wire just to be
safe from predators but we need to get
that ventilation in around and through
the coop this side of the coop for cross
ventilation we've got our other window
that Playhouse window that we bought any
sauce install of course some added
hardware cloth for a little extra
protection so over here on the north
side we've put these nesting boxes we've
got them 17 inches off the ground and
three of them that's plenty for the
number of chickens that we're gonna have
in this coop
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we made sure our hardware cloth wrapped
all the way around this interior portion
of the chicken run and extend it out on
the floor like we did on our exterior
run
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additionally all protection goes all the
way up into the rafters of our stable so
we showed you in the nesting boxes the
automatic water the roosting bars and a
special trapdoor for the drawer to take
out the chicken manure from under the
roosting pars but you're asking well
where's the door for the chickens to get
out of the coop it's gonna be right
there and the reason we haven't done
that yet is we have a really cool
automatic chicken door opener that we
want to show you in a separate video so
I want you to make sure to stay tuned
for that
that chicken opening or the opening for
the coop for the door is gonna go right
here so we laid down some roofing tar
paper in the coop and it's easily
replaceable but this tar paper is gonna
help protect this plywood floor from the
manure soaking into it just a little
added extra layer of protection we hope
you enjoyed the build we have a lot of
great projects here on our channel that
I think are going to be helpful for all
of you beginning homesteaders like us go
check out these videos right here to see
some great projects we've done building
up our homestead
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