We hit the ground running last spring with projects focusing on staying ahead of inflation and increasing our own food quality and security, and those projects included the construction of a large chicken coop and run for the security of our egg layers. We completed phase one of our coop build before coldest Wyoming winter in a long long time.
We closed on our home and acreage at the end of March 2022. The home itself is a 2×6 construction, 3 bed 2 bath home with an oversized garage, but the acreage included 2 acres of grass, a 3 phase irrigation pump from a creek, above ground poly irrigation, and zero other improvements.
We started the chicken coop construction on April 8th, and by September 18th we had a fully functional coop and shed for egg layers, the goal of Phase 1 was functionality, and we also managed to use the shed to finish growing out 32 meat birds and a turkey. Our progress could have been faster had we focused exclusively on the coop, be we worked on a handful of other big projects as well.
Here is how our chicken coop progress rolled out…
April 8 – dug footings, set post holes in those footings with concrete, framed the floor joists for an 8 x 10 shed/coop, and sheeted the floor joists.
April 11 – we managed alongside other projects to frame a two walls of the coop/shed.
April 13 – exterior wall framing is finished.
April 18 – rafters, collars, and end wall framing finished, put up 2 of 10 sheets of LP Smart Side (the stuf is better than T1-11)
April 19 – put up 4 more sheets of LP Smart Side
April 21 – finished siding, added a door
April 25 – sheeted the gable walls
May 21 – added some roof battens for some rafter support.
May 24 – framed front and rear overhangs.
June 1 – added more roof battens and sheeted the steel roof.
June 4 – laid down plastic sheeting and wood chips in shed for the grow out of meat birds
June 5 – moved meat birds to shed, from garage coral, and processed a first batch of meat birds
June 27 – finished processing the meat birds
June 28 – cleaned shed of wood chips, and chicken manure, distributed into garden
June 29 – we framed the elevated interior coop section
June 30 – finished interior wall separator for coop and shed portions
July 1 – made a door and ramp for the hens for the egg layers first nights in the coop.
July 18 – added a nesting box to the chicken coop.
September 2 – painted coop, added a cuppola
October 8 – dug and set half the posts for run
October 10 – dug and set the rest of the posts for the run
October 11 – framed a door for the run and hung it, started to wire in the run
October 13 – finished wired in the run with 2×4 weld wire at 6’ tall
October 15 – sheeted soffits with cedar board
December 29 – used a ‘warmer’ 40F day to spray foam insulate the roof sheeting gaps