Cooped Up, Part 1

At first we thought we could fix up this shed for a chicken coop. A realistic look at the work involved caused us to chicken out of that idea.

So we hit the lumber store and started building. For the record, even though this is the 6^th shed we’ve constructed, we’re still making mistakes and figuring it out as we go.

First we scrounged cement blocks from around the property. We did our level best to get them even but still had to reset them later (I know, in a frost area they should be dug in. But we've never had a problem with heave and the chickens won't mind if their home is slightly tilted). The coop is 8’ by 6’ so we could square the corners using our old geometry friend the 3-4-5 right triangle (Kids! Math does come in handy).

We used 2x4’s for the floor base. If the structure was going to be any larger we would have gone for 2x6’s and hanger joists. Everything is screwed together; thank heavens for screw guns!



We did have some help along the way.

At first we used ½” plywood for the flooring. The voice of experience should have told us that wasn’t thick enough and sure enough, the floor bounced. So we added an underlayment of osb and the floor will now support the heaviest chickens we can raise. We also waterproofed the ply and beams.

This was going to be a lean-to type shed using the wall of the garage as a back wall. But the garage siding is ribbed and we couldn’t see a good way to close any gaps left. And having a healthy regard for possible tornadoes, we decided to make a back wall and bolt it to the garage. More 2x4’s to frame the wall and we sided it with any and every scrap of osb and ply we could find laying around, then painted it.

We weren’t sure we could lift it up into place, 2 senior citizens with bad knees and backs, but with a bit of grunting we got it up. It’s nailed into the floor and temporarily braced at the sides.

There is no rain in the forecast so today we’re giving our bodies a break. We do plan to pull some metal roofing out of the weeds, flatten it, and see if we have enough for the roof. And that broken down shed has an inner screen door we think will work plus an extra window (even chickens deserve a window). We’re still considering siding so we’ll make some calls today and see what we can rustle up.