Coop framing

Last weekend I once again had the pleasure of working with my Dad on the chicken coop.  We made great progress, and like the previous week, completed everything I hoped we would, which in my experience, rarely happens.  We finished the remaining three walls, and the outline of the two gable ends. The South wall (on the right in the picture) has two rough openings for windows, and the West wall (on the left) has a rough opening for a person door.  The chicken door will be cut out of the siding on the back and finished with trim boards.  I didn't bother framing out the opening.

I don't know the terminology for the way I framed the gables, but I opted to do that instead of continuing the studs all the way up to the roof line, mainly because it was easier, and this way I will have something to nail the siding boards to along the top edge.  I had been planning to make the roof a 10/12 pitch, but even with my engineer Dad, we could not figure out how to cut the angles correctly and gave up.  The 12/12 pitch was much easier to cut with a 45 degree angle on both ends!  And the bonus is that I have more head room inside.

Last night I cut out the ridge board and rafters which will rest on top of the gable ends.  I won't make notches in the rafters since they will sit on the outside corner of the wall top plate.  I will cut little right triangles off the ends of a 2x4 to go between the top plate and the rafter.  Pictures to follow.

Now here are the little puff balls that will eventually inhabit this structure.  They are only 1 day old here.

Chicken coop foundation

This weekend I began building my chicken coop.  I've been researching features and designs all winter, drawing sketches, making minor changes and pondering details of construction.  Last week I had a hearing at the Planning Commission of my city and had my application approved to keep up to four hens.  So in spite of the muddy backyard, I dug the foundations and started building.  Here are the basics of my plan.

1. I will have four hens
2. I decided on the advice of Harvey Ussery in his book "Small Scale Poultry Flock" to build at least 5 square feet of floor space per bird in the coop. I want a little extra space for feed storage, so I made the footprint 4'x6'
3. I want to be able to stand up inside, but not make it so tall as to appear awkwardly tall and skinny, so the wall height will be just under 5' with a gable roof of 6'4" at the peak. I prefer a gable roof instead of a shed roof because I feel the downward sloping eaves will provide better protection from wind and rain, and I want to have ventilation slots under the eaves and on each gable end.
4. There will be an attached run 8'x10' which is double the recommended minimum of 10 square feet per bird.
5. I decided on an "on grade" foundation, using a solid concrete block at each corner set on a 4-6" deep bed of pea gravel.  Here's a great video explaining how to do it; click on "how to build a block foundation for a shed"

Here's a photo sequence of my foundation work.  This took me 3 1/2 hours.

Build the floor joist frame, square up and lay in position

 Lay a concrete block inside each corner to mark the positions

 Move the frame out of the way

 Dig holes a little bigger than each block down to clay/rocky soil

Fill each hole with pea gravel

 Set the blocks and level them by adding or removing gravel

 Set the frame in place, recheck level and measure from corner to corner to square up the frame.  Nail a diagonal board temporarily to keep it square.

 Add floor joists.  The wacky colors and sizes are because I am using as much reclaimed lumber as possible.  I did purchase the pressure treated joists, block and gravel, but the rest of the framing lumber is salvaged from a building that was being gutted.

 Nail down the plywood floor.

The next day my Dad came over and helped me build the first wall.  It was a big help when nailing the studs together and having another person to think about dimensions and measurements (someone who is much better at these things than I am.) It took two of us 2 hours.  The opening in the middle of the wall is for the nest boxes.  Stay tuned for another post next weekend when I hope to put up more walls.