How we built the Chicken Coop

Our neighbors, the Deoliveiras owned 7 hens, and let me know that they could not take all of them when they moved. They asked me if i wanted to take two of them them. I Negotiated with my parents, and they ended up saying yes, as long as I did 100% of the work.

Me and Miguel Deoliveira Decided to build the coop ourselves, using Mesh, Zip ties, 2 by 4s, Plywood, and lots of Nails. We Started by making two rectangles made from 2 by 4s. Each rectangle was 4' by 5' we then connected the corners with 3 foot long 2 by 4s. this basically gave us the skeleton of the coop. We then screwed plywood on fot the walls, and smaller pieces surrounding the doorway and windows.

We then Constructed a door, two mesh windows, and began the roof. The roof was held up by 8 short posts, and the roof frame was made up of 5. We then used all our scrap plywood for the roof itself.

We built the run using plastic mesh. The "Chicken run" is a part of the coop that is a contained area outdoors so that they can have the healthy experience of being outdoors, while being protected from predators and preventing them from running away. We had to clip the two hen's wings because they could still fly over the mesh, and one ran all the way across our neighborhood before we found her. Once the run was complete, the job was done.

We named our hens "Potato" and "Bean". After a few days, when they adjusted to their new setting, they started pumping out an egg a day.

The storm on August 19th ripped a branch from one of our Eastern White Pines, and it landed on the side of the run, crushing it. Luckily, the chickens were locked in the coop during the storm, and were safe. at noon, the storm ended, and i repaired the run, and let them out of the coop. The rain had made them spend a lot of calories on generating body heat, so they both sprinted directly to the food bowl.