CentrallyCalm Barnyard

How we got Started at our CentrallyCalm Barnyard

We recently moved to the country; well that's putting it

mildly, we moved to the middle of almost no where. It's located near the corner of 'far far away' and 'no body has discovered it yet!'

It's remote enough for us, for now.

We wanted to have some chickens, to start us off; then we will add to the flock and the menagerie next spring. When we moved in, about September of this year, we weren't aware that a livestock auction was a mere month away. This meant that everything was put on hold in the house, to build a coop for potential laying hens. That is, on the days it wasn't raining. September was a very rainy month here.

The plans were simple, and I can post them at some point, but nothing is precision or inspector ready. It wasn't being built to any fancy building codes, it's a very small building which is safe, secure and hopefully predator proof.

Here are the steps we took, with photographs...

one of the young birds, enjoying the view from the new window

Photographs of the Chickens

Step 6: Chickens move in!

The next step was the chickens moved in. Technically, we had them move in prior to putting up the slab wood outside. The chickens just ran in the yard while we finished banging on the coop.

This is a view of the coop from the doorway. The window is to the right, the hens laying boxes are straight inside the coop, on the far wall from the door. The window has a crank handle which allows for fresh air, even on rainy or snow

y days.

These are a few of the birds which are now residing in the new Chicken Chalet (is that just too close to Swiss Chalet? LOL)

They have blessed us with 6 eggs already, which was highly unexpected in the short time which they have been with us. Only 24 days they have been here; some are moulting more than others, 2 are too young to lay (if they are hens!) and one of our layers (the one in the top of the photo) died of unknown causes this past week. It

was our first chicken loss, my son was sad... but he realizes that it will happen when we are raising birds.

More pictures of the chickens can be seen BY CLICKING HERE!

Step 5: Outside coverings for added warmth and good looks

Next, we covered the entire outside walls with 6mm plastic (another $5 find at the auction!!) and although this wasn't a planned addition, it will make the coop more water resistant in the wet weather and warmer in the winter.

The plastic can be seen here hanging from a portion above the window, which has not yet been covered in slab wood.

The slab wood was a great find from a local saw mill/farmer/neighbor. I asked him about the cost of slab wood (which is basically the bark side of the cut off when he runs it through his sawmill to square of logs to make lumber). He said he had a pile that wasn't great pickings, because some could be thicker or thinner than other pieces, or that it wouldn't look the best, etc. He said that if we could find something, we were welcome to it. I was so excited! We went to the sawmill and found the pile, Patrick climbed all over finding 'just the right pieces' in his estimation and tossed them to me. I loaded the van as full as I thought was safe for my tires (LOL) and we came home to get going on our finishing touches.

By this time, the 'girls' had come to live with us; and they were living in a coop which was not fancy on the outside, but they were loving the inside!

The slab wood starts at the roof, just under the metal over hang and it goes completely to the ground. This is for more than one reason. As we were working on the finishing touches of the coop, one naughty bird kept running under the coop and getting herself stuck. We didn't want that to happen on a regular basis. We also didn't want predators to be able to get under the coop and cause anyone of us to be scared or harm (get rid of hiding places!) And, it

would help to keep the coop warmer in the winter. The 6mm plastic goes from the roof (under the metal) to the ground, and the slab wood covers the plastic.

The only part that didn't get the plastic (because we thought of it too late, was the roof itself). There was "no way mom" that I was going to ask for the metal, which Patrick had started to put up, would be lifted and then put down again. LOL

The picture to the right, shows what the coop looks like with the door open, and the window open. There was a small step added as well, but it isn't really for humans (not big enough really), and the hens use it as a 'hop up' to the coop when they go in to roost.

Step 4: Angled the roof & added walls & door

The angle of the roof was calculated with a highly precision method of "if it fits here, it's staying here." Basically, we took the 2x6" stud from the upper wall frame (best seen in the photo on the left of Patrick), and it was angled.

Although this may not be the traditional way to build a chicken coop or

install walls, windows, or doors... it worked. And, they are chickens! They don't really care if it isn't perfect. We were working with reclaimed materials, for the most part and they are a bit of 'give and take' to begin with. Nothing is absolute or perfect... and we were okay with that.

So, the walls went up, after the pitch on the roof was decided; and the lower end (where Patrick's legs are hanging over) were cut to the appropriate size. The walls made it really come together fast, and from there on in; we had hope that the coop would meet our deadline which was fast approaching for the auction!

At this point, the roof has not been installed (in the photo above), however framing pieces to hold the roof were put in place and were strong enough to hold Patrick climbing all over it!

The door was made of the same chipboard material that the walls were constructed from. The hinges for the door were purchased at the auction (where the window and plastic were purchased)... for again, only $5.00 for a tub of them. I couldn't beat those deals.

The door is held secure at night with two blocks which are screwed into studs. They twist to tighten the door tight, and open it easy for humans to feed the birds. No door handle is required.

The hinges were mounted to an extra piece of 4x4 stud, which runs from the underside of the roof, to the ground outside. This gives the coop more stability on the corner which the hinges will be swinging from.

The roof was made with wafer board, as well.

Unfortunately time being the biggest factor in this rush to get the coop built; we didn't have a chance to reclaim as much lumber as we'd hoped. We opted for the wafer board because of the cost; just moving into our new house only weeks before the coop went up (not even a month) we were pressed for cash and time. We had to build it on a very tight budget. The roof went up in two pieces. The first being the easiest for Patrick to reach, because he could get up and down off the chicken boxes inside the coop. Then, he had to figure a new way to get on and off the coop. With no ladder. So, my little climber made sure every wall was secure and climbed up and down by the window. This is after he carefully installed the wood for the roof.

The metal for the roof, was part of a reclaim project that Patrick undertook at a local hardware store (they had recently undergone a minor face-lift to an outside portion of their building and had 10 square pieces of metal, and some odds of lumber which Patrick gladly filled my van with!). Patrick banged the metal out, as best he could; then one by one I passed them up to him, to install.

The roof itself has one job to be completed on it, but it is for the most part done. After all the rain we have had in the past 72 hours, it isn't leaking, so that is the main thing. Anything else, is just for looks.

This is Patrick, putting the metal roof on. It took a few pain staking tries to get the nails to go through all that metal... but once he got the swing of it... that hammer wouldn't stop! (notice he has now graduated to wearing a coat while working!)

Step 3: We started on the wall & window:

The large window (laying flat on the floor of the coop) was purchased at a local auction for only $5.00! It was really quite the find, at over 5 x 3'10" and it's thickness is over 5" it really was the deciding factor for how tall the one end of the coop would be.

The biggest challenge then became moving the extremely cumbersome and heavy window. We knew that once unloaded from the van, we weren't going to be ab

le to move it very far; and that it would take framing to hold it up because we couldn't depend on either mom or son alone to hold it for very long whilst the other person worked.

The plan, as it played out, was to move the van as close to the coop as possible, park and unload directly onto the floor (as seen in the photo). It needed to be facing in the direction it would be installed when propped upright if possible.

In the photo, Patrick is using the hens laying box stand (the support frame as seen in ear

lier photos), to stand on... this shows how strong they were built, and it gave him a level surface to work from while moving along a side of the coop as it grew skyward.

Patrick is framing in "temporary" walls, they would basically help us hold up the window while we secured it. They would be moved later, and two would be eventually cut to size; but this was a work in progress and not a typical way to erect a wall or mount a window.

The window is mounted into place, it would define the entire end; and tallest wall of the coop. Allowing for appropriate amounts of both light and ventilation. A crank screen portion of the window allows for the chickens to have the air movement inside, even on rainy days; the window opens out and up, to allow for the water to run off the window.

You'll notice inside the coop, we have now placed the laying box platform and laying boxes; together for the first time. They had to be placed inside at this point, because the door wouldn't not accommodate their size later on. They needed an open wall to be placed in position. The coop length was determined by the length of the boxes we built (remember we built them first to allow for lots of space). The walls at this point (in the photo) are still all the same height, shortly after this, the walls were angled to allow for a slight pitch to the roof for water and snow run off.

Step 2: Next we planned the foundation/flooring:

We searched for the most level, high piece of ground possible. Then we chose our flooring, foundation and leveling materials.

Many of our materials were reclaimed/re-use products. Note in the photo, the hardwood skid (also known as a pallet). The use of bricks, blocks, and other wood.

A frame was built to lay on top of the skid, to make the area a bit larger (the skid size isn't big enough). The frame was constructed out of 2x4" spruce studs.

The floor framing was then covered by a reclaimed (from an indoor project so it was in top notch condition), piece of aspenite (also known as "chip board," "OSB," or "waferboard").

The floor was leveled, in all directions and we were ready to proceed to the next step.