This video, which has been made by This Old House, has been watched by over three hundred thousand people.
It is a high quality video, which is very easy to watch. It shows a step by step approach to making a chicken coop, where not a lot of time is spent on the detail.
I think this video would suit someone who is just beginning to look into the idea of building their own chicken coop, rather than someone who is looking for an instructional video that offers specific measurements and breaks done each step more methodically.
If you want to read a full transcript of the video you will find it below.
Tommy this show is going to the birds.
Going to the birds- well at least our in box is. Check this out an email from Lauren in Connecticut who wants us to build her a chicken coop.
Well it seems to be the trend today. A lot of people want to raise their own chickens for the eggs and you know what when I was a kid We did the same thing.
So I guess you’re on board with this? I’m on board.
I actually went to the home Centre and I got a couple of sheets of plywood and some four by fours, to buy fours, some trim boards to get started.
OK this plywood right here is what I want to use two sheet it and also sight it. We are using plywood that is five eighths of an inch thick, it’s actually called Texture one eleven. this one has 4 inch centres.
Now what I want to do is actually cut two sheets at the same time, so I’m going to flip them and face them face to face and make them even on the top bottom and side. I’m good here same here.
Now we have 4 pieces that make up the sheeting and siding. we have the back section that we don’t have access to the inside of the building.
This side right here we’ll call this the egg door, so when you open this you will be able to get to each bin to collect the eggs.
So each one of these cut-offs is going back in with a hinge eventually?
Exactly and right here, this is the door that will be on the gable that you can open up I’m in front of the bins.
And this little guy right here?
That’s actually going to be a sliding door it will come down at night to keep the fox out.
It will be a fancy little chicken coop.
Oh yeah.
We will be using 4 by 4 pressure treated posts as both the legs and part of the Framing for the gable end.
I’ve cut the tops to match the angle of the roof and we will use an inch and five eighths ceramic screws To attach the seating to the frame.
A two by four across the bottom and top will give us some additional structure.
We construct the other gable end in the same way and then we connected together with a 2 by 4 and the sheeting we cut for the sidewall.
Instead of rafters using a simple Ridge beam and purlins give us a place to attach a roof sheeting.
We will finish the base with another two by four spanning the front and back gable walls + 2 perpendicular joists.
For the floor we use half inch exterior raid plywood with notches in the legs.
Alright that last piece of hardware is on so Tom let’s check out these doors here.
We’ve got the clean out door, the latch and the handle. I love this thing that you did right here so this is actually a chicken door you can leave that open all day so that they can come and go and then at night it’s a big heavy door so it keeps the chickens safe and the Predators out.
Right you don’t have to climb across the house to close the door.
Nice all right so we build and nesting box right here there is six of them put a little perch out here when they jump up. we also have one here we’re going to Mount it on top of the two by fours.
Slide it in, tip top in and then put it back up. there we go drop it down.
Alright now we get this last side, do you want to grab this side right there for a second?
Get it up there, hold it even on the bottom.
Get a screw in there?
Cellular PVC trim boards around the corners and along the roof lines will Titan everything up and give us a nice clean look.
Roof sheeting is half inch plywood then a layer of felt paper and finally asphalt shingles with a 5 inch reveal.
I think it’s looking good that’s about all we want to do here.
Why don’t we load it up in the truck and take it to Laurens?
Looking good.
Alright that’s it Tommy.
Lauren!
Hey how are you?
Nice to meet you.
Welcome to Connecticut.
Thank you very much.
How are you?
Hi Lauren.
Lauren how are you?
Nice to see you John.
Thank you nice to see you.
It’s a beautiful house you’ve got here, it is great.
Thank you.
How long have you been here?
It’s about a year.
We’ve done a lot of work to the house and now we’re kind of ready for our chickens.
OK good because we’ve got the chicken coop on our truck.
Whereabouts you think they’re going to go?
Thinking about this area in the back here it’s kind of flat under that tree.
Oh yeah that is a great area.
Not too close to the house but still accessible.
what do you think Tommy? Is it going to work?
not too far to carry that coop up this little Hill and that will work.
Alright awesome.
let’s back the truck in and get it off.
OK Lauren there it is your chicken coop.
What do you think?
Yeah I love it!
Alright we built the Coop up on legs, so these are pressure treated 4 by fours that run down to this bevelled base that we screwed on first.
We have a nice two by 12 cut in a square so it doesn’t sink into the ground.
Now we have a place for them to go in the night, now we have to have a place for them to go during the day.
So we’ll build a pen right here that goes out, across over and back and they can come out and run around all day.
Sounds great.
Let’s get started.
Our pen will be constructed out of pressure treated 2 by fours that we will Staple chicken wire to.
You want to bury the walls a few inches deep to deter predators from digging under the pen.
It has got to come down to me just a little bit but how is it? pretty good.
