Erica is deciding which chickens to order from the Murray McMurray hatchery. This is a catalog that has mail-order chicks for sale. You can buy two dozen chicks. The problem is that they have many different kinds of chickens and collections of chickens so Erica has no idea which ones to buy. (Order the catalog now – it is fun to read and it is free).
I need to have a chicken sheed ready by the time the chickens arrive. The chicks will stay indoors in a room with a heat lamp to keep them warm for the first couple of weeks. Once they are big enough to stand the weather (April, I guess) they will go to the shed. We will have to give away or sell about half of them, because we can’t keep 24 chickens.
I am designing an 6×8 food shed to keep the chickens in. It has to be raccoon proof. This is a large shed. Suburban chicken coops tend to be small, either 4×4 or 6×6. We have lots of property so I was going to make it a little bigger. The difference in cost is minimal
I am planning to start with the floor. I will need the following for the floor:
5 – 8′ 2×6 pressure treated (deck joists)
2 – 6′ 2×6 pt (probably I’ll buy 8′ and trim them down).
That will make the floor. I’ll nail these together. 5 8 footers nailed to two 6 foot end pieces at 16″ spacing. I will trim them to make the end result exactly 6*8 in order to better fit the plywood. There is nothing worse than having 4 foot of plywood that has to fit 4 foot 3 inches of floor.
Cost about $25
I will lay a floor on top of that. It does not have to be very strong or thick so I will use PT sheathing. 15/32″ should do it and I will use it on the sides, too.
2 4×8 sheets of 15/32″ exterior sheathing (about 3/4″). This is 64 square feet when I need 48 square feet. I will use the excess on the sides.
Cost around $32.
I want to lay some cheap linoleum on top of the plywood to help in cleaning the floor, and to keep it dry. The cheapest I see on line is about 75 cents a square foot. I will need some latex adhesive to make it stick. I have some that is probably still good.
Cost around $25.
The floor can be done in a Saturday afternoon for around $82.
The hard part of this phase is site selection and prep. I have find a place that Erica approves of and dig in some cinder blocks to make it level. The yard has a slight slope, so I have to play with it. I have cinder blocks, but you can buy them for a buick or two each. You can ask on FreeCycle.org and get as many as you want.
Next step is the walls.