A Man, No Plan, A Run?
Last year, during the height of the pandemic wood price gouging, I decided to finally build a secure fence around our garden using 2×4 cedar and 4×4 cedar posts. I effectively doubled the size of our garden to roughly 16′ x 24′. This project took a few weeks and probably cost roughly $1500 because of the steep wood prices and delivery (small car problems). But I really liked how it turned out and it seemed to be pretty critter proof. So when we were given a free ‘starter’ coop for the Meaty Cluckers, I decided to build the chicken run as an addition to our garden, with a covered area to keep the coop dry.
A Rough Run
The image above was the extent of my planning and sketching. I know I wanted it to be two 8′ by 8′ sections, with a roof over one section – and matching the same layout as the existing garden. The idea was I’d have to buy 3 less posts and would save a little money. I had a rough idea of how many cedar 2×4’s I’d need and what type of roofing I wanted, but the rest of it I decided to figure out on the fly. I placed a truck delivery order for the wood, fencing, concrete and hardware through Lowe’s and waited. And waited. And waited some more. 15 days went by and I got an email from Lowe’s saying my delivery was moved from Tuesday to the upcoming Saturday. Saturday morning arrived and I get a text that my delivery would be there between 8am and 12pm. Fast forward to 6pm and still no delivery. Sunday morning I called and the the delivery store couldn’t tell me why my items never made it on the truck nor where they were. I was promised a call back. Monday afternoon I still haven’t heard from Lowe’s so I called again – same response. Finally a shipping manager assured me it would be delivered Tuesday. Wednesday arrives and still no delivery. I even Tweeted at and called their corporate line in hopes of help. I called close to 10 times over those 6 days and got bounced around to different departments but no one could tell me where my order was and no one would call me back. Finally I spoke to someone who again assured me they figure it out and it would be delivered on Thursday. Thursday afternoon arrived and still no delivery. At this point I’m angry. $600+ worth of wood is somewhere and no one at Lowe’s will give me answer. At this point they stop being helpful and leave me on hold for 30-45 minutes at a time or send my call to the wrong department to hang up on me. At the risk of going full Karen and yelling at some innocent store employee, I decided to drive to the delivery store and figure it out in person (and during the entire drive I was on hold with them). Finally, as I’m 10 minutes away, someone comes on the phone and tells me they were short staffed and the delivery didn’t make it on the truck. They still can’t give me an idea of when it would get delivered and they refused to comp me a truck rental or refund my delivery costs. I got fed up and cancelled my order. I spent the next few days making multiple trips to the store and filling my GTI with as many 2x4s and roofing panels as I could. My project was delayed and I was upset, but finally with the materials I needed, I was able to start building.
Raising the Roof
I mapped out my post locations, rented an auger, and within 30 minutes had the 3 posts I needed set in concrete. Meanwhile, over the course of a few nights after work, I used my chainsaw to dig two trenches from my house (not OSHA approved) to run low voltage Ethernet to power some cameras and a flood light (for the LIVE CAM of course!). Then I started to assemble the roof joists. Some quick googling and talking to my neighbor gave me the confidence to attempt a birdsmouth cut for the joists, and it worked with mediocre success. I’d never built something like this before, but once I’d nailed in the last hurricane tie and stepped back, I was pretty proud of my work.
View from the opposite end of the garden
fencing rails starting to go up
first coat of paint on the joists and roof panels starting to go up
Over the long Memorial Day weekend I was able to put in some long days, and was starting to feel like a farmer out working on the coop in the sun. But I framed out the door, finished the railings, Anne painted the roof, and I stained the wood. We were actually making really good progress. I found these transom window things in our garage, sitting there from when we moved in 7 years ago, and thought they’d make a cool accent on either side of the door.
All that’s left now is to enclose the entire structure in .5″ steel landscape mesh, install the automatic coop door (we went with an Omlet door), and make sure the whole structure is critter proof. Hopefully the chickies are ready to move into their home in the next week or so.
After that, I have plans for a rain water capture system, motion sensor lights, and maybe solar!? Do you have any tips or fun ideas we can add to our coop and run?