Marie Mallery, post: 657559, member: 2349"]I think I know how but my daughter has a different idea or her husband dose.[/QUOTE] I've built many and raised hundreds of chickens and roosters, but mine was never as fancy, as our daughter's. I never used paint or pressure-treated lumber, just untreated materials. I don't think theirs is treated lumber either on this coup, but they're talking about painting the inside. Mine was always done with fence wire under it, to keep predators out and small chicken coup wire to keep snakes out. Two by fours for perches, and a small house for them to lay eggs. In my photo, the photo is straight up, but after I posted it, "it's sideways and larger than they should be when clicked on". Maybe Ken, Yvonne, John, or Craig, can rotate it upright for me. Thanks if you can.
Doesn't look anything like ours, which would be more on the level of Grapes of Wrath' than this, which is overkill ,imo. But at least they are trying to live as self sustaining as possible. Also he put pressure treated wood on her raised beds. Seems the contractors would have had one in the bunch that had a little knowledge about rural living. Sometimes you just have to take back control of some things. He is a good man but needs to leave farm structures to others. 
Does anyone have any design ideas? Tips on the actual building of the coop? Things to watch out for or be sure to include?
Oh yea we have a design but not many people would like it.It works good for us but its not too pretty. This one has worked fro 15 years, The center boards on the door is in the way of the 2 nesting boxes,
The other coop with the nesting box to the left of the picture. This one is 20 years old, the 10 pullets are in it now. Boards have bben added over the years if they rotted. Metal roof
I’ve never had one but I’ve heard others say it’s a good idea to have enough wire mesh to bury it around the edges to prevent foxes, etc. from digging under and getting in.
I put lots of perches inside these chicken pens Marie put up post #9, and this is a photo of the inside of it. I realize they're not pretty pens, but have served us very well, for many years, raising over a hundred birds. The photo I just took of new chickens, in the same pen, and of the same chickens as in the photo above of that one perching. That's how much they have grown in 5 months, they're already laying eggs. And the other pen in post # 8, with our four yr old chickens still laying eggs.
Great idea Mary. But large areas cost too much for wire. So far the cattle wire is ok. Our brooder is made of hardware clothe since snakes kept getting in the brooder killing our biddies.
We started off years ago with cattle wire, then laid welded wire over that, laid 1" chicken wire over the cattle and welded wire, then durable plastic netting on outside. This may seem like a lot but it is easier if done right the first time than finding dead birds. We have coons, snake's opossums, etc. that kill chickens here. We find that metal roofing is good and not costly. Under the pen we lay cattle wire at least 3 feet inside and out.We leave center of pen uncovered so hens can scratch. Anyone with better idea feel free to add to this ,this is only one way to do it.