I am making slow progress with construction of the new chicken coop. The present coops are well located for summer weather since they are at the bottom of the hill with large trees to the east and west and well screened from the sun, except when it is overhead. The coops are enclosed by walls on two sides and netting/fencing on two sides, so cold winter winds will easily find the residents. I considered closing in the remaining sides, but decided an extra coop will be handy in the future and, since it will have many windows, a portion may be hived off and pressed into service as a greenhouse. My new location is on slightly higher ground and has much better sun exposure. Since it is on a slope my first task was to level the ground with my bobcat and create a level pad. I dug a perimeter trench between the pad and the two higher sides of the slope so the rain water coming down the hill will be diverted around the pad.
I determined the width by examining roofing materials and noting that most are either 8ft or 12 ft long. Since I would like an overhang of approximately 1 ft on each side, I decided to use 12 ft long roofing over a 10 ft wide coop. The coop is on an east-west axis and the higher side faces south. The most difficult part was digging some of the post holes since there were large rocks in the ground, some bigger than a foot wide, which had to be removed. Below is a photo of the framing which I installed. The horizontal braces between the high side and the lower side are to hold them in place until I can install the roof rafters at which time they will be removed.
Click on these links to follow progress: roof installation and final completion.
