Hen House

Personal build | Design and construction | Denver, Colorado

I built the whole thing in Maya first, to spec, down to the sixteenth of an inch.

Then it went from Maya to the sketchbook, and from the sketchbook to a pile of lumber.

The walls went up in the garage. A circular saw and a speed square did almost the entire build. Every panel got stained before it went anywhere near the yard.

The previous owners had left an old coop in the backyard and it was falling apart, so that came down first.

Then the frame of the run went up, which laid the foundation at the same time, and the whole thing got walled in hardware cloth. The floor too, to keep predators from digging in.

Then the roof, clear corrugated plastic.

The door was the fun problem. With an angled roof nothing meets at ninety degrees, so I got very well acquainted with the Pythagorean theorem before anything lined up.

Then back to the garage. The hen house is its own build that attaches to the side of the run.

Partway through the panels I went back to Maya and polished the hen house properly before cutting the rest of it.

A crescent moon cut into the upper wall gives it cross ventilation.

Blue paint, stained trim, two little front windows, and four laying rooms for the hens.

Finished, with the tenants moved in.