Galen Bontrager: Hello! I am Galen Bontrager, I am the owner and operator of Galen Bontrager Farm based out of Wellman, Iowa and we are doing this video on how to build a chicken-coop.

In this first step you will see is assembling the basic frame and the cross bracing for that frame. What we are doing here, we started out first with the basic frame; we have that two foot piece on the end we are using -- putting together the eight foot length first that goes on the sides. So we use this two foot piece for our vertical and then the eight foot length we fasten on top of it; notice the gap that I am putting on the end because that way it will fit flush with the horizontal piece of the four foot length that comes from the other direction.

So I fasten those two together and then I do two screws in each board to keep it pretty solid using the inch and half screw and then I move over to the other end and do the same thing and fasten that together. Now we have our first side put together lengthways, we go to the other side and put in our lengthways piece the same way doing our - making sure we have that two foot width at the end and a gap at the end for the other horizontal piece that we will fit so we have a nice square fit; two screws into each hole, they are in each board and do the same at the other end.

Now we put on the end piece; to do that we first stand up one of the sides and its easier to fasten the top first so things don't keep falling over on you. Notice how I tilt it together to put it off in one piece together. I will fasten this one end first then I go to the other end and pull the other side up and fasten the top together; so now we have these two connected at the top then I go down to the base where I have my two by four rip and again because of this two by four screwing into another two by four we have need for a three inch screw now instead of the inch and a half. So just one screw is enough here, I will fasten that in on this end and then on the other end and we have this end assembled. So we go to the opposite end of the pen and we screw in again our inch and a half in the top and our three inch screw into the bottom.

Those two are put together, fastened, two on the top and then one three inch screw in the bottom. Now we are ready for our cross bracing. Again we start out making sure that the top end of our cross bracing on this lengthways run is at the back end of the pen; if it's at the lowest side we will have problems later assembling our nest box. So the back end is up in the air and we fasten that first and we come down to the bottom and fasten that end; this first cross brace is now secure. We come over to the other side and do the same thing, fasten the one brace at the top first then we go down to the bottom; again one screw is sufficient here in this cross bracing.

Next we go to the end and we screw in at the top and then fasten to the bottom and we do not need again a cross bracing at the back end because it will be solidified by the nest box and all those things that we assembled. This concludes our assembly of the first step with the frame and the cross bracing for that frame. Let's move on ahead now to the second step on assembling the nest box and the ladder for that nest box.