Skatcatla's Chicken Coop

Welcome to my coop page!

About us: I decided to keep chickens because I wanted to produce more of my own food. My sister lives in Portland, where many people keep chickens, and got the idea planted in my head. I'm so glad I listened to her! I have four girls now: a Barred Rock, a Rhode Island Red, a Black Star and a Jersey Giant. They are delightful; so much fun to watch, and of course the eggs can't be beat.

I started out with a simple coop from Ware, the Chick-n-Hutch, and the seperate Chick-n-Pen run. They were adequate but too small really for four hens.  I modified the hutch by adding my own nest box, and we built a new, longer run.

Finally I decided I just needed to start over and build a whole new coop, as the Chick-n-Hutch is really too small for more than 2 hens. So I spent a lot of time researching (thanks to all the other pages here!), came up with a design and hired a carpenter to build it.

Here are the photos:

Building the frame, which sits on top of 3 feet long pressure treated 6 x 6's. They were pounded into the ground so that the floor sits about 2.5 feet off the ground. The floor is made of plywood, I'll be covering it with linoleum for easy cleaning. 

We used home-grade exterior siding. Its water-proof, easy to install and less expensive than lumber:

View from the inside:

Almost done!

It's done!

Nest boxes from the outside:

From the inside:

The roost, near the windows so they can look out.

Ta da!!

I think they like it!

And here's the finished coop, painted and with finishing touches:

And here's some of the happy residents: