• Created 1/28/15 by SusanPC

        Our chicken coop adventure began when I spotted an expensive pre-fab chicken coop for sale at an antique/thrift/junk shop. I looked up online, stumbled upon Backyard Chickens.com and researched local code. Backyard chickens are okay in the town to which we had recently moved as long as 100 feet from any neighbor’s house. My coop is actually within 100 ft. of a vacant house and we will deal with that situation when the house becomes occupied, but the code is only enforced if the neighbor complains (free eggs for the new neighbor!).   We ordered our 4... read more

• Created 1/23/15 by cheesychicken

This turkey coop is designed for 6 hens and 1 tom. I have Kentucky Bourbon Reds.     This turkey coop is the same as one of my chicken coops. The only difference is in the chicken coop I used 1/2 by 1 wire mesh for the floor and for the turkeys I used 1 by 1 wire mesh for the floor. Also the turkey nest box is 2 foot wide by 5 feet long and the chicken nest box is 1 foot wide by 5 foot long. Almost all of the wood was purchased at Home Depot from their 70% off cull rack. I even used a router to make the plywood look like T1-11 siding.   The run is 8 foot wide by 10... read more

• Created 1/23/15 by cheesychicken

This was my first chicken coop design and build for my wife's new 12 Golden Comet chickens back in the summer of 2013. I call it the Mini Chicken Barn. The coop is 4 by 8 feet, the run is 8 by 10 feet, plus the 4 by 8 feet under the coop. It is about a total of 7 feet tall. Most of the wood I purchased at Home Depot from their 70% off cull rack. I originally used chicken wire for the run, but later purchased from Tractor Supply a 4 foot tall roll of 14 gauge 2 by 4 wire fencing that I added over the chicken wire for more secure protection for the chickens. For the other... read more

• Created 1/20/15 by jessthemess

Here are some photos from our coop build.  We started out with an amazon build-it coop which quickly deteriorated (like 6 weeks!) while my hens were busy outgrowing it.  My handy hubby started on this baby and it got done just in time: Cost: $1000 easy Climate: Near Barrie, Ontario, CANADA Summers up to 35oC and winters down to -35oC Materials: chicken wire, welded wire, windows and door from garage sales and habitat for humanity stores, walls, floor & roof plywood with pressure treated lumber, siding rough cut pine from local saw mill, industrial floor tiles from... read more

• Created 1/17/15 by chickwhispers

    Almost complete. I don't think it will ever be completely done though. Chicken math plus when I see a better working system of some sort I like to try it out. I also have plans to add some kind of fenced in area to allow a more controlled free range for times when I can't pay enough attention to the yard. Then there are landscaping things too. For every one thing I accomplish I think I add two more to the wish list! Lol.   1/18/2015  Edited to add materials and plan sketches and information: I sketched out the existing coop and run area and the new run. I... read more

• Created 1/15/15 by tom824

After growing up with chickens on the property for the first half of my life, I was ready to have chickens again in my mid thirties. My wonderful wife agreed to a budget of $500 to build a coop and it began. I searched many different coop designs on this site and decided to copy Birdicus7's coop making a few changes. (a link to his design is below) http://www.backyardchickens.com/a/birdicus7s-chicken-coop-plans-and-progress-pictures My dad is a retired carpenter so was very helpful when it came to making changes to the original design to save time or... read more

• Created 1/14/15 by ChickieMart

  Well, I am finally going to document our coop build.  We took a lot of design features from The Palace and Lake Norman Coop DeVille - thank you both for documenting your builds so well. We are new to raising chickens.  I got the bug from listen to friends who raised chickens.  At first I didn't get the hype, but I did love the idea of having a steady supply of fresh eggs.  Then I ate a farm egg... that had me sold!! We did a lot of research - how much area does a chicken need?  What do we want in a coop? We spent a month constructing the coop after the "Master... read more

• Created 1/10/15 by Biddiquack

Here A Little, There A Little, Sometimes One Shoestring, Sometimes Two   - the short story of Biddiquack's long Poultry Adventure on Wild Orchid Hill     A Little Shed with a lean-to behind stood just a stone's throw away from the back door of a country house on Wild Orchid Hill.   “What a perfect place for lawnmowers!” exclaimed the man of the house. But little Biddiquack had other ideas...... Gathering scrap lumber, insulation, and old shower stall parts, she set to work with a few power tools.   Oh, sorry I got carried away – you probably just want the... read more

• Created 1/9/15 by YborChix

  I set out to build a coop using as many re-purposed materials as possible. Almost all of the structural pieces came from pallets that me and my Chihuahua "Dingo" found by scrounging behind stores. The materials that were purchased were pretty low cost. Total spend was somewhere between $150-$200. The ventilation windows on front and the doors on the right side that access the nest boxes all came from Habitat For Humanity at $5.00 each. The interior is composed of all sorts of odds and ends and the siding was left over from the home remodel. As for "design"...it just... read more

• Created 1/6/15 by LadyCluck77

Hi Folks!   Building my coop was an adventure! (And it still continues to be...)   I'm not ever officially done- in fact, I do some sort of addition to it every year. Always fixing or improving the design of something or other. Isn't that life?    I'm located in central Maine, where temperatures can range near 100 F during summer and down to -30 F in the winter. We often get over four feet of accumulated snow, which can get quite heavy and difficult to deal with. Looking back to when I first started out, everyone advised to plan- plan for the future in what you... read more