• Last updated 7/21/11 by readycoop

"Ready Coop" Originally a city dweller, I worked there to be able to eventually live in the country. Once I moved to my small farm property I started keeping chickens. After 7 years keeping chickens and going through some trial and error, I used my experience to design a mid-sized family chicken coop that I call Ready Coop, and made the plans available to others. My intention was to save new chicken enthusiasts a lot of unecessary expense, hard work, and heartbreak by showing them how they could do it right the first time. I have since made plans available for a... read more

• Last updated 7/20/11 by GraemeGJ

  Free chook house and almost free chooks.   This house was made from rubbish: Anyone can see that there is plenty of rubbish left over. Notice the hindges above the nest boxes to tilt the roof. Also the pull handle on the sh.1.t box.     It is sheltered from the most dramatic weather by the shed behind it.       I can easily lift the roof with one hand and pull the string with the other to lift the propps up to hold the roof up.  One hand to lift again and the props hinged at the front, fall down so the roof can be lowered with one... read more

• Last updated 7/20/11 by LivingRootsFarm

Old playhouse that I found a guy selling on the side of the road.  This is it getting deliverd - yes it looked like a shaky operation! Playhouse being unloaded! First day chickens are in their new home. Finally finished!  Retrofitted playhouse, new range coop for additional hawk protection, 200' of electric fence for raccoon and dog protection and chairs for when they need to rest...hahaha! Backporch that I built.  I will probably enclose this and make the coop bigger for more chickens in the future. Chicken sized Chairs! read more

• Last updated 7/20/11 by wackyprofessor

      wacky professor's coop #2 - "The Convent of St. Gall (patron saint of birds)" Even more hygienic and efficient than the first one, built under a treehouse at my ex-wife's house.   *Built on the "Great American Steppes" (a/k/a the Great Plains) where frequent high winds, violent thunderstorms, and extremes of temperature, both high and low are all important design considerations.  In order to build the pen up against this particular garage, it called for a shallow roof pitch -- that is, to accommodate the door and make it so that a tall adult could walk around... read more

• Last updated 7/20/11 by JRchickchick

The Birdello - a dog house sized mini coop that I'm using to house my 15 chicks from 2-3 weeks until about 8 weeks, when they'll be in the big house. After that, this will be recommissioned and used for storage in the big house by removing the roof and handles. I think this would work well for 2-3 hens if a little nest box was put inside, something as simple as a short box or plastic tub on one end. All together, this cost me $39 to build, mind you that doesn't count lumber as I already had that lying around leftover from other projects. The most expensive part was the... read more

• Last updated 7/20/11 by dirtychix

Well... we  had chickens for a number of years till the owner of the property next door threatened to poison them so we sent them to a farm where they could be safe and happy.  Recently we decided to get more chickens so we did...  We kept the new chix inside for a while but they started to grow up fast, then a trip to the feed store resulted in a few more.  It was time to get a coop together fast.  We had some scrap wood laying around, our sons old loft bed that he grew out of and I had to buy a few more pieces.   This is our new coop... It started with a... read more

• Last updated 7/20/11 by Haazegirl

This was our chicken tractor for 3 years, now it's been updated into the Duck Mobile! There are lots of predators at our little place on the river so there have been a few updates. Here's my blog post about it: http://blue-dirt.blogspot.com/2011/07/duck-mobile.html   The only costs for building this coop were for the purchase of latches, roof hinges, and several rolls of hardware cloth. Making it somewhere around $40 I believe. All the paint was laying around as well as the flooring, wheels, wood,  and tin roof.   Before picture. After:   It's pretty basic... read more

• Last updated 7/20/11 by Chicken.Lytle

Here on Chicken Lytle's ranch, the chickens are provided with the utmost in luxury that scrounged materials and improvised construction can manage. We now have two chicken coops and a brooder cage. Oh the chickeny joy!   The Big Coop The main chicken coop is 4x14. It was constructed from a piece of deck that was chopped off during demolition. A couple of hired hands built it as my chickens watched anxiously from a tractor. The lower half is wood. The upper half is farm fence. The roof is shingled ineptly. It has a cool pop door that slides in a channel. It has a... read more

• Last updated 7/20/11 by Chickadee55

    My coop started from a vacant horse stall.     We start adding walls onto the existing poles.     The laying boxes will be accessed from the outside with a flip up door.     This is the cleanout door. You can see part of the roost on the inside.     This is the same side with both doors closed and one window open.    A front view.    The other side view shows the laying boxes.     The inside floor is covered with recycled conveyor belts. They are stapled about 6" up the walls to help keep pedators out. The string hanging is for the light.   Now for... read more

• Last updated 7/20/11 by The Condo Guy

Palais de Poulet in Dallas Well we started online like so many and found a guy on BackYardChickens.com in the coop section that fit what I wanted the coop to look like.  He offered great step by step plans that were easy to follow (even for novices)!  We can't thank him enough!  You can find his plans here.  So here are some pictures of our coop in progress and finished.   This is early on and our new table saw to get the job done! Sides cut and tacked together.  So far so good...surprisingly easy! Roof on...starting to look like a dog house?  (That's what my... read more