• Created on 7/23/11 by CT henhouse

Here's my chicken coop. Sorry, I don't have any work in progress pics, I'm notoriously bad at doing that.   In the photo to the left, you will see I have used an old dog kennel for my run. Although it can't be seen in the pic, I have wrapped the lower half of the kennel with chicken wire to keep small handed critters out. Chicken wire also covers the top of the run. The horizontalboard you see at the top of the kennel (it's obscuring part of the window) keeps the chicken wire from sagging. The run itself is elevated, resting atop telephone poles. This helps with... read more

• Created on 7/22/11 by hcarlsonlewis

Over a year before we started construction on the coop I had been talking about wanting chickens on a ski vacation with my husband, dad, aunts and uncles. When I returned home from vacation my aunt sent me a book on raising chickens and an egg collecting basket.  I read the book and kept mentioning it to my husband wondering if he would ever take me seriously. I'm a complete and total animal lover and I wanted more "pets". I guess after hearing me for so long he finally decided to begin construction behind our barn so we would have easy access to electricity and water.... read more

• Created on 7/22/11 by tsproull

Country Charm By: The Sproull's         About Us      We are a young family, with four children, living in the small town of Springville in beautiful Southern Indiana where there are more cows than there are people.  Anyways, the thought of raising chickens and eating fresh eggs has always been intriguing to me.  So a few years ago I began feeding my spark of curiosity by researching the subject (Thanks, BYC, for being such a huge resource).  The more I learned about chickens the more I wanted try it for myself.  Our journey began when a box with... read more

• Created on 7/21/11 by CandiceN

Hi all!  We currently have 4 hens.  Up until a few days ago, we had 2 sex link hens. Then I realized one of my hens looked more like a rooster! And yep, he was.  So he's gone to a local farm to protect some ladies and make some babies , and we've just added 3 RIR 20 weekers to our coop with the remaining red SL hen. She's quite a bit younger than they are, so hopefully she can handle the transition. The RIRs are all showing signs of impending egg laying so we await our very first egg ever.    Our current coop:   We got this oversized dog house off Craigslist for free... read more

• Created on 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

• Created on 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

• Created on 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

• Created on 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

• Created on 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

• Created on 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