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Other folks' coops
The Kreitz Family "Poulet Chalet"
Here is my "creation" for the
5 chickens that my family "inherited" from my
kindergartner's class in May. The class watched the chicks
hatch, but they grew far quicker than the teacher expected,
and so they magically "appeared" on our doorstep
one Thursday morning!
We knew nothing about raising a chicken, so your site
was very helpful early on. Really! We kept them in the
laundry room in a kiddie pool with poultry fence around
it, while I started to work on the coop.
Since the coop was to sit on a wooded spot directly in
front of our house (which I had built with my own hands),
I wanted it to look nice and at the same time somewhat
match our timber-framed, arts and craft styled home. I
started out with absolutely no plan, just a rough concept.
That's it. No plan, lots of trips to Home Depot and my
experience in home building.
The end result is in the photos. It stands 8 feet tall,
has a 4 x 10 foot footprint, is cedar shaked roofed, cedar
sided and trimmed, insulated, wired for electricity (for
future heat in the winter), has 4 12 x 10" nesting
boxes, top access to nesting boxes (a couple of photos
have the roof "open", hand-made screens for
the summer and window frames in the winter, and my favorite
feature, exposed rafter tails. Very unusual in Minnesota
to have those. Below the main gabled roof, the two smaller
shed roofs I built so that the hinge to the roof that
opens is protected from our MN weather.
I also decided late into the construction to have two
access doors for the chickens to enter/exit. Just in case
we need to separate chickens in the future from each other
in the coop itself.
My smartest thing I did was to buy from Home Depot some
cheap linoleum ($10 for a roll of 8 x 20 foot) to apply
to the floor of the coop. We just spread wood shavings/nesting
material over it. It makes cleaning up the poop SOOOO
easy. I also added an interior screened door to restrict
access of the birds to just about 1/2 of the house. The
other half we use for storage of food, brooms, cleaning
gear, etc. Works great that way!
Over beers with my best friend late one night, he told
me that after nearly 3 months of weekend work, I had to
name the coop. After just a moment, it came to us -- "Le
Poulet Chalet". It was perfect. Note one photo where
I routed the name into the header over the small main
access door... Not a bad name we thought for a couple
of drunk guys who speak NO french whatsoever!
 My
boys just love the chickens. Ben is 8, Joe is 6 and Josh
is 4. Hope you enjoy the shot of them "washing"
the chicks in their kiddie pool! What a hoot! Believe
me when I tell you that we washed them THOROUGHLY immediately
after Josh's "dip" with the chickens!
We're hopeful that they'll start laying soon, and then
I'll have to build a run for them. For now, we really
enjoy watching them race around the front, side, rear
of our home, as well as into the forest all around our
home. They love to explore so much. It's fun! Do I need
to start worrying about "losing" eggs out in
the woods during the day? They were born in April, and
are Leg Horns (I think that's how you spell them).
Thanks so much for your site. We sure enjoy it. Hope
you enjoy my photos. Again, I'm sorry, I have no plans
for the coop itself; it was created in my own mind, and
changed as I built it over the past 2 1/2 months of weekends...
[ click any image
to enlarge - use your 'back' button to return ]
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