New coop/breeding pen for my Delaware's

I needed a separate coop and breeding pen for my newest strain of Delaware chickens. I'm going to put it in my garden area. It will have two alternate runs, to be used like the Silveira coop/garden. It won't take up all the garden space- just one end, and the runs will also serve as part of the fence that will eventually contain the garden space. I'm actually hoping to have 2 of these built but we'll see.

I wanted the design to be cute, so it also functions as a type of garden art. It won't be as fancy as some of the beautiful coops on here, but I'm hoping for whimsical. I liked Nugget's Chicky Shnoodle Shack with the swooped roof, so that was the inspiration. It gets very hot here all summer so that design has been modified as well as simplified.

My husband is building it in pieces right now and will assemble the completed pieces in the garden area later. This is what it looks like so far:

Kim

Progress has been slow, which is frustrating because I need this coop finished! My husband is a builder and he always works for his paying customers first.   He's also very practical, so convincing him to make a coop with a whimsical design was difficult. It's not looking quite as much like garden art as I had hoped, but I'm grateful to have another coop. The funky trim is inspired by Cezanne's Garden Coop...some needs to be changed/removed and more added.

The coop has been moved to the garden area. The fence, for one run, is going up in these photos. A door will be open all day for the chickens to range in one run. There will be another run on the other side for the garden/chickens rotation.

The shingles still need to go on the roof, trim completed, interior still needs to be finished and it needs painting.

My entire garden area is over an acre. This part is mostly open space. The main garden perimeter fence is being attached to the north edge of this coop. This coop & run take up about 1/4 of the open space in my garden area. I hope to have another, similar coop on the east edge of the garden space. The idea is for the coop run fences to also be the garden perimeter fence.

The long coop sides face north & south, so the windows on those sides are narrow & high to block rain & wind. The east side has more ventilation. I think the nest boxes were placed too high, so I had a smaller open nest box put floor level to encourage hens to go broody.

I will post more as this progresses. Thanks for looking and comments/suggestions are welcome!

Kim

Thanks! I have to say, your hen house is very elegant.

With all the rain and other stuff I have to do, I haven't worked on this coop, lately. The roof now has shingles, which is very cute. I still have to add decorative trim. The trim will be painted the same bright blue as the garden shed. I love the look of barn wood, so my garden shed was sided with redwood fence boards and I'm hoping it will age to look like an old barn. With the T1-11 on this coop, I have to paint it. I'd like to find a paint that would make it look like old barn wood, if that's possible.

Kim

G-man, I love that little coop! That barn wood is exactly the look that I like. I like the old curvy tin, also, but DH doesn't.  I still have to make a trip to the paint store to see what they have that might work. Thanks for the link. Bella Cielo does beautiful work, but that's way out of my budget for a chicken coop. I'm saving the link for when we need something like that on our house.

Thanks, Stumpy. I looked up the Nags Head cart coop... very cute!  I have a coop built on the same type of cart. It ended up being too small for what I need, but I still use it as a brooder in the summer. The tires have gone flat and I'm not sure if they can be fixed with the coop attached.

I really appreciate the comments and hope to finish this coop soon.

Have a happy Easter,

Kim