Show me your DIY Chicken Coops/Runs/Etc. (Please!)

[DozenChipper]

I'm new to chicken life, and have read all your post. I have chicks and am in the process of deciding how to build the run and coop. I'm in the suburbs of MD

I'm new too. We inherited a coop with attached mini run but want to expand the run. If you have a feed store like Tractor Supply you could visit, I find a lot of employees there have chickens of their own and advice for the area (plus the supplies right there to point you to). Being in MD near water I would also assume you have raccoons. Better safe than sorry! What they can do is shocking!
So, advice I was given for the run:
- make it high enough so you can get in there to comfortably clean it. She recommended 6 ft metal wire fencing with 2x4" gaps - not chicken wire- for the 'walls'
- she recommended 1/2" hardware cloth for the perimeter base, buried to a depth of up to a foot with a height above ground of about 2 feet (to prevent raccoons from reaching through and decapitating your chickens).
- then some sort of covering to protect from hawks and air predators.

 

[DozenChipper]

I'm new to chicken life

And you may want to check on zoning and local stuff for your area before you get started as to what is required permit wise and so forth.

 

[First time Chick mom]

We are doing a full enclosure with a roof (or so that's the plan). I hate snakes!! and we do have black snakes here. We have a fox, but I have never seen him/her in the yard. I have never seen any raccoons in our area but are planning like there are. We are using small gage hardware cloth, because we have field mice also. I want to put the hardware cloth under the dirt and wood chips of the enclosure and putting bigger brick blocks around the exposed sides. Do you think that will work? I have a 10' x 3' raised bed on the front side up against the enclosure, so I can't put anything there. It used to be our garden, but the trees over it makes it to shaded to grow many veggies. We do have a Tractor Supply near by. Thank you so much for the advice.

 

[Sally PB]

DH built the coop based on an old trailer we found. The original idea was to have it near the house in the winter, and move it by the garden in the summer. I realized how much I preferred having it near the house, so there it stays.

When I got more chicks in 2021, we added onto the coop.

We're going to do the same on the other side this spring to accommodate 4 more.

The run is built on framing for a green house a neighbor had, but didn't want. The addition to the run is more green house/tent framing she didn't want.

It is so true that one woman's trash is another woman's treasure!

 

[3KillerBs]

I currently have 4 different structures.

My main coop doesn't have a coop page article yet, but it's featured in my hot climate article: Hot Climate Chicken Housing and Care and has a build thread: Large, Open-Air Coop in Central NC

It's huge, 16x16 and built in the open air style, which combines coop and run together with massive ventilation. I also have a run made from electric poultry netting and between those two I keep between 20 and 50 birds of assorted ages in there.

My first coop was my The Little, Monitor Coop. It was specifically designed to meet all the minimums for a flock of 4 and is on the household project list to be remodeled to use for a separate breeding group.

My Outdoor Brooder is larger than that coop at 4x8. I converted it from a structure I was given and would have done it differently if I was building a 4x8 coop from scratch -- making it full height and putting on a slanted roof instead of a flat one.

Camp Cockerel is a medium security holding structure for cull cockerels and birds for sale. I made it from the frame of a cheap canvas pavillion that lost it's cover to a hailstorm.

 

[CasaCasarrubiasChickens]

Thank you all for sharing your builds with me!! I went on a bit of a hiatus from BYC due to an ongoing family emergency. But chicken raising and loving never stops. Logging back in and seeing what you guys have built made me decide that I would go ahead and begin building our coop. What better way to distract the overwhelmed mind than to build something? I’m going to put together a plan, create a supply list, and have my husband help me grab everything from Home Depot this weekend. Thank you all! For anyone else debating on how to build your coop, I hope this thread helps you as much as it did me. I will try to remember to come back and show my work when it’s complete.

 

[SandyRiverChick]

Thank you all for sharing your builds with me!! I went on a bit of a hiatus from BYC due to an ongoing family emergency. But chicken raising and loving never stops. Logging back in and seeing what you guys have built made me decide that I would go ahead and begin building our coop. What better way to distract the overwhelmed mind than to build something? I’m going to put together a plan, create a supply list, and have my husband help me grab everything from Home Depot this weekend. Thank you all! For anyone else debating on how to build your coop, I hope this thread helps you as much as it did me. I will try to remember to come back and show my work when it’s complete.

Depending on how many you intend to put in it, don't forget about the small, medium, large coops section on BYC. I couldn't agree more about building a chicken coop being actually therapeutic! Over 20 years mine has gone from small to medium to large and no surprise I'm still improving it, all DIY recycled. Sure hope you do post pics of your progress~!

 

[karenm52]

We are beginning construction of a better/larger/more quality coop for our flock and would love to see what you fine folks have built so we may pull ideas from your builds, if we may! Show off your work, please! Tell me why you built it the way you did, if it’s predator proof, what material was used and how much, and how much it cost you if you don’t mind! Thank you all in advance!

where are you located? I need to sell my coop (moving). its 12Wx4Dx6H; solid redwood frame, 1/4in hardware mesh & 3 nest boxes. I need to take some more and better photos!! is there a thread on this site where I should post this? ty. best

 

[CasaCasarrubiasChickens]

Depending on how many you intend to put in it, don't forget about the small, medium, large coops section on BYC. I couldn't agree more about building a chicken coop being actually therapeutic! Over 20 years mine has gone from small to medium to large and no surprise I'm still improving it, all DIY recycled. Sure hope you do post pics of your progress~! View attachment 3502631

I love the progress you’ve made with your coop! It looks nice and cozy. I bet your flock loves it! I currently have 7 chicks and a bantam hen. I had a silkie roo, but one afternoon he didn’t come home to roost (they free-range our yard which is fenced in). I searched the cow pasture, the neighbors, checked the roads, etc. and could not find him... I discovered what I am pretty sure was him 2 days later smooshed in the road. He wasn’t there day 1 or 2, but morning of day 3 I saw him. He was a butthole (hence his name, “@$$h0l3”) but he didn’t deserve to go like that. He was our only roo, and none of the chicks appear to be cockerels either. We are planning to get another batch soon… hopefully we will get a roo or 2 next time.
Anyway, I will definitely check out that thread, thanks for telling me about it!!! do you have any size recommendations for the coop of a flock that I hope to grow to 15-20 by the end of the year? I intend to incorporate a broody/sick hen area into it as well. Maybe a timeout area for mean Roos even… I don’t know. So many cool ideas!
We are new, but trying to dive right in, especially with the rising costs of everything due to inflation!! Plus, I can’t stress how relaxing this experience has been. They are such sweet, curious, funny little creatures!! I could talk about them all day!

 

[CasaCasarrubiasChickens]

where are you located? I need to sell my coop (moving). its 12Wx4Dx6H; solid redwood frame, 1/4in hardware mesh & 3 nest boxes. I need to take some more and better photos!! is there a thread on this site where I should post this? ty. best

We live in the north central area of NC. We are about an hour south of the VA border/hour north of Raleigh. I’m sure there is a thread somewhere on here! There’s a thread for just about everything! I know there’s a thread called “where am I? Where are you!” and maybe you could locate your area somewhere in there! But I’m certain there’s something even more specific to your needs somewhere in here! You could always just make a post titled with your area, and maybe in the “tags” section just include your state/zip/or nearby cities to help find a buyer local to you.
I hope that helps some!!!