After doing intensive research and drooling over all the beautiful coops here I set my sights on having a pretty coop. It may house chickens and poop but I didn't see any reason not to have something I loved. However, after realizing that "we"aren't handy enough to build our own, or that a coop online advertised for 8-10 chickens would realistically hold half that many I was lucky enough to come across a local guy on Craigslist who was selling my dream coop (for $2500). Needless to say my husband put the kaboosh on that, but I was able to work with this guy to build something more reasonable. Isn't she a beauty??
I made a couple of changes (added rungs the ladder), added hardware cloth to all the openings (windows and vents). And added locks to the doors. It came with one roost, 3 nest boxes in the back and electricity. I have since added a second roost to give them a bit more night room.
Well of course chicken math got to me and I quickly found myself over capacity so thankfully Craigslist guy built me another smaller coop. So I now have a village.
Now comes the run. Again, I had to come up with a temporary solution so I initially used a 10x10 dog pen covered on all sides, top and fanning out with hardware cloth.
But thankfully my husband is a mason, and has a crew of 3 guys who spent a week working on my most beautiful run.
We were having a fence installed so were smart enough to ask them to sink the main poles. It looked stupid and I'm sure they thought we were nuts but it saved us some work.
The rest is all my husbands design:
Here is the final product. I'm just starting to landscape.. (and yes that is a chicken on top... argggghhhh).
Below are some cool features:
A dirt bath (tho they prefer to make holes in my yard).
A chicken door that leads to the garden so in the winter they can have at it
Everyone loves the outdoor roost!
My one addition which drives my husband crazy... CHRISTMAS LIGHTS!!! Falalalala
When hubby is a mason you get concrete under all openings so no one can dig under (the wire fencing also goes 1 1/2 feet into the ground all the way around).
The cross beams are 2 2x4 nailed together because apparently that gives you a less likely chance of bowing.
Every chicken needs a swing!
And our most recent project which is a lifesaver.
I'm sure this is not the end as it always seems there is another project!
I made a couple of changes (added rungs the ladder), added hardware cloth to all the openings (windows and vents). And added locks to the doors. It came with one roost, 3 nest boxes in the back and electricity. I have since added a second roost to give them a bit more night room.
Well of course chicken math got to me and I quickly found myself over capacity so thankfully Craigslist guy built me another smaller coop. So I now have a village.
Now comes the run. Again, I had to come up with a temporary solution so I initially used a 10x10 dog pen covered on all sides, top and fanning out with hardware cloth.
But thankfully my husband is a mason, and has a crew of 3 guys who spent a week working on my most beautiful run.
We were having a fence installed so were smart enough to ask them to sink the main poles. It looked stupid and I'm sure they thought we were nuts but it saved us some work.
The rest is all my husbands design:
Here is the final product. I'm just starting to landscape.. (and yes that is a chicken on top... argggghhhh).
Below are some cool features:
A dirt bath (tho they prefer to make holes in my yard).
A chicken door that leads to the garden so in the winter they can have at it
Everyone loves the outdoor roost!
My one addition which drives my husband crazy... CHRISTMAS LIGHTS!!! Falalalala
When hubby is a mason you get concrete under all openings so no one can dig under (the wire fencing also goes 1 1/2 feet into the ground all the way around).
The cross beams are 2 2x4 nailed together because apparently that gives you a less likely chance of bowing.
Every chicken needs a swing!
And our most recent project which is a lifesaver.
I'm sure this is not the end as it always seems there is another project!
