I saw Heather Bullards "Chez Poulet" chicken coup design and was in chicken coup heaven. We viewed her plans for sale but we had something bigger in mind. So along with the hubs, this is what we came up with. We planned and built as we went along. Let's just say it was a long spring. As we built our "grown" kids all committed on the size, and that we were building a mansion for our two chickens. And so the coup got it's name, 'The Chicken Mansion'. As you can see we have since added to our little flock.
These are the south and east sides. The coup its self is 7x6 and the run is 7x11, there is also a storage closet on the west side that is about 7x3. The odd angle of the top of the run is because the other end is our barn shaped storage building, which determined the sizing of the coup, the run is covered in 1/2 inch square mesh, top and sides . There is room under the coup so that the girls can get up out of the weather notice that it is higher then the rest of the run so there is no problem with pooling of the rain, plus it just worked to our advantage that there is a slope in the terrain. The double doors (eastside) on the bottom are for days that they run around the backyard and mainly for easy access to their water. The bigger door on the top folds down so I can clean out the inside, the floor pulls out for easy washing.
And there is one bottom door open and the top door does fold all the way down (one of these days I will finish painting that door). What you can't see are 3 roosting poles in the upper part of the ceiling. We have 6 nesting boxes with a little ledge, and there is electricity because it can get pretty cold here in Oklahoma. On the outside there is a vent, on the inside we just drilled holes, and a cable and hook, this is one of those coated cables that you would tie out the dogs with (hunting dogs which we no longer have), it is on two roller like pulleys that work the ramp door, so I can close the little door that goes to the ramp.
Here is the north and west sides. There is the storage barn and again why the runs roof is at a funny angle. On the west side is a storage closet for the garden tools, which worked out great except for the the fact we did not have a garden this year, between the extreme heat and building this, well...
And this is the north side with a few doors opened. Here is where the electricity comes into the coup from the well house, also where there switch is. The two smaller top doors are the nesting boxes, we decided to not have them hang out from the building because of the weather. Under the nesting boxes there is plenty of room for food storage, yes those are plastic bins for wrapping paper but one nicely holds a 50 lbs bag of food, the other side of the food storage is just that storage for all things chicken related.
The only wasted space on the inside was over the nesting boxes, so we left that area open (from the west garden closet side), it is works great for storing long pieces of lumber. That is 'The Chicken Mansion' it is mainly made from plywood and 2x4s, roof material was all left overs, we stopped adding up the cost of lumber because it was starting to become a sore subject. I told the hubs if we ever moved we were taken it with us or we'd have to buid this all over again. His reply, NO! I will buy you one before we ever build that thing again. Ha Ha Our oldest granddaughter is 5 1/2 ask just the other day," if you get rid of all those chickens, can that be our playhouse?" I said, "I guess it could with a few changes, how about that Poppie?" The hubs headed to the barn shaking his head with K right on his heels. LOL
