I decided long ago that I wanted chickens, we live on 20 acres surrounded by woods, wee have other animals and had ducks before but I have always thought the idea of chickens running around seemed ideal!
But having limited time and a husband who doesn't like eggs I was alone in my dream! We had an old dog house, that had been converted into a duck house, so we thought we should turn that into a coop that way if I ended up not like having chickens (ya right) then I saved myself the expense of buying an expensive coop.
So this is what we started with...
My husband added a pop door, and nesting boxes and a side door for clean out the size of the coop is a little smaller than 3 x 5.
We quickly realized that the current run was not big enough so we decided to build a bigger run.
We used cedar poles for the posts and then added rails. In hindsight I wish we had made it a bit taller as it's a bit difficult to clean and do other work in the run.
I also used chicken wire I know most say to use hardware cloth but the size we needed and the cost kept us from doing so, I can go back and add hardware cloth to the bottom section but I haven't had the chance to do so.
We did add a bottom board to the run for added safety and there is chicken wire on top as well.
Completed run with chickens!
We have since added metal roofing to the run so they can keep somewhat dry in rainy weather, we are going to upgrade that this spring with a slope added so rain and snow sheds off better. I'm also adding more chickens to the flock have 4 now and adding 4 more...so trying to decide if I'm adding to my current coop or replacing? Check back for updates!
But having limited time and a husband who doesn't like eggs I was alone in my dream! We had an old dog house, that had been converted into a duck house, so we thought we should turn that into a coop that way if I ended up not like having chickens (ya right) then I saved myself the expense of buying an expensive coop.
So this is what we started with...
My husband added a pop door, and nesting boxes and a side door for clean out the size of the coop is a little smaller than 3 x 5.
We quickly realized that the current run was not big enough so we decided to build a bigger run.
We used cedar poles for the posts and then added rails. In hindsight I wish we had made it a bit taller as it's a bit difficult to clean and do other work in the run.
I also used chicken wire I know most say to use hardware cloth but the size we needed and the cost kept us from doing so, I can go back and add hardware cloth to the bottom section but I haven't had the chance to do so.
We did add a bottom board to the run for added safety and there is chicken wire on top as well.
Completed run with chickens!
We have since added metal roofing to the run so they can keep somewhat dry in rainy weather, we are going to upgrade that this spring with a slope added so rain and snow sheds off better. I'm also adding more chickens to the flock have 4 now and adding 4 more...so trying to decide if I'm adding to my current coop or replacing? Check back for updates!
