I was so thrilled to finally have enough land to give myself fully to chicken math. After finding my 11 acres in northern Illinois overlooking the Mississippi river the next step was to build the coop. I had been eyeing the amazing coop Grade Eh Coop by @MiaS and my build is based in large part on her ideas. I did note that she dealt with a lot of waste due to the coop dimensions, so I set about to try to develop plans that leveraged the current commonly available lumber dimensions. I had wanted to buld this myself with the help of my partner, Jon, but the timelines and other commitments made that impossible. So I decided to do the next best thing, I would contract the overall construction but would do all the finish work myself.
I of course had to start on the chickens while building for motivation.
The Plans
Like Mia, I bought Wood's book and read it cover to cover. Based on this, and my other review of coop designs here on BYC, I chose the open front model. But I wanted a slightly larger coop and one that would minimize lumber waste. This summer lumber prices have been sky high! Keeping that waste pile small was priority #1.
My property is on a ridge above the Mississippi and more than 1/2 of the 11 acres is wooded ravines and steep hills. The best flat land that is also close to the house is actually the "front" yard, so my coop had to look good and mimic the design of the house. The house is a cute 1950's raised ranch so the coop needed to echo those design elements. I also loved that MiaS had placed her coop in the middle of her garden. For me, this was the perfect solution. Her coop is visually beautiful and with the garden surrounding it, actually adds to the beauty of her yard. Since mine will be in the front yard, I wanted the same esthetics. My garden and coop backs up to a densely wooded ravine with huge oak and elm trees. This is the plan below. Next summer I will add a garden and a nice fence but for now it's only the coop and run! The coop is 8' by 12' and the run is 8' by 16'.
Here's a pic with the house in the background. I love how the coop and house complement each other!
the coop is now complete so here's a few pics of that. If anyone is interested in progress pics I have that as well, but honestly Mia's are far better than mine!
I've not completed the interior storage yet, so my feed cans are chained and outside! LOL Oh but you can see the Mississippi behind the coop! Now that's quite a view for my chooks!
Definitely need some trim on those clerestory windows!
Coop Design
The coop is a modified Wood's design. His dimensions were very awkward so I expanded this to better fit modern lumber and made it a bit taller so there would be fewer bumps to the human heads! I chose to have the coop door facing out into the yard and not have a human door between the run and the coop. I just did not want to be waling through the run. to get into the coop. I honestly am not sure that was the right choice but for now, I think we'll go with it. Like Mia, I placed the lower windows offset from each other. I think this improves ventilation. I am using the Eglu automatic door between the coop and the run. And the coop is finishes with plywood siding hung horizontally so it mimics the siding on the main house.
The layout is pretty true to the Wood's design as well:
We ended up flipping the orientation and these designs do not reflect that, but the dimensions are the same. Using these dimensions we ended up with essentially no waste. It was pretty cool!
I of course had to start on the chickens while building for motivation.
The Plans
Like Mia, I bought Wood's book and read it cover to cover. Based on this, and my other review of coop designs here on BYC, I chose the open front model. But I wanted a slightly larger coop and one that would minimize lumber waste. This summer lumber prices have been sky high! Keeping that waste pile small was priority #1.
My property is on a ridge above the Mississippi and more than 1/2 of the 11 acres is wooded ravines and steep hills. The best flat land that is also close to the house is actually the "front" yard, so my coop had to look good and mimic the design of the house. The house is a cute 1950's raised ranch so the coop needed to echo those design elements. I also loved that MiaS had placed her coop in the middle of her garden. For me, this was the perfect solution. Her coop is visually beautiful and with the garden surrounding it, actually adds to the beauty of her yard. Since mine will be in the front yard, I wanted the same esthetics. My garden and coop backs up to a densely wooded ravine with huge oak and elm trees. This is the plan below. Next summer I will add a garden and a nice fence but for now it's only the coop and run! The coop is 8' by 12' and the run is 8' by 16'.
Here's a pic with the house in the background. I love how the coop and house complement each other!
the coop is now complete so here's a few pics of that. If anyone is interested in progress pics I have that as well, but honestly Mia's are far better than mine!
I've not completed the interior storage yet, so my feed cans are chained and outside! LOL Oh but you can see the Mississippi behind the coop! Now that's quite a view for my chooks!
Definitely need some trim on those clerestory windows!
Coop Design
The coop is a modified Wood's design. His dimensions were very awkward so I expanded this to better fit modern lumber and made it a bit taller so there would be fewer bumps to the human heads! I chose to have the coop door facing out into the yard and not have a human door between the run and the coop. I just did not want to be waling through the run. to get into the coop. I honestly am not sure that was the right choice but for now, I think we'll go with it. Like Mia, I placed the lower windows offset from each other. I think this improves ventilation. I am using the Eglu automatic door between the coop and the run. And the coop is finishes with plywood siding hung horizontally so it mimics the siding on the main house.
The layout is pretty true to the Wood's design as well:
We ended up flipping the orientation and these designs do not reflect that, but the dimensions are the same. Using these dimensions we ended up with essentially no waste. It was pretty cool!
