Last fall my daughter showed an interest in raising chickens, so began the journey..............
I researched and learned a lot about chickens, and found this website and became amazed at all the different chicken coops! So i took a little of this and a little of that from a few coops that i liked and came up with my own design. I did not create any plans to go by and pretty much just designed it as i went along.
Since it was the beginning of winter i started the coop inside,
Everything was prefabbed inside, so it could be put together like a puzzle outside. The coop is 4' x 8', raised two feet off the ground. The coop was framed for six nest boxes but only 4 will be available to chickens, the other two will hold supplies, tools, etc. I wanted windows for ventilation and to increase the overall look since my wife was not 100% on the chicken band wagon, i didn't want it to be an eye sore in the yard. Due to the high cost of windows i made my own out of plexiglass.
I did not want to be in a hurry on finishing the project, and figured we would not get the chicks until spring of 2015, unfortunately a friend had hatched 5 new black australorp chicks in January, and guess who became the proud owners?, so the project had to kick into overdrive!
i created the run to be 12' by 16', with a roof to provide shade, i installed 2x4 welded wire around the coop and buried it to keep predators out
I installed two big doors at the back of the coop for ease of cleaning and also installed two poop trays under the roost to collect the free fertilizer.
Things left to do ,
Install chicken access to the coop from the run
paint coop
install epoxy to protect wood floor
install automatic feeder and waterer
finish trim
