As a gift, my family helped me buy materials to make a new chicken coop! The size of the coop is 10X12 feet (around 7 feet high). The north end is completely chicken wire, the other 3 sides and the top are sheet metal. The east side has a 4-6 inch strip along the roof that is only chicken wire -- this allows extra ventilation and heat exchange without creating drafts on the floor of the coop or around the roosts. This was built in the former dog pen (after the dog moved into the house -- long story!), which means no more chickens in the yard/garden and no more blobs of poo on the back porch. Yay! The run is about 30X170 feet. The smaller structure on the right was salvaged from a garden center. It was made from treated 2X4s and already covered in plastic-coated chicken wire. All I had to do was add a door, wrap vinyl siding around the sides and top, and voila! we have private quarters for a brooding hen. We left gaps in the siding on the front and the top corners for ventilation. Wooden poles and concrete blocks form an outside area for scratching through kitchen scraps. Inside is a metal treadle feeder, a water bucket, 2 roosting bars (made from a neighbor's crape myrtle trimmings), and 4 nest boxes (made from plastic storage tubs). Hanging on the wall inside is a large piece of plastic from where we cut the doors in the nest box tubs; it makes a great tool for scraping poo off surfaces like the top of the nest boxes or the bench we sit on nearby. The coop has no floor, so we use the deep-litter method under the roosts. Once per year in late fall, I scrape out several bucketfuls of poo mulch, toss it on the garden, and fill the back half of the coop with a 3-feet-deep pile of leaves from the yard. March 2014

As a gift, my family helped me buy materials to make a new chicken coop! The size of the coop is 10X12 feet (around 7 feet high). The north end is completely chicken wire, the other 3 sides and the top are sheet metal. The east side has a 4-6 inch strip along the roof that is only chicken wire -- this allows extra ventilation and heat exchange without creating drafts on the floor of the coop or around the roosts. This was built in the former dog pen (after the dog moved into the house -- long story!), which means no more chickens in the yard/garden and no more blobs of poo on the back porch. Yay! The run is about 30X170 feet. The smaller structure on the right was salvaged from a garden center. It was made from treated 2X4s and already covered in plastic-coated chicken wire. All I had to do was add a door, wrap vinyl siding around the sides and top, and voila! we have private quarters for a brooding hen. We left gaps in the siding on the front and the top corners for ventilation. Wooden poles and concrete blocks form an outside area for scratching through kitchen scraps. Inside is a metal treadle feeder, a water bucket, 2 roosting bars (made from a neighbor's crape myrtle trimmings), and 4 nest boxes (made from plastic storage tubs). Hanging on the wall inside is a large piece of plastic from where we cut the doors in the nest box tubs; it makes a great tool for scraping poo off surfaces like the top of the nest boxes or the bench we sit on nearby. The coop has no floor, so we use the deep-litter method under the roosts. Once per year in late fall, I scrape out several bucketfuls of poo mulch, toss it on the garden, and fill the back half of the coop with a 3-feet-deep pile of leaves from the yard. March 2014

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  • Date added Jan 28, 2017
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The first little ramshackle coop when our first chickens were almost a year old. We added wood to the front and propped the roof of an old doghouse on the other side to block cold winter breezes. You may be able to see the hens enjoying roaming the yard. March 2012

The first little ramshackle coop when our first chickens were almost a year old. We added wood to the front and propped the roof of an old doghouse on the other side to block cold winter breezes. You may be able to see the hens enjoying roaming the yard. March 2012

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  • Date added Jan 28, 2017
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Here's the first coop we built out of scrap and salvaged materials. (See the tiny wooden structure attached to the front of the shed?) This little ramshackle coop was all we could afford at the time. It worked just fine for our first 5 or so chickens, except when we had to duck-waddle inside to gather the eggs. We built an access door in the roof to gather eggs, which made us have to keep it covered with plastic to keep out the rain! There's a learning curve to everything, I suppose. :) The mess in the lower part of the photo is where I was expanding the garden and covering it with cardboard to smother the grass. May 2011

Here's the first coop we built out of scrap and salvaged materials. (See the tiny wooden structure attached to the front of the shed?) This little ramshackle coop was all we could afford at the time. It worked just fine for our first 5 or so chickens, except when we had to duck-waddle inside to gather the eggs. We built an access door in the roof to gather eggs, which made us have to keep it covered with plastic to keep out the rain! There's a learning curve to everything, I suppose. :) The mess in the lower part of the photo is where I was expanding the garden and covering it with cardboard to smother the grass. May 2011

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Coops

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Here is where our hens happily reside. Click the photos to read more information about them.
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