small-coops

The Strange Coop Chicken Barn (Updated 16MAR18) Our chicken adventure all started on the thirteenth of June, in 2014. My wife and I inherited three, 1 year old hens and a chicken tractor from friends who moved away. We had already been discussing getting chickens throughout the past year...

It all started in March 2013 when I got an itch to have a few chickens running around the yard. Then it turned into having a few ducks as well. I ordered my chicks and ducklings 8 weeks out. I needed time to plan the best coop possible. I figured by the time they were old enough to move into...

Up to a few months ago, having a flock of back yard chickens was the last thing on my mind. My daughter, six years old at the time, was wanting a pet bunny, and I was talking about it at work one day, and my boss suggested that I get some chickens for her. "Chickens???" I asked. He introduced...

I had wanted chickens since I was 6 years old. So at the age of 38, when I heard the news that the city of Jacksonville, Fl was going to give out 300 permits I excitedly jumped in. We were awarded permit #185! Neither my boyfriend nor I are handy people. In fact we had never built a thing in our...

In my search for coop plans, I found this amazing coop on Williams Sonoma's website and instantly knew I wanted our coop to look like it. I pulled out some graphing paper and set to work reverse engineering the coop from the photos and making adjustments based on measurement guidelines for coops...

April 2014 I had reached the point in my life when I felt a need to get some chickens. A colleague of mine offered to lend me a few chickens for the summer so I could give it a try. This was in March and I immediately started building my very first chicken coop. I browsed this site and found...

We started planning for our chicken coop as soon as we moved out of our HOA controlled neighborhood and into the relative quiet of our new one. Several drawings later (and a couple lively debates regarding design), we landed on what we wanted to build. So now we have the idea, time to implement...

Love this coop! The nesting boxes hang over the fence so they can be accessed without going into the run. I can store, access and feed from here. There is a door so that I can let them out into the main yard if I want to. Our beagle would love that. Notice the flap covering the linoleum covered...

I always wanted an aviary! Now I have a poultriary. Although I planned what I wanted to build for weeks, I never made a real 'plan'. Sometimes I just have to start sawing and hammering or I'll get so caught up in creating the perfect plan that nothing will ever get done. So, it may not be...

Last Thanksgiving if you asked me if I would ever own a back yard flock I probably would have said it's cool, but it will never happen....well.....one year later: This all started last August while my boyfriend and I were house sitting on my friends farm. There were a few horses and a...

Fate has a way of changing your path when you least expect it and such was the case for me in 2012. In November I moved to a new home for the second time that year and found myself without chickens. I missed them quite a bit and by March of 2013 I was scanning Craigslist for chickens - any...

In a few days, I'll be getting some laying hens from my sister along with a couple of Guinea keets! Since I didn't have a chicken coop, I had to design and build one (by myself). It's been an interesting process for someone with very few tools and very little clue as to what she was even...

ZenHenMama Joined: 10/2013 Posts: 9 online This is a blog I wrote on another site(non chicken related): Well as you know I’ve brought 3 hens and a duck into our family’s lives. The big effort was to produce a coop for them. I had been entertaining the concept for chickens for...

Before starting on our coop, I reviewed the BYC website member's coop designs for weeks. I narrowed down the top 4 or 5 and combined all the good ideas to make our coop. Our top coops were: Taj Mahal / Wichita The Palace Boisemarker's (Edit: Now that it has been a little over a year after the...

A critical first step is to set four corner blocks so that they are perfectly level. Set the base framing 2x6's across the blocks and place a level on each, one at a time. My site was quite slanted, so I had to use extra 4" thick blocks for rough leveling, and do a little careful digging for...

Last year, as part of a science project, my partner’s third grade class hatched a dozen eggs donated to the school from a local breeder. After seeing the little babies come out of the eggs, the children fell in love with their chicks and decided they wanted to keep them until adulthood. To...

The "Concord Cluckers" Coop (we live on Concord Drive...hence the name) We officially started building this coop over my husband's spring break (he's a teacher) in April 2013. Eight chicks were coming May 6th, so it was crunch time! It's an 8 x 8 raised coop and 12 x 12 run. My husband...

I have to caveat this post by saying that this is our first coop, first flock, and first construction project, so if you're thinking of taking inspiration from this design just know that there is surely some wonky building practices going on in it. That being said, it seems to be standing fairly...

We converted an old doghouse into an inexpensive coop. We started with a used doghouse. It has a solid wood base, particle-board walls supported by 2x4s, and a heavy, shingled roof that lifts off. The roof takes two people to safely lift it, so we figure it's pretty secure. Windows cut in...

I built this Old West style coop for a dear relative whose rooster is named Cogburn. He had previously given me a variety of lumber which was used in this and other projects. I hope this will encourage other women to try construction. All of the wall and roof framing in this coop was...