Chicken Coop Books?

[NakedNeck]

Are there any good books on chicken coop construction that any has to recommend?

Thank you!

 

[Poulets De Cajun]

This is the best one I think...

http://www.flemingoutdoors.com/chicken-coop-building-plan-book.html

 

[NakedNeck]

Thank you for the welcome!

Thank you for the feedback too!

 

[Intheswamp]

I don't know...the "Chicken Coop Building Plan" book that I looked at in Books A Million didn't really impress me that much but I was looking for larger (10x12ish) permanent coop plans and this book (as I recall) was very heavy on "tractor" or "mini-coop" plans. If the tractor or mini-coop plans are what you're looking for I'd say the book will do you good. On the other hand, if you're looking for a larger coop then I would actually be looking for "shed" plans and modify it to a chicken coop.

Here are a few links to online coop plans:

Texas University - click on poultry plans.
Poultryhelp.com's housing links - Several links to explore.
5'x10' Portable Poultry House - from the University of California
Large scale chicken tractor
Extensive list of plans from North Dakota State University - Coops, large (commercial) houses, accessories....lot's to explore.

If you haven't already discovered these I just saved you some leg(finger?)work.

Best wishes,
Ed

 

[patandchickens]

Your best bet IMO is a book on building *sheds*! There is really no difference, a coop is just a shed with some extra ventilation and chicken fittings

There are a number of books out there on how to build yourself a shed, many with excellent advice on tools and materials for those new to DIY things, and some with good measured plans too. Check your bookstore or library, it is really the sort of thing you want to browse before buying.

The only published *coop-oriented* books I've seen are really not useful at all if you want plans; and if you just want inspiration, the computer is far more useful (even if you never leave BYC

-- this site has probably one of the biggest, if not THE biggest, collections of coop photos and construction stories that you'll find anywhere, see 'coop designs' link at the very tippy top of this page)

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[Anny]

honestly there is SO much free info on coop building online I would search around alittle more for stuff.

 

[patandchickens]

http://www.flemingoutdoors.com/chicken-coop-building-plan-book.html

Anyone considering buying this book (the one by Pangman), needs to realize it does NOT contain plans in any normal sense of the word, just poorly-drawn vague not-to-scale sketches (nothing you couldn't see from the photos, really) with a few numbers slapped on here and there.

It is a nice book to browse for entertainment and inspiration, of course; although you can find the same, and much much much more, online for free, on BYC and plenty of other places.

Not knocking the book for what it *is*, just don't want someone to shell out for it in the belief they will get full measured plans for anything

Pat​

 

[Intheswamp]

Howdy Pat. I agree with you on the miscellaneous "coop building" books. It's really hard to tell a book by it's cover (original saying, eh?

)

Thanks for taking the time to put up your page on ventilation. Makes a lot of sense. I'm just in the planning stages for my coup...hoping for a 100+ sq ft one so I can have a couple of dozen hens.

Living down here in hot and humid south Alabama I'm debating on the ventilation for my coop. I guess to have very large open areas in the walls that fairly large roof overhangs are necessary to keep rain from really wetting things down. We tend to have heavy fogs/dews down here and right now my little hydrometer is reading 57% (had a small rain last night). In talking to folks I sometimes ask them if they would like me to cut a slab of the humidity off and mail it to them...yeah, it gets thick.

Anyhow, I just wanted to say thanks for the ventilation page...good reading!

Ed

 

[countrygirlatheart]

Hi! We are new to this (and by the way, I LOVE and am ADDICTED to this site) asd well!!

We looked online at several sites and ended up using "plans" we saw on this site. We just finished it up this weekend and got our chickens. We are the proud "parents" of two production red hens (who have already laid me two eggs) Betsy & lucy

and 7 RIR chicks whose names (sorry) are chicken nuggets 1-7 till they get older with marks to distingish them.

Even though we've only had them for a couple of days....we are enjoying it. Wanting to get more but have to wait. Anyway...sorry for the rambling...i would look here on the coop side and see what you can find. Some of the designs here are very detailed.

 

[france]

Quote:
I picked that one up at the library. I found it OK. Only a few actual photographs at the end. Drawings of the coops throughout. Only a couple of interesting designs. I found more helpful information on here and looking at everyone's photos.