In search of pictures of suburban backyard coops!

[ImportTheBest]

Lots more photos and the upside, it has storage built in for feed, etc. I'd show you MY coop... but from your responses of the others, I think mine will be way too large! But I do have a picture of a mini coop I'm building for my brother-- it's not finished yet, but it gives you the general idea. He lives in town and needs a small coop for 5 hens.

***I bought the window for $5 at Habitat's ReStore. Definitely check that place out for windows! Super cheap and you can find cute ones. Keep checking back if you don't find what you want, as they get in new stuff constantly.

I LOVE your coops - especially that one! Dog ear fence posts?! Brilliant and gives the coops a great look! Could you share more details about this coop - size, boards used etc? I'd love more details. And is that a drop down ladder I see? If so, marvelous idea! But why on earth is my Restore here not as cheap as others? I love the window!

 

[Hawkeye95]

I LOVE your coops - especially that one! Dog ear fence posts?! Brilliant and gives the coops a great look! Could you share more details about this coop - size, boards used etc? I'd love more details. And is that a drop down ladder I see? If so, marvelous idea! But why on earth is my Restore here not as cheap as others? I love the window!

Thanks! Okay, I'll explain further on this coop. My brother and his DW wanted something really charming and not a typical coop like my others. So I told them about the dog eared pickets I was going to use.

I bought my wood at Lowes, and you have a couple of choices with the pickets-- this is Pine.. NOT cedar. The cedar pickets were over $3 a piece! I bought the pine pickets which were only $1.64 a piece. Cheaper. This is made of 2 X 4's that are 8 foot long. I did it 5 X 3 in dimension. That way, when I cut my 5 ft, I then have the 3 foot left over! No waste! So the long sides are 5 ft, and the short are 3. The height is also 5 foot. I forget what I cut for the over hang off the roof... I'd have to go measure it. I really think that I made that a 4ft cut for the roof. I wanted about a one foot over hang.

Now for the crazy part-- I'm using 6 ft pickets, and there are a lot of cuts that won't have the dog ears on them, so I lined up the straight ends on the bottom of a dog ear and marked off the dog ear cuts. So I did have to MAKE several of those dog ear bottoms to keep with the cute charm of the "scalloped edge". But it really wasn't that hard.

It does have a built in ladder/ramp. Here's a tip-- the taller your door, the less of an angle for the ramp is. So I made the door the entire height of the front coop. (almost) This coop isn't finished, so here are some pictures so you can see how it's made:

Then this is the back and that large "hole" in the back will be the door to get in and clean out, or whatever you might need to do in there. I say, the bigger the door, the better. I have regretted putting small doors on things before. You won't regret a larger one. The door will also be made of pickets to blend right in. But I haven't gotten that far yet.

 

[ImportTheBest]

Thank you SO MUCH Hawkeye95 for all the details, I really appreciate it! Mine'll be 6x3ft, but I am bookmarking this right now and if I end up doing something like you did with the pickets and ladder I'll send you a pic!

I just built the raised platform frame (minus the leg posts for right now) so I have a way to go! And now I'll stop the threadjacking!

 

[akovia]

The Taj Ma-omelet is 4' x 6', the covered run is 8' x 16'. Still have a few trim boards to apply.

 

[phelpcd1]

I am truly in a suburban yard also..........

 

[FoxyMom]

Thanks! Okay, I'll explain further on this coop. My brother and his DW wanted something really charming and not a typical coop like my others. So I told them about the dog eared pickets I was going to use.

Adorable! I love dog eared pickets. That is what our backyard fence is made of as well as the roof of my daughter's clubhouse. It would fit in perfectly! Hm... I'm loving all of the ideas that I'm getting!!!

 

[FoxyMom]

I am truly in a suburban yard also..........

Love this one too. My question about having it on the grass is sprinklers. I'm sure my husband could rearrange, but just curious what any of you do. I kind of want a tractor so I can pull them on the grass during the day after the sprinklers have come on, and then onto the patio at night, where it is covered and I think may offer more protection. I do want them to be able to free range during the day.

I'll have to share all of this with the hubby.

 

[Hawkeye95]

Love this one too. My question about having it on the grass is sprinklers. I'm sure my husband could rearrange, but just curious what any of you do. I kind of want a tractor so I can pull them on the grass during the day after the sprinklers have come on, and then onto the patio at night, where it is covered and I think may offer more protection. I do want them to be able to free range during the day.

I'll have to share all of this with the hubby.

You can buy skids for the bottom of your coop. I came up with a really ingenious idea for one of my tractors-- I tore apart a nice redwood play set we had (a tornado blew it apart) and it was in pieces. There are long handle bars (hold bars) that are put up for the stairs to hang onto. They sell these parts for the playsets at Lowes (maybe other places). Anyway, the cool thing about those grab bars is that they are long-- nearly 4 ft long. The other thing is that they have a part on both ends that fit over the top of a 2X4-- which makes installing it super easy! If I had a picture uploaded of that, I'd post it, but I don't. That's another one I'll have to go get a picture of. Anyway, that would be good "runners" for moving around any coop that might might build.