My 'shabby chic' chicken coop built under arched cabin's deck

[BuffNumber14]

Sharing images of my chicken coop journey, which started with having friends over to figure out where to site the coop, given several options near water hydrants and power on my homestead. This ended up going underneath my deck, with pallets relying on support from deck posts.

This was built over two months using mainly pallets, some that were part of my solar panel buy, and scrap, with the main expense being roof panels. The polycarbonate roof panels let in 80% light, and cost $300. To install them, I did research on how to do birds-mouth rafters, and these support the roof.

Predator-proofing includes door openings with both cattle panels and 1/2-inch hardware cloth, and raccoon-proof latches for safety. There’s a partition to create a sick bay for hens needing care or mamas with their broods. Shown is a cattle panel ‘chicken tractor’ for young ones to stretch their legs.

Here's a video segment looking at the overall build and the doors:

YouTube: Building DIY 2-cabin dream homestead from scratch
(queued to 14:16 chicken coop discussion)

Here's a separate video that provides an additional look at ventilation and predator proofing. The doors receive polycarbonate panels held by clips in winter, which are removed in winter for more ventilation.

YouTube: Chicken coop to provide draft-free ventilation

P.S. Why shabby chic? It's a mix of hillbilly scrap material and Benjamin Moore's color of the year!

Doors:

Runaround Sue in nest box, brooding on eggs:

 

[Mother of Chaos]

Sharing images of my chicken coop journey, which started with having friends over to figure out where to site the coop, given several options near water hydrants and power on my homestead. This ended up going underneath my deck, with pallets relying on support from deck posts.

View attachment 4221681

This was built over two months using mainly pallets, some that were part of my solar panel buy, and scrap, with the main expense being roof panels. The polycarbonate roof panels let in 80% light, and cost $300. To install them, I did research on how to do birds-mouth rafters, and these support the roof.

Predator-proofing includes door openings with both cattle panels and 1/2-inch hardware cloth, and raccoon-proof latches for safety. There’s a partition to create a sick bay for hens needing care or mamas with their broods. Shown is a cattle panel ‘chicken tractor’ for young ones to stretch their legs.

Here's a video segment looking at the overall build and the doors:

YouTube: Building DIY 2-cabin dream homestead from scratch
(queued to 14:16 chicken coop discussion)

Here's a separate video that provides an additional look at ventilation and predator proofing. The doors receive polycarbonate panels held by clips in winter, which are removed in winter for more ventilation.

YouTube: Chicken coop to provide draft-free ventilation

P.S. Why shabby chic? It's a mix of hillbilly scrap material and Benjamin Moore's color of the year!

Doors:

View attachment 4221686
Runaround Sue in nest box, brooding on eggs:

View attachment 4221688

Cool!

Edit to add: nm with the questions! I didn’t realize at first that the YT videos were yours, not guidelines you found online.

Couple of questions (I know I’ll think of more):

• Do you have a door directly from your house into the coop/run?
• It can be hard to control flies around chickens in the summer. Did you have a problem with this?

 

[Mother of Chaos]

- and now I have “Runaround Sue” looping in my brain!

 

[BuffNumber14]

LOL I'll reply anyway -- no direct door as you figured out.

I have something of a fly problem but I attribute this to the neighbor's horses, as the chickens range over a wide area and their coop and environs seem fly-free.

 

[Mother of Chaos]

LOL I'll reply anyway -- no direct door as you figured out.

I have something of a fly problem but I attribute this to the neighbor's horses, as the chickens range over a wide area and their coop and environs seem fly-free.

It makes a ton of sense to me, especially for those with tough winters.

 

[BuffNumber14]

I found this design from pallets useful in a broad sense, and reworked my build to provide more ventilation and doors: