I spent my entire summer building a chicken coop. It started with an antique stereo cabinet bought off CraigsList and somehow turned into what is pictured above. At first, I planned the coop to be as big as the cabinet; however, after researching chicken breeds and space preferences, I decided I needed to expand the cabinet to 4x4 feet with plans of getting 3-5 chickens. I did not buy a chicken coop plan - I just winged it. So, there are several imperfections throughout my project. The original idea was to solely use recycled materials, but that only lasted the first week. I am way too impatient to salvage someone else's garbage.
By the time we left for our family beach vacation in July, I had built a coop, painted it to match our house, and added an 8x4 run. On the side facing the house, I added a door to collect eggs. The chicken's nesting boxes are on the other side of this door, which gives us easy access to eggs without entering the coop. The big door on the front of the coop is to be used for cleaning and replacing the pine chips that line the coop. I also added a small chicken door for the chicks. The windows are strategically placed for ventilation. It gets chilly during the North Carolina winters! Therefore, I wanted to be mindful of the cold, but still give my chickens air flow if they were laying eggs during the summer.
At this point in the coop construction, we still did not own chicks. However, "chickens" remained on my brain while laying on the beach, which is when I decided they needed a bigger run for when we took long vacations. Once returning home, my coop expanded into an 8 x 8 run, added hardwire for protection, and lattice to help cut enclosure costs. After the door was finished, Caroline and I started looking for chicks!
