Urban Coop Designs*Picture of plans added*

[SunshineSteedFarm]

Hello, I am working on a design plan for an urban coop I am planning on building in 2010(hopefully).
I do live in a very small, less populated neighborhood. Also, the county I live in also allows having chickens(but it does not say how many), but one thing is you cannot let them run at large. Pretty sure that wont happen though.lol.
So I was thinking about making a design that looks more like a playhouse(coop) with a small fenced in area(run), that looks like a garden. So if I have my wooden playhouse coop, with a white picket fence going around it, will this be okay? I also am going to put hardware cloth on the sides of the white picket fence and on the top,so predators will not be able to come though to them. And I was also thinking about putting bushes and flowers around the run to make it look like a little girl's playhouse. So maybe the chickens can see through, but humans far away cannot. Does this sound like a good plan? If so, does anyone have any other things to add to it, or pictures they would like to share of a playhouse type coop?
It is probably going to be a expensive project, but my chickens are worth it.

I already found a 8x10 wooden playhouse with windows for $275 dollars, so that would be a good starting point for me.
Thank you and Happy Holidays!
SSF

 

[hucklehound]

Sounds adorable! but if the law says you can have chickens maybe call the city and see waht their reaction will be if the neighbor complains... that playhouse at 275 is a BARGAIN!!!

 

[possumqueen]

You're smart to anticipate that the neighbors might cause a problem, although if you're ALLOWED to have chickens, then you could conceivably tell the neighbor to get stuffed.

But you aren't planning on that because you're a lot nicer than I am!

Your plan sounds like a winner, but I have a question about the height of the run -- will it be tall enough for you to walk around in? I've always thought of picket fence as maybe 3 or 4 feet tall.

The 8x10 playhouse sounds perfect! Dress it up fancy, and make sure BYC gets pics! There's coop contests on here, you know. You could win one of them.

 

[lauralou]

That's what I was thinking, too. The fence will probably need to be higher. And you'll need fat, nonflying chickens.

My Orpingtons can't fly very high. They never fly out over a 5' fence. The Andalusians and EE's can and will fly over a 6 1/2 foot fence. They are often seen standing on top of buildings.

 

[sotelomary]

I live in the city and was also concerned about how it would look. I didn't want neighbors or daycare parents complaining even though we can have 6 chickens in our city.

I have the playhouse coop that is a bit smaller than yours and have 5 chickens. I painted it in bright colors, added window boxes with flowers, and a "fresh eggs" sign. It looks really cute and fits in with our daycare yard. It is tucked in a corner of the yard and I make sure that it is odor free so that no one complains. My run is sand and this helps out alot.

Mary

 

[SunshineSteedFarm]

Thank you for the replies. About the height of the run,I guess a more proper term of the fencing would be like privacy fencing, I guess? I dont need it to be 6 feet tall, because I am just over 5 foot tall. So maybe 5 and a half feet would work? Do ya'll have any ideas on how to make the tall fencing not look like it housing chickens? Or would it look pretty normal?

 

[SunshineSteedFarm]

Here is a very rough sketch on what it would look like. Imagine it had an overall better look. More details and plants,etc.

This is on google sketchup, so I had a hard time doing little things, so all of the details are not shown in the above sketch.

 

[PandoraTaylor]

I like it!


Nice looking!!!!

Could you give us a link to the sketch?

that is awesome

 

[lauralou]

I think it's very cute! And I've seen privacy fence panels that are white and look sorta like picket fencing. At Lowes or Home Depot. Not sure how expensive they are or what your budget is. But it should be doable. I don't see any reason that anyone would suspect there were chickens behind a fence like that.

As long as you don't have any roosters.

 

[gsim]

Great idea. You might even find one on Craigslist really cheap. If you do go with a playhouse, be sure to cut two vents, one for each gable at the peak of each gable, say 8" x 8" or larger. Vital for ventilation year round and heat removal in summertime. Be sure to put hardware cloth mesh over all windows in the playhouse too. You may want to make them where they can be closed in wintertime to keep draft off of chooks roost area. Sliding or hinged plexiglass will do it well.

Regarding run, do yourself a favor and make run tall enough to walk into. You will always be glad you did. Small as the one in sketch is, you could easily put up a staggered-plank privacy fence or white vinyl lattice with hardware cloth mesh behind it to keep preds out. Either make a mesh skirt for the entire length of the fence, or set it in a continuous run of cement to deter digging predators. You could do a bump-out egg/nest box too in order to max out your floor space. Have to pay attention to rain leakage where egg door fastens to wall tho. Rubber sheeting for flexible flashing along where the egg door meets the wall (hinge edge).

(Std min space reqmts: 4 sq ft/bird inside 10 sq ft/bird outside)