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These past few days had us outside enjoying the beautiful weather. One of the jobs I crossed off the list was to clean out our new chicken coop.
Because of our diet changes over the past year or so, our family was going through several dozen eggs a week. (I can’t help it – I’m hooked on Candida Diet, Sugar-Free Ice Cream!)
So last summer we quit ‘planning’ to get our own chickens, and actually did it. The whole family pitched in to build a little abode for our egg-laying beauties. And because we were first-time chicken owners and newbies in all chicken-related topics, we joined BackYard Chickens and gleaned months worth of ideas, do’s and don’ts, and building plans. (I can’t recommend this site highly enough! If you have the slightest inclination of doing chicken anything, go here and read to your heart’s content.)
Because it was so helpful to see photos and designs when we were in the planning stages, I thought I’d share our coop and the hows and whys of what we did.
The Chicken Coop
The coop is nothing fancy really. It isn’t visible from the road and we don’t live in town with neighbors to care about the view from their back window, so we used as much scrap material as possible. Plus we didn’t think the chickens would mind. So far they haven’t rebelled. 
Instead of starting from scratch, we bought a small grainery from my brother-in-law; about 9′x7′ for inside measurements. This gave us about 3 sq ft of space per bird.
We re-tinned the roof (that’s my honey!) and I got to use the saw sawl to make holes for the windows and vents. You can call me Mrs. Handyman. . .
Framing the windows and vents was the most time consuming part since the building wasn’t square. We used insulation and vapor barrier for the walls for added moisture protection and warmth because in Minnesota the windchill can get -40 below or more.
On The Inside
We decided to use the deep litter method. Less major cleaning each year and a few minutes of daily maintenance fit what we wanted – so far it’s worked wonderfully.
Poop boards seemed quite popular among chicken peoples and we have quickly learned why. First, chickens poop more when roosting, so the roosting boards are placed above the poop board. This makes clean up as simple as buying a wide sheetrock mudding tool and scraping the droppings into a bucket each day. We then add the droppings to our compost pile.
We made the roosting boards parallel and the same height because apparently hens will act like old biddies and fight for the top most board. (Some people’s kids. . .)
We rounded the edges of the roosting boards so it’s easier on the hens’ feet. The boards can be removed for cleaning and for when we want to get directly into the nesting box (explained below).
We built a rollaway community nesting box directly underneath the poop board. This helped keep the coop uncluttered.
A cut out section of the poop board doubles as the lid to the nesting box. To clean the box we take the roosting boards down and hook the poop board/lid to an eye screwed into the ceiling.
The egg collecting comes from the bottom front; again using a hook and eye to hold the lid open. The front, where the eggs bump, has a nice thick strip of foam to prevent breaking. So far it’s worked great. (We used astroturf on the floor of the nesting box to begin with, but eventually took them out. The chicken droppings stuck to the turf and because of the angle of the nesting box floor they would slip toward the front unless they were screwed down. We got tired of unscrewing them to clean them.)
Here’s the inside of the nesting box (again, the astroturf is no longer in there). The hens can access the box from either side. We did eventually add three walls inside the nesting box to make individual nesting areas. The walls go about half way back. The hens are able to walk along the back wall and choose their own little cubby hole.
Nesting box access from right side.
****UPDATE: 4/23/13 – since building this coop, we have made one major adjustment. The roll-away nesting box did not seem to please the gals as much as we’d hoped. We ended up finding nests of eggs all over the barn and shed. Since then we’ve build the ‘normal’ nesting boxes: 12×12 squares and laid hay in the bottom. We are now getting over 2 dozen eggs a day with about 32 hens.
We also added two small feeders with grit and calcium and hung them from the ceiling to prevent the hens from tipping them over or pooping in them.
This water stand was Travis’s idea. The hens have a platform to stand on so no matter how high the litter gets, they can reach the water comfortably.
The chicken nipples are another idea shared by BYC that I LOVE. The water doesn’t drip, there is no poop or mud to worry about, and our full grown hens figured it out within 24 hrs. One of our initial concerns was the fact that we’re sometimes gone for several days and didn’t want to bother the neighbors with chicken chores every day. The water pails are covered with lids to prevent getting dirty and will last for at least a week (we add apple cider vinegar), but when we’re home, we clean them out and give them fresh water every few days. The roll away nesting box works great when we’re gone too because the hens have no access to the eggs so we don’t have to worry about them eating them out of boredom.
There is electricity on the wall above the waterers with a timed light switch. We use bird bath heaters to keep the water from freezing during the winter. We added the slanted plywood because the hens were roosting on the pails. (I told you they fought for highest roosting privileges.)
We nailed a board across the doorway to prevent the rising litter from falling out every time we opened the door.
The pop door is a simple design, and it works great. It slides up and down, held in by L shaped boards.
When in the closed position, the hook and eye on the right prevent racoons (or children!) from trying to lift the door up from the outside.
Pop door in open position, held up by those handy little hooks and eyes.
We used 1/2″ x 1/2″ hardware cloth to cover the insides of the windows and vents. . .
. . .and plexiglass for the actual windows.
We made sure to have plenty of vents (thanks to sage advice from Pat’s Ventilation Page) and used eyes and rope to open and close them at different heights.
Finally, we added a small lean-to to the side so they could come out in the winter. This helps block snow drifts right in front of the pop door, and they can still come out for fresh air and sunshine when they get cabin fever.
We decided not to build a run – the chickens are free ranging for now with a motion detector light and their friend Samson for protection. So far we haven’t lost a single hen to predators.
Finished coop – fall 2011
It might not win a beauty contest – but there’s something to be said for function-ability
Hope this gave you some ideas!
shared with: Flour Me With Love, The Prairie Homestead, The Modest Mom, Real Food Forager, Growing Home, Rook No. 17, Far Above Rubies, Vintage Wannabee, Women Living Well, Frugally Sustainable, Our Simple Farm, Deep Roots at Home, Raising Homemakers, Raising Homemakers, This Chick Cooks, Raising Mighty Arrows, Our Simple Country Life, The Greenbacks Gal, GNOWFGLINS, Real Food Freaks, Comfy in the Kitchen, Chef In Training,
{ 20 comments… read them below or add one }
wow this coop is fantastic!! great job!! my husband and i are getting chickens next season and we are definitely inspired by this coop! love following your blog, specifically how action oriented you are against candida.
thanks for your writing!!
ryancar.blogspot.com
That looks great! Can't wait to come over there and see it first hand!
Are you taking reservations for other chickens that want to come to your chicken hotel? I have to laugh, because we are the same way for the puppy kennel we build. Although when I was over there last time and saw it, I was quite impressed. A lot different from the old chicken coops I have seen. But anyway to keep it cleaner and more maintenance free is good for me!
I'm sorry dear sister, reservations have been filled. We're getting more chicks in May. . .
Ditto on the keeping clean part. I love how maintenance free our coop is. Now to keep the house that way!
Oh, about the 'last time I was over there' part. You do owe me a visit. . .
Just popped over from your link to the Modest mom blog…thank you for the detailed explanation and so many pictures of your coop! So timely…we are going to build a coop for our 17 chickens (that are in a temporary pen in our garage right now!) in the next few weeks and you have some great ideas here!
Stopping by from the hop. That's a really well thought-out coop you have there. I'm sure your ladies are very happy, and happy hens = more eggs!
The rollaway nesting box is GENIUS! GENIUS!!!
(here from the Barn Hop)
You have a very lovely coop! We just got our first chickens this year and ended up making a hoop house for them that we move to fresh grass as needed. We wanted to let them free range but we have lots of predators around most notably our own dogs! I am also a member of Back Yard Chickens and LOVE their forum! Thanks for sharing!
Wow! That's one nice chicken coop! My hubby is building one this very moment for future chicks. It's not as spacious and lovely, but we only plan on three chickens-we only have a quarter of an acre. How exciting, I plan on reading up more for tips and such. Thanks for sharing!
How cool! What a nice coop.
Great Job! I am not handy so I am having a coop made. Can't wait! Thanks for sharing your cool ideas
GREAT job! We've tried so many different styles of both coops and tractors, and we all prefer this one.
Stopping by via the Raising Homemakers link-up!
Have a *wonderful* day and God bless,
Shannon
{ Blog: http://gabby-marie.blogspot.com }
WOW This is great! Thanks for sharing! Hubby & I have our very first set of pullets for eggs and they just moved out to their coop. You have given a lot of great ideas!
If I was a chicken, I would like to live here!
Seriously though, I am taking notes for when I have my own farm. Thanks for sharing!
Paula, your coop turned out beautifully! Featuring your post on my FB page today. Thank you for always having such wonderful ideas, recipes and whole-living inspirations to share at Rook No. 17!
Jenn
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This is awesome! You thought of everything. Just wondering how you are doing with the free range aspect. We let our girls have the entire 15 acres of farmland but they insisted on staying right by our house, decimating my flower beds. We loved having them under foot (they are so comical) but my flowers are ruined. We are now looking for a different option, perhaps paddocks or tunnels.
Love your photos and we are using some of your ideas in our coop. We do have a question about the nipples you used in your water buckets. 1) where did you get them? 2) do they leak after a period of time?
Hi Colleen,
We got our water nipples from FarmTek.com, and no, we’ve never had a problem with them leaking – we absolutely love them!
Thanks Paula
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