The Coops

One of my neighbors emailed me yesterday and said she had been reading my blog and asked if she could come by and see my chicken coop. This made me realize that I've completely forgotten to talk about this part of chicken ownership. So today I'm going to post a few pictures of my chicken coops (I have two) to give you some general construction ideas, if you plan on building your own. 

This is the first coop that Aaron built for our girls. This picture was taken before the larger one was added, but it gives you an idea of what the outside looked like with the large run attached to it. It's a good size for 3-4 hens. Aaron didn't follow any exact plans for this. He's one of those annoying people with the ability to look at a picture or read a book about something and make it happen. ;)

This is my only contribution to this coop, haha. I found a 1920s goat cart at a local antique show and repurposed part of it into this sign. 

This is a view from the back. The door is opened by a latch and leads straight into two nesting boxes (seen on the bottom). Our big girls never used these, as the bigger coop was built before they were laying. But when building a coop, you want to make sure you have easy access to your fresh eggs!

In this picture you can see a shot leading out of the small front door which leads to the run, and the ladder that leads up to the roost. (and a little poo...)

This is the roost which is located in the top portion of the coop. It also has a door with a latch to allow for easy access and clean-up. This is where the girls sleep (and poop, a lot!) My favorite part about Aaron's construction of the roost is the roost boards come right out so you're not having to maneuver around a lot to clean.

This is the new run for the small coop which was surprisingly built by a friend and myself! We used PVC pipes and their connectors, chicken wire, and zip-ties to build it. Other than that, all we needed was measuring tape, a little electric saw (please excuse my lack of knowledge of power tools), and wire cutters. We also bought some ground stakes and bungee cords to hold it down in case of storms. I think of this as the duct-tape fix of chicken coops. ;) The cover was added because our big girls were jumping on top of the run and flying over the fence, plus it adds a little protection against the elements. The original plan for this run can be found here.

FREEDOM!!!!

Chicken wire, PVC, & zip-ties. Who knew?

One more look at the run.

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Moving onto the second coop that Aaron built. He followed a few plans in this one, but made some changes as he saw fit. This is a great size coop and will one day be the home of all seven of our girls. We have the two coops for now since our babies can't be mixed with the big girls yet. (Super nervous about the day I let them out together!)

This is the front of the coop. The doors swing open which allows for easy access to the entire coop, which I love. I can reach right in and grab my eggs and don't have to bend down when it's time to clean the roost.

The big run attached to the coop.

This is the inside of the coop. The top is the roost, which Aaron made into a box that slides right out. That way when it's time to clean, I just put a wheelbarrow right up to the coop, slide the box out, and the poop and shavings fall right in. It literally takes me about 5 minutes to clean and put new shavings down, which is awesome.

A closer look at the roost, plus a little detail Aaron included which is a window with chicken wire to allow for some airflow, which is especially important for the hot summer months!

The lower half features two nesting boxes. These also slide out for easy clean up. Helen is showing us how they work. ;)

This is the entrance/exit to the coop, plus the ladders which lead to the roost.

 One more cool feature of our coop is this feeder Aaron built out of PVC pipe. I fill it up about once a week, which is much better than every couple of days with the small feeder we had.  The original idea came from this Pinterest project, but Aaron modified it a bit by cutting the holes out in one pipe instead of having multiple PVC pipes with one hole.

I hope you've enjoyed my coop tour and have a little inspiration on what you'd like to have in your own! Thanks for reading! :)