Chickens

Our New Chicken Coop!

Pen Back

Click on any of the pictures to see a larger image.

We took one of those prefab, 8x8, build it yourself shed kits from Lowes, and used it for our chicken coop. Looking back, it would have been easier, and maybe even more cost effective to buy a premade shed, but we consider this a lesson learned.

After building the shed, and painting in and out, we added vents, a chicken door, roosting bars and nestboxes. We aren't quite finished yet. We still have to cut the holes for the nest boxes. But it's mostly done.

Total cost, including hardware, pen, extra wire, paint and supplies was about 1600.00

The chicken door can be opened and closed from outside of the pen, using a pulley system. Hubby made it easy for me to open and close.

Below is why we have the pen enclosed on all sides, top and bottom.

Hawk

This hawk was sitting on top of the chicken pen.

Coop front and side

Coop on the pen side

We used a dog kennel for the pen, and surrounded it on all sides, top and bottom with additional wire to ward off any unwelcomed visitors.

We painted the inside white, to brighten it up and make it easy to clean. We painted the nestboxes black, to darken them for the girls.

We also bought one of those half tall garden sheds to store feed and supplies.

To the left is a closeup of the chicken door. The Black frame holds the fence up against the coop. THere is an identical frame behind it, and the fence wire is sandwiched in between the two.

Coop inside

Nestboxes

The vents are just regular heater vents that you would put in your floor. They can be opened and closed as needed. They provide a surprizing amount of airflow, and keep the coop cooler than I expected. There is usually almost a breeze blowing out the chicken door. when the vents are open.

This is the old coop

We actually had multiple 'old' coops. This coop is the one that hubby build first. It has a roof vent across the top (with carpet runner to keep the water out), and several areas down below that were purposely left with a gap to allow for airflow. It worked really well, but was just too small. Knowing what we know now, we'd probably have built a new bigger coop from scratch, rather than using a shed. This old coop also had a 'cleanout' door at the bottom. You can see the chain used to hold it up.


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