Coop Construction
Friday, November 25th, 2011
For the past few winters, I’ve wrapped our Garden Coop in plastic sheeting to keep driving rain and snow (mostly rain here in the Pacific Northwest) out of the run area.
I’d love to say I do this for artistic reasons, à la Christo, but it’s really all about practicality. Plastic film is inexpensive, easy to put up, and keeps your hens dry and happy. And in the spring, you can just take it down, roll it up, and store it out of the way.
There are other solutions, of course — sheet siding, acrylic panels, canvas, landscape fabric. Let me know in the comments what has worked for you. (more…)
Tags: Chicken run, Materials, Plastic Sheeting, Seasons, The Garden Ark, Winter
Posted in Coop Aesthetics, Coop Construction, Health and Safety | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, November 22nd, 2011
For visitors to TheGardenCoop.com, I’ve arranged a discount from Portland’s own Timber Pro UV on their non-toxic wood treatments and stains.
In particular, their Internal Wood Stabilizer product is ideally suited for chicken coops like The Garden Coop and The Garden Ark, safely protecting exposed exterior softwoods from rot and moisture damage in a way that stain or paint alone cannot.
Learn more and get the Timber Pro UV discount code here.
Tags: Discount Code, Paint, TimberPro UV, Wood
Posted in Coop Construction, Health and Safety | No Comments »
Tuesday, June 28th, 2011
Matt Allison of Cape Town, South Africa has posted this article about being the first in his neighborhood to start keeping chickens, adding a flock of four to his growing backyard garden. If things trend the way they have in many of the neighborhoods I’m familiar with, his neighbors will soon be following his lead.
I owe Matt a debt of thanks for pushing me to complete the metric version of The Garden Ark plans. He worked with me to review measurements, materials, and process. And his suggestions will help others avoid mistakes that I never would have caught. Most importantly, his coop turned out great, as you can see by the coop pictures at his post. Thanks, Matt!
Where in the world are you building our chicken coop designs? Leave a comment and let us know.
Tags: Metric, Neighbors, South Africa, The Garden Ark
Posted in Coop Construction, Coop Plans, Make It Your Own | No Comments »
Tuesday, April 19th, 2011
Julie and Dave have a spacious yard in upstate New York and wanted to build their Garden Coop a little larger than what’s outlined in the plan. They made their coop a few feet wider by increasing the width of the three sections by a foot each. They added a couple feet in depth as well. And they moved the full-length people door from the front to the side of the coop. It came out great. (more…)
Tags: New York, The Garden Coop
Posted in Coop Construction, Make It Your Own | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, April 5th, 2011
OMG. In case you were wondering just how extreme of conditions chickens can thrive in (with human help, of course), check out Lisa’s Garden Coop high in the mountains of Colorado. The rest of this post comes from her: (more…)
Tags: Colorado, Seasons, The Garden Coop, Winter
Posted in Coop Construction, Just for Fun, Make It Your Own | 4 Comments »
Thursday, March 10th, 2011
Whether you’re building The Garden Coop, The Garden Ark, or pretty much any other chicken coop, the instructions that follow will show you in detail how to add external nesting boxes to your coop.
First, a little background. I designed The Garden Coop and The Garden Ark to make efficient use of space, be easy to build, and to have everything under one roof — including the nesting boxes. Personally, I prefer the simplicity of having the boxes in the henhouse, and it has worked well for us and many others for years.
So if you’re new to chicken keeping or coop building, please do not feel as though you have to add exterior nest boxes to your coop.
That said, there’s something about external nesting boxes that just captures the fancy of backyard chicken keepers. . . . (more…)
Tags: Add-ons, Materials, Nest Boxes, Paint, The Garden Ark, The Garden Coop, Wood
Posted in Coop Aesthetics, Coop Construction | 20 Comments »
Tuesday, March 8th, 2011
The Portland-based website Neighborhood Notes has another good article, this one focused on how to best incorporate recycled materials into your chicken coop project.
I’m quoted in it, but what I’m more excited about is that they reached out to a local chicken keeper who used The Garden Coop plan as a foundation for his coop. He also made use of lots of recycled building materials including windows, hardware, and paint. The photo here is one he sent me when he finished.
One of the main things I emphasized is something I’ve heard from many who’ve used our plans — that having a complete materials checklist to start with makes finding recycled materials so much easier. Check out the article for more pictures and ideas.
Have you used any recycled materials in your chicken coop? Let us know in the comments!
Tags: Articles, Materials, Sustainability, The Garden Coop
Posted in Coop Construction, Sustainability | 1 Comment »
Thursday, February 24th, 2011
Steve H. in Seattle sent in pictures of his completed Garden Coop along with instructions for making a homemade chicken nipple waterer. The rest of this post comes straight from Steve:
» UPDATE: We now offer fully assembled nipple waterers. Have a look!
Building The Garden Coop
I enjoyed building the coop and am enjoying the chickens even more. The plans were great. While I have some experience building, the plans freed me up from having to do any framing calculations, which alone was worth the price.
I added a tool storage rack fashioned from a 2×8 and some old railroad spikes attached to the right side of the coop. It’s under the overhang, so the tools stay dry, and I can always find them (at least in theory). I also made some finish changes (bigger egg door, full access door on left side, different ramp, out-swinging door, etc.).
Nipple Waterer for Backyard Chickens
I designed and made a very simple watering system that makes the urban chicken farmer’s life a lot simpler. Below is a photo of the nipples in action. (Or watch a brief video here.) If you push the metal pin at the bottom at any angle, water dribbles out. (more…)
Tags: Feeder & Waterer, Guest Post, Materials
Posted in Coop Construction, Make It Your Own | 10 Comments »
Thursday, February 17th, 2011
Sometimes you just want the basics, some notes that can help you get from dreaming to doing. I put together this one-page handout for a chicken keeping presentation I gave last year, and I wanted to share it here as well.
It covers many of the most common questions about chickens and coop design like:
- How much space do hens need?
- How much food do chickens eat?
- How loud are backyard hens?
- How often do you have to change your chickens’ water?
- How wide does the chickens’ door need to be?
But mainly it gives you a bunch of little tips and reminders to help you get started with backyard chickens and with designing and building your own chicken coop. It’s perfect as a checklist to make sure you’re not forgetting anything important.
So if you’re keeping chickens for the first time, getting ready to build your own chicken coop, giving a presentation on chickens, hosting a coop tour, or trying to educate your neighbors about chickens — download our free sheet of chicken tips (8.5 x 11″, PDF), print it out, refer to it, and share it with others!
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Tags: Coop Tours, Tips
Posted in Coop Construction, Food and Nutrition, Just for Fun | No Comments »
Tuesday, November 30th, 2010
Along with pictures of their completed backyard chicken coop, Anna and Matt sent a very thoughtful review of The Garden Coop chicken coop plans and a summary of their building process and decisions. So without further ado, the rest of this post comes straight from them:
Finding the right chicken coop plans
After much research, Matt and I finally settled on purchasing both The Garden Coop and The Garden Ark plans. We had never built anything from scratch — our prior building experience topped out at putting together some cheap bookshelves and a coffee table. We had considered coming up with our own plans based on pictures of random coops available online, but we quickly scrapped the idea when we realized that we wanted to build something that was actually aesthetically pleasing.
There are quite a few books out there detailing coop plans, along with other plans that could be purchased via Internet download, but none of those plans would produce a coop that came close to the simple beauty of The Garden Coop. . . (more…)
Tags: California, Guest Post, Materials, The Garden Coop
Posted in Coop Construction, Coop Plans, Make It Your Own | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, October 26th, 2010
“I have never had so much fun totally ignoring my children.” So begins Cheris’s blog post about building her own chicken coop with The Garden Ark mobile chicken coop plans. Of course, once your coop is built, it’s often the kids that will enjoy it most. . .
(more…)
Tags: Austin, Handles, Materials, Paint, Roofing, Suntuf, Texas, The Garden Ark
Posted in Coop Aesthetics, Coop Construction, Make It Your Own | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, October 19th, 2010
In September, my son and I led a chicken coop building workshop put on by Growing Gardens of Portland. Twelve or so people came out to Naomi’s Organic Farm Supply to take part, I’m sure setting some kind of record for the most hands working on a chicken coop at once. We had a great day in the sun and put together an awesome coop. Read on for more details and pictures.
(more…)
Tags: Growing Gardens, Naomi's, Portland, The Garden Ark, Workshop
Posted in Coop Construction, Just for Fun | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, September 21st, 2010
Lila K. and her husband live on the Gulf Coastal Plain of Texas. This is their chicken coop, built using The Garden Coop chicken coop design plans. It’s remarkable, not only for what you can see, but also for what you can’t. At least, not unless you’re looking for it.
The Garden Coop chicken coop design plan calls for a pier-on-grade foundation that works well just about anywhere. But if you need to adapt the design to suit local building codes or seasonal weather events, it’s quite flexible. Lila chose to modify the design by setting 4×4 posts at each corner of the coop and securing the frame to those.
Her primary reason for adapting the design was to give even more stability to their chicken coop, anchoring it firmly should it be buffeted by treacherous Gulf Coast weather. Aesthetically, Lila also liked the beefier look the posts gave to the frame.
She paid great attention to other details as well. She added a small window on the front, and she painted the trim, door stops, and roof structure a light green color that stands out against the natural wood tone of the frame. By doing this, she created really nice outlines that give her chicken coop a smart, finished look.
(more…)
Tags: Foundation, Materials, Paint, Seasons, Texas, The Garden Coop, Wood
Posted in Coop Aesthetics, Coop Construction, Make It Your Own | 2 Comments »
Monday, September 13th, 2010
You can build The Garden Coop on a slope fairly easily because the frame of the chicken coop rests on piers. As long as your piers are tall enough on the lower end of the slope, you can use those to compensate for the height difference and keep the frame level. I recommend 16″ (400 mm) cinderblocks positioned vertically for this purpose. Our coop plans describe this in greater detail.
You also want to make sure that the hardware cloth is long enough to still be buried on all sides of the chicken coop by a foot or more. This is part of the process of making sure your chicken coop is predator proof and secure from tunneling critters. Again, our coop plans describe how to do this. If your slope is drastic, you can add some framing on the low end below the basic frame to help attach the hardware cloth to.
Above is a picture of a Garden Coop that Christine S. and her son built on a slight slope in their backyard near Seattle. The photo is a little grainy but should give you an idea of how to use the piers to keep the frame level. The picture below is of their finished chicken coop, wrapped with hardware cloth and chicken wire.
Have you used The Garden Coop chicken coop plans to build a coop on uneven ground? What worked for you, and what didn’t? Share your tips and suggestions below.
Tags: Hardware Cloth, Location, Slope, The Garden Coop
Posted in Coop Construction | No Comments »
Tuesday, September 7th, 2010
A step up from painting the floor of your poultry house is covering it with vinyl, marmoleum, or linoleum flooring. These materials are exceptionally durable and will resist standing moisture far longer than even the best exterior paint. I’ve heard from several people who’ve used our chicken coop plans that they’ve added linoleum, marmoleum, or vinyl to the floors and love it.
Here are a few pictures of chicken coops where the floor of the henhouse is lined with a durable flooring material: (more…)
Tags: Materials, The Garden Ark, The Garden Coop
Posted in Coop Construction | No Comments »
