Coop Construction
Tuesday, April 9th, 2013
One of the nice things about The Garden Ark mobile chicken coop is that you can move it around your yard or garden to focus your chickens’ grazing activity where you want it — just roll it across your lawn or place it atop your vegetable rows.
But what if you prefer to garden in raised beds? How can you incorporate The Garden Ark into your garden rotation so that your hens can graze, till, and help fertilize your garden before or after harvest?
In this tutorial, I show you how to build a raised vegetable bed that fits The Garden Ark design perfectly. (more…)
Tags: Materials, Raised Beds, The Garden Ark, TimberPro UV, Vegetables
Posted in Coop Aesthetics, Coop Construction, Feed and Grazing, Gardening | No Comments »
Thursday, March 21st, 2013
Anna and Chris’s modern Seattle home is topped with a striking barrel-vault roof. So why not build a chicken coop to match? After much research, a few sketches, plans and feedback from TheGardenCoop.com, the careful work of a local carpenter, and some personal touches, they got just what they wanted. The rest of this post comes from them. . .
(more…)
Tags: Barrel Vault, Roofing, Seattle, The Garden Coop
Posted in Architecture, Coop Aesthetics, Coop Construction, Make It Your Own | 4 Comments »
Wednesday, November 14th, 2012
They’re here! Our new chicken coop hardware Quick Kits for The Garden Coop and The Garden Ark let you build your backyard chicken coop even easier and faster.
In one box you get all the screws, staples, nuts, bolts, washers, nails, roofing screws, latches, hinges, braces, and more that you need to build your coop. All that’s left for you to shop for are the bulky items: wood, roofing, hardware cloth, pier blocks (Garden Coop), and stain/paint. (more…)
Tags: Chicken Coop Kits, Materials, The Garden Ark, The Garden Coop
Posted in Coop Construction, Coop Plans, Products & Supplies | No Comments »
Wednesday, May 30th, 2012
You can now build The Garden Ark mobile chicken coop easier and faster than ever, thanks to our new chicken coop hardware Quick Kit.
* UPDATE (11/14/12): We now also offer a Quick Kit for The Garden Coop.
In one box you get all the screws, staples, nuts, bolts, washers, nails, roofing screws, latches, hinges, braces, custom-cut tubing, and wheels you need to build this modern mobile tractor design.
All that’s left for you to shop for are the bulky items: wood, roofing, hardware cloth, and stain/paint.
The Quick Kit is the perfect companion to The Garden Ark plans for a number of reasons:
- It’s got just what you need — the right parts in the right amounts. So you can dive right into your project.
- It’s priced at what you’d expect to pay if you bought these items locally.
- It includes only high-quality parts, so you don’t have to settle for what your nearby hardware stores might carry.
I build a Garden Ark or two each year and began thinking of these kits as a way to streamline my own shopping. Now you can enjoy the same efficiencies — I’ll shop, you build!
Learn more and order your chicken coop Quick Kit here.
If you’ve already built The Garden Ark — or The Garden Coop, for that matter — please leave a comment and let me know if something like this would have come in handy for your coop build.
Tags: Chicken Coop Kits, Materials, The Garden Ark
Posted in Coop Construction, Products & Supplies | 5 Comments »
Wednesday, May 2nd, 2012
Dan S. and family in Raleigh sent in this exciting example of a backyard coop built with The Garden Coop plans. The time and attention they put into it shows, and you can tell from the pictures that it was truly a family project. Dan was kind enough to share his thoughts on the plans and his notes on the customizations he made. The rest of the post comes from him. Enjoy!
Dan’s review of The Garden Coop plans
I did a lot of research before I built my chicken coop, and this is by far one of the best sets of coop plans out there. I went back and forth on trying to create my own plan until I found your site. The plans are worth every bit of the price (if not a lot more). (more…)
Tags: Feeder & Waterer, Guest Post, Materials, North Carolina, Raleigh, The Garden Coop
Posted in Coop Construction, Make It Your Own | 6 Comments »
Saturday, March 10th, 2012
Reading Gail Damerow’s new book The Chicken Encyclopedia: An Illustrated Reference I was sent back to the time when my family and I were first looking into keeping backyard chickens. We’d found a handful of very helpful books on the subject. But something about the format of your standard chapter-by-chapter book left us feeling overwhelmed — like we had to understand the whole book, or we wouldn’t be prepared to get started.
The Chicken Encyclopedia is different. (more…)
Tags: Gail Damerow
Posted in Books, Coop Construction, Just for Fun | 45 Comments »
Tuesday, February 7th, 2012
Allowing your chickens to graze on fresh grass is a good thing — not just for them, but for you as well. The nutrients in green vegetation enhances the quality of their eggs and meat. And since fresh greens can make up about 20-30% of a chicken’s diet, providing them for your chickens can save you on feed costs.
But keeping your chickens supplied with fresh greens can be a challenge. When chickens have plenty of room to roam, they will graze a little off the top, then move on. When forage space is limited, however, as in a small urban or suburban backyard, chickens will continue to graze and scratch in the same spot until the vegetation is torn down to the roots.
An easy solution? Grazing frames! (more…)
Tags: Chicken Feed, Chicken run, Feeder & Waterer, Grazing Frame, Hardware Cloth, Metric, TimberPro UV
Posted in Coop Construction, Coop Plans, Feed and Grazing, Food and Nutrition | 31 Comments »
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 | 4 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 »
For visitors to TheGardenCoop.com, I’ve arranged a 
