When Indianapolis architect Donna Sink was looking for blueprints for a stylish backyard chicken coop, she chose The Garden Coop design plans and took it from there. She wrote to us recently to share her experience with The Garden Coop in Indy: Read more and discuss »
In case you’ve never happened on to it, John Henderson has curated one of the best lists of links to chicken forums, hatcheries, breed info, and resources for chicken health, care, and processing. It’s an excellent place for any small-flock chicken keeper to start.
Also included on his page are several links to early 20th-century books on chicken keeping, which make for fascinating reading. Everything old is new again, right? Bookmark Henderson’s Handy-Dandy Chicken Breed Chart as well for the next time you’re selecting chicks.
Brigitte and Max sent in this picture of their Garden Coop in sunny Davis, California. It’s a good example of how well a chicken coop — even a good-sized walk-in coop like The Garden Coop — can fit into a typical backyard.
I asked them about the finish on the wood, which came out really nice. “For the frame in fir I used a leftover deck sealer and stained the wood before we put the frame up,” Brigitte wrote. “The wood around the house is redwood, and we left it natural.”
Thanks, Brigitte and Max, for the photo and feedback!
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. Read more and discuss »
What can I say, I’ve always loved our chicken coop plans. But when I opened them recently on an iPad, well, I literally saw them in a whole new light.
The images are sharp and clear. The table of contents is clickable for easy navigation. You can zoom in and out on the diagrams and text. And you can perform all the page navigation gestures that are native to iBooks.
What’s more, you don’t need to download a special app (other than the free iBooks app) to be able to download, store, and view our coop plans — or any PDF file for that matter.
Just follow the simple instructions below, and have fun! Read more and discuss »
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: Read more and discuss »
Our modern chicken coop designs have attracted the attention of the writers at The Well Daily, a website covering yoga, meditation, wellness, and nutrition. Check it out!
Note: The contest we ran with this post ended on April 2, 2011. Winning entries are noted below.
Think keeping backyard chickens is a little too old school? Here’s something that could change your mind.
The Pickin’ Chicken app for iOS lets you research and select breeds from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch (Apple mobile devices only). Developed by Funny Farm Industries and released in partnership with Mother Earth News, it’s a high-tech complement to a distinctly low-tech hobby.
It not only looks really cool (then again, I think everything in iOS looks cool), it’s also got some cool stuff in it. Read more and discuss »
It’s spring again! And Karen in Connecticut writes:
We had a horrible winter here in Connecticut, but our chickens did very well. I wrapped the bottom part of the coop with heavy plastic to keep out the wind (suggested by you) and have just taken it off, as it us finally getting warmer. We are planning on adding on the exterior egg boxes this spring.
Thanks to Karen for sharing her photo. Like it? Check out her portrait photography.
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. . . . Read more and discuss »
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!
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 push-in poultry nipples as well as fully assembled nipple waterers. Have a look!
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.).
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. Read more and discuss »
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:
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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I just spotted this article with good tips for new chicken keepers. It features advice from Robert and Hannah Litt of Portland’s Urban Farm Store, authors of the upcoming book A Chicken In Every Yard.
Also in the article is a photo of a beautifully built Garden Coop, right in the front yard of someone’s Portland home (not mine!). Of course, I think it fits in perfectly. Take a look.
Several weeks ago, Andreas Känner surprised me with photos and details on his Garden Coop build in Landesbergen, Germany. As far as I know, this is the first Hühnerhaus built in Germany using our metric chicken coop plans. Andreas did an amazing job, and I’m happy to share his photos and commentary here. . . Read more and discuss »
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