Posts tagged with ‘Materials’
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 »
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 »
Tuesday, August 21st, 2012
Christine and Andrew used our metric chicken coop plans to build this stunning Garden Coop in New Zealand.
We used orange Perspex, mainly because it looks cool, but also to see if it will encourage the hens to lay throughout the winter because it bathes them in a warm orange light (or drives them nuts. . . time will tell!). We changed the roof to solid Colorsteel because the light here is pretty harsh, and it gets hot in summer.
We have 6 hens: 3 Chinese Silkies, 1 Rhode Island Red, 1 Silver Spangled Hamburg, and a Plymouth Rock. They have access to free range, but if we are away for the weekend they have plenty of space to stay secure. Next will be to attach a little water tank which will give them free water!
Like what Andrew and Christine have done? Leave a comment, and let us know where in the world you’re keeping backyard chickens.
Tags: Materials, Metric, New Zealand, The Garden Coop
Posted in Make It Your Own | 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, February 4th, 2012
Colin and Faye sent in this inspiring story along with pictures of their beautiful, rustic Garden Coop build and tips for other chicken coop builders in Australia. The rest of this post comes from them. . . .
Our Garden Coop build
We have finished our chicken coop and our six eight-week-old chickens took up residence last Saturday. Thank you for such easy-to-understand plans. For my husband Colin and I, this was our first venture in building anything, and we are very pleased with the outcome. (more…)
Tags: Australia, Hardware Cloth, Materials, Metric, Predators, The Garden Coop
Posted in Coop Aesthetics, Make It Your Own | 2 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 »
Monday, July 18th, 2011
Brad’s Garden Coop build shows off a real attention to detail, especially on the siding around the hen house. It’s got a great color scheme — the green tone contrasting nicely with the natural cedar. Most importantly, it looks like Brad and his family had a lot of fun with the project. The rest of this post and photos come from him. . . (more…)
Tags: Materials, Paint, Seattle, The Garden Coop
Posted in Make It Your Own | 1 Comment »
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 | 50 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 push-in poultry nipples as well as 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 | 40 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 »
