In this ninth installment of the Krewe of Coops, we showcase six examples of coops built using The Garden Coop backyard chicken coop plans. Enjoy! (more…)
Chicken Coop Plans
“Krewe of Coops” Virtual Chicken Coop Tour No. 9 — Six Delightful Garden Coops
Sunday, October 14th, 2018Building a chicken coop and a whole lot more
Wednesday, August 30th, 2017
Steven in Pennsylvania built this spacious backyard chicken coop using The Garden Loft plans and hardware kit. He sent us pictures of his build along with a wonderful note describing the impact the project has had on his life and neighborhood. The rest of this post comes directly from him. . . (more…)
Make It Your Own: “Krewe of Coops” Virtual Chicken Coop Tour, No. 6. . . 10 Garden Coops Built With Salvaged Materials
Thursday, April 13th, 2017
Some of the most interesting chicken coops feature repurposed, recycled, or salvaged materials and decorations. Whether done for the sentiment, the looks, the environment, or simply to save money, incorporating available and found materials into your backyard coop will make it one of a kind. . . (more…)
NEW: Hardware Kit for The Garden Loft Walk-In Chicken Coop
Monday, December 19th, 2016Pre-packed hardware kits are now available for our latest walk-in chicken coop design, The Garden Loft. . .
The Garden Loft Quick Kit contains all the hardware you need (screws, staples, hinges, latches, etc.) to put this design together. Just add the bulky stuff like wood, roofing panels, hardware cloth, pier blocks, paint, and so on. It’s priced near what you’d pay at your local big box store, and it ships free to your door from sales-tax-free Oregon.
Click to learn more about The Garden Loft chicken coop plans and hardware kit.
Introducing The Garden Loft
Tuesday, October 25th, 2016We are excited to announce that plans for our latest coop design are now available! We call it The Garden Loft, and it is our largest chicken coop design yet — offering many of the same features as our most popular design, The Garden Coop, but with twice the space. Take a look. . .
Coming soon: Our largest coop design yet!
Thursday, October 20th, 2016
I’m putting the finishing touches on our newest chicken coop plans, an option for the many folks who’ve told us they love The Garden Coop walk-in coop design, but want to build something even bigger.
A few things I’ll tell you about it now:
- It is a very spacious walk-in coop, twice the size of The Garden Coop. That means it’ll house up to 16 chickens quite comfortably, and you can modify it or add extra run space to house even more.
- It is a brand new design. You’ll notice a family resemblance with our other coop and run designs, of course, and it’s built using similar construction materials and techniques (so it’ll match nicely).
- Like all our chicken coop and run plans, this one is written for beginner builders and walks you through the entire process. It’s the perfect project to share with a partner or two, given the scope of it.
I started working on this design in earnest about two years ago and have been refining it, building and testing a model coop, and creating the plans for it ever since. Now I’m close, and I can’t wait to show you.
We’ll be unveiling the new design here on the blog soon, so stay tuned!
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Make It Your Own: “Krewe of Coops” Virtual Chicken Coop Tour, No. 5 — Nine Garden Coops with Clever Modifications and Accessories
Tuesday, August 30th, 2016
Ideas are tested and problems solved in this fifth installment of the Krewe of Coops, featuring nine coop examples from customers who’ve personalized The Garden Coop walk-in chicken coop design with clever modifications or accessories. Enjoy the ride! (more…)
Instant download. A project to share.
Tuesday, December 22nd, 2015
As I wrote last year, you should save this last-minute gift idea for someone you truly love. Because when you give the gift of chicken coop/run plans, it’s only fair that you also help with the project. 😉
Enter discount code ORPINGTON at checkout for $5 OFF plans for The Garden Run – Complete Series, good through December 31, 2015.
The Garden Run is our popular run design series, a modular system that connects to any coop to expand your chickens’ yard securely and beautifully. The plans for the complete series of designs are quite beefy, full of illustrations, photos, and detailed instructions — 80 pages in all! And as with all our plans, you can download, print, and gift them right away.
Click here to browse all our chicken coop plans. We wish you happy holidays and a great start to the new year.
Photo courtesy of Dan and family in North Carolina. You can read about their chicken coop build here.
Make It Your Own: “Krewe of Coops” Virtual Chicken Coop Tour, No. 4 — A Dozen Larger Garden Coops
Tuesday, August 25th, 2015
We’re blowing it up in this fourth ride of the Krewe of Coops, featuring a dozen examples of coops from customers who’ve modified The Garden Coop walk-in chicken coop design to build larger, wider, deeper, taller. Enjoy the parade! (more…)
Po-boy & The Garlic: Or how to protect your vegetables with a secure garden enclosure
Tuesday, April 28th, 2015Here in the city, we don’t have to worry so much about our vegetable garden getting gobbled up by foragers like deer or rabbits. But we do have our own band of interlopers to contend with: squirrels, crows, and, in our case, a curious tomcat named Po-boy.
Po-boy is our neighbors’ cat. He’s adorable, and he’s perfectly welcome in our yard. He’s welcome to visit the chickens. . .
He’s welcome to climb the persimmon tree. . .
But he’s no longer welcome to frolic in our garlic. (more…)
GIVEAWAY: Enter today for a chance to win free chicken coop plans
Thursday, January 15th, 2015As part of Backyard Poultry Magazine’s Giveaway Thursday promotion, you could win a free set of our chicken coop or run plans. Visit this post on their Facebook page and let them know which of our designs you’d most like to build. They’ll select and announce a winner very soon. Good luck!
PS: You’re more than welcome to leave a comment here, but you must comment on their post to enter.
VIDEO: Chickens exploring The Garden Run
Tuesday, January 6th, 2015I shot this just after opening up The Garden Run to our chickens for the first time last spring, expanding their secure daytime space threefold.
We’ve since added perches, grazing frames, an herb/succulent garden (on top of the half-height module), a small roof, and vining jasmine to the run. Yet even without those features in place, you can see that the hens are very much engaged in the run right from the start, moving from one “room” to another to forage together or separately.
You can configure The Garden Run however you like, building one module or many. As you can see in the video, multiple modules work together to create a variety spaces for your chickens to explore.
Instant download. Instant gift. A project to share.
Saturday, December 20th, 2014
Okay, this last-minute gift idea will only work with someone you truly love. Because while it’d be so easy to print out chicken coop plans, put a bow on them, and say “best of luck with that,” it would mean a whole lot more if the plans came with your promise to help in the project. So gift away, but be ready to roll up your sleeves!
Enter discount code ORPINGTON at checkout for $5 OFF plans for The Garden Run – Complete Series, good through December 31, 2014.
The Garden Run is our latest design series, a modular system that connects to any coop to expand your chickens’ yard securely and beautifully. The plans for the complete series of designs are quite beefy, full of illustrations, photos, and detailed instructions — 80 pages in all! And as with all our plans, you can download, print, and gift them right away.
Click here to browse all our chicken coop plans. We wish you happy holidays and a great start to the new year.
Photo courtesy of Karen and family in Maine. You can read about their chicken coop build here.
Introducing The Garden Run
Monday, November 24th, 2014
The Garden Run is a series of modular enclosures that attach to your coop and to each other so you can extend or create a beautiful, secure habitat for your backyard chickens, rabbits, ducks, and more.
Take a closer look here. And please help spread the word!
The three core designs include a knee-high hinged-top module, a chest-high garden-top module, and a walk-in pergola. You can build one or link a few (or more) together. They connect neatly to all our chicken coop designs and to any other coop or hutch. And they can be mixed, repeated, stacked, inverted — whatever you want. I’m really excited to see the configurations people come up with.
A big thank you to all of you who’ve shared photos and ideas, read the blog, and generally stayed in touch over the years. It takes a lot to get from an idea to a finished design — and then even more to get to finished plans. It helps me to know that the work will be appreciated. So thank you! I hope you find that these chicken run designs make keeping backyard chickens even more fun.
How to predator proof the open floor of The Garden Ark mobile chicken coop
Monday, August 4th, 2014
I’ve been working for some time on a solution to predator-proof the open floor of The Garden Ark mobile chicken tractor. The challenge has been finding a way to secure the floor without closing it off completely or permanently. After all, you need the open floor for mobility, cleaning, and access to grazing. After much trial, I finally came up with an elegant solution (essentially a version of one of these turned upside down) then put it to the test. It works perfectly, and now I’m excited to share it. (more…)
