Chicken Coop Tour No. 4: A Dozen Larger Garden Coops
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!
Coop 1: Ashley and Family’s Garden Coop “Limo” with External Nest Boxes, Arkansas
“This was the first project of its kind for my husband and I, and I am so happy with how it turned out. We absolutely could not have done this without your plans or your additional help and answers to my questions. I ordered your hardware kit from your website, and I think even with our extension the only thing I had to buy any extra of were two corner braces and extra hinges and clasps for the external nest boxes. I actually had to make very few changes to the plans in order to extend it.”
You can see more photos of Ashley’s coop build on her blog here.
Coop 2: Jess’s Chicken Coop with Two Hen Houses, Taunton, Massachusetts
“The second hen house will serve as a brooder so I can introduce new birds to my flock. My girls free range every day, so the size of the run wasn’t an issue.”
Coop 3: Andy’s Taller Garden Coop, Chico, California
“I really enjoyed building this coop. Never had done any framing before. Only changes were making it nine inches taller and adding the galvanized metal roof, cedar fence board siding, used window, front porch. By the way, if I had to do it over again, I’d purchase your hardware kit. I bought my hardware at Home Depot, and it was the same price, if not a little more.”
Coop 4: Gerrit’s Chicken Coop in Shed, Washington State
Gerrit built his Garden Coop into an existing shed, then added some cool features, like a two-tiered rainwater catchment system to provide water to the chickens and direct overflow to the yard.
Coop 5: Karen’s Garden Coop with Extended Hen House, Salt Lake City, Utah
“I enlarged the coop to about 8 feet by 10 feet. There is storage under the 4 nest boxes. And we can slide plexiglass over the roof and cutouts in the windows in bad weather and to hold in the heat.”
Coop 6: Peter and Kristin’s Split-Level Chicken Coop, Seattle, Washington
“To accommodate the slope of our lot, we built a split-level chicken coop with two 8’x8′ roofs over a 7′ tall, 6′ long henhouse and a 6.5′ tall, 7.5′ long run. Kristin found information about the ‘poop hammock’ online, and the design she came up with for that — canvas slung on PVC pipes — has been very effective for catching almost all of their nocturnal output, and it’s real easy for us to brush off the poop every couple of days, hose off the residue, and air-dry in a few hours.”
Coop 7: Janet’s “Gizzard Gulag” with Flower Box and Squirrel House, Boise, Idaho
“I love the coop, plenty of space for my four hens. The instructions were very clear. Best yet, you were very accessible when questions popped up. If you recall, I was the math-challenged gal who couldn’t figure out how many roof panels to purchase with the extended design. After one email exchange, I was off and running.”
Coop 8: Jessica’s Expanded Garden Coop with Side Door, Ligonier, Pennsylvania
“We did it! We are thrilled with the design. We made a few changes — made it little bigger and used some found objects for hen boxes. Thank you! ”
Coop 9: David’s Chicken and Guinea Fowl House, North Carolina
“Just wanted to say how pleased I am with my Garden Coop! My five chickens and four guineas have made it their happy home for 8 months now. The dirt floor is covered with deep pine chip litter. The coop floor is FRP (fiberglass reinforced plastic — great stuff) and also deep litter. Roof is leftover metal roofing from my house. As the construction progressed, I got more creative and strayed from the plans more. Plenty of good access with hanging doors inside and out is important. I lay a sheet of rigid foam insulation over the ceiling of the coop when it (rarely) gets very cold here in coastal North Carolina.”
Coop 10: Dan and Rachel’s Large Chicken Coop Built Using The Garden Coop Plans, Redding, California
“The girls are LOVIN’ The Garden Coop! The plans provided the perfect platform to start building and get a little creative.”
Coop 11: Richard’s Garden Coop with Two Hen Houses, Nevada, Texas
“In order to accommodate all of our ladies, I decided to make two roosting/egg laying areas. I plan to build some roosting bars in the middle area for sleeping as well as installing an automatic waterer connected to a rain collector from the roof.”
Coop 12: Cole’s Multiplex Chicken Coop, Shreveport, Louisiana
I could hardly believe Cole when he told me that he’d used our plans to build this coop. It has got to be the largest Garden Coop yet, and the perfect one to round out this post. . .
“I purchased a 18 x 20 carport and built five coops underneath at our farm. I used Yellawood for the frame. Basically, I was able to build four Garden Coops at each corner and one long Garden Coop in the middle. The side coops are pretty close to the original design, roughly 10 ft deep and 6 feet wide. The one in the middle is 6 ft wide and 20 ft deep. I am very happy with the way it turned out.”
A big thanks to all who shared their pictures and ideas to this fourth ride of the Krewe of Coops. Like what they’ve done with their coops? Have a personal favorite? Let us know with a comment below.
You can see more Krewe of Coops posts here, or browse all of our Make It Your Own coop profiles.
If you’re interested in building The Garden Coop walk-in chicken coop design, the plans are available here.
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5 thoughts on “Chicken Coop Tour No. 4: A Dozen Larger Garden Coops”
Hello! I ave an original garden coop, and am adding a second henhouse inside the run. It’s for pullets and chick raising, also a space for broody hens. I wish there were more pictures of these options. Any tips would be helpful. I recommend the Garden Coop plans to anyone looking for coop options.
Andrea, aside from the couple coops profiled here that have the two raised henhouses, I’ve seen others where they sectioned off the area below the henhouse for a similar purpose. Check out Coop #1 here (https://www.thegardencoop.com/blog/dozen-garden-coops-from-plans/). I’d love to see what you create!
Quick question – do you have an recommendations for housing a broody chook? We have both the Ark and Coop, used the Ark last time, since that one was older and on the outer edge of the flock anyway and extra mean while broody, but we only have two younger laying hens now. When the non broody laid her egg this morning the other simply claimed it and spread out a little more. She’s a bantam though and I’m pretty sure there’s a limit to how many she can sit on for three weeks.
I’d really like to keep her in the coop though, there’s only 6 chickens including the rooster and they’re all laid back. Just wondering what everyone else does with theirs.
Ari, we’ve done various things with our broody hens. Usually, we just let them be broody, but if we notice it’s enticing others to also go broody, then we may separate the broody hen. Using The Garden Ark is a good idea. Some people fashion a cage with a wire bottom. The quarter-height module of The Garden Run series would give you some flexibility to do that. You might also consider sectioning off the space beneath the henhouse for her, with her own food and water.