7 tips for building a garden-friendly chicken coop
July 15, 2014
Introducing The Garden Loft Large Walk-in Chicken Coop Plans
We 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 walk-in coop, but with twice the space. Take a look. . .
Full-sized chicken coop. Full of amenities.
We designed The Garden Loft to comfortably house and protect up to 16 hens. Of course, you can easily add run space to keep even more. The full-width, waist-high henhouse puts everything within easy reach for care and cleaning. And the spacious open-air run gives your flock more than 100 square feet (9.5 sq meters) to roam, scratch around, and relax.
Because the henhouse and run are integrated, your chickens are safe and free to move between them as they please. And with four nest boxes (with room to add more) and a pair of long perches both inside and out, your flock has plenty of options for laying and roosting.
Learn more about The Garden Loft large walk-in chicken coop and run here. We also offer a pre-packed hardware kit for this coop design to save you time at the store, and maybe even some money!
Please help us spread the word
This design has been years in the making and is largely in response to what our customers have told us they want in a large walk-in chicken coop. If you appreciate The Garden Loft design, please share a link or a picture on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, or your favorite chicken keeping forum so that others can discover it too!
Comments? Questions? Let us know with a reply below. And subscribe to Coop Thoughts. It’s free, ad-free, and you can unsubscribe at any time.
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6 thoughts on “Introducing The Garden Loft Large Walk-in Chicken Coop Plans”
Hey there – I purchased plans today and it will be my project to build. We are moving from Norther California to the gulf coast of Alabama. We have six chickens that I am hopefully going to be able to move successfully. This will just be a better set up in our new location. One question – since this is an area with lots of thunderstorms does the slanted open roof allow much water to get into house and coop?
Sean, I replied by email, but I’ll post my response here as well, in case others have a similar question.
Because the henhouse is towards the back at the low end of the roof, and there is overhang on all sides, it is well protected from rain. Rain can obviously blow into the run, but some moisture in there is fine. You can add permanent siding to any area if you anticipate that being an issue.
A few things I’d point out for the Gulf Coast:
You can do some additional securing of the coop and roof.
– You may want to overlap the roof panels at two crests instead of one, and sandwich a bead of silicone caulk at the overlap. In hard rains, water can push up and over a single crest then come dripping in to the henhouse. Refer to the manufacturer’s instructions for the particular type of roofing you go with.
– Be aware that you may notice drops forming on the underside of the roof due to condensation as the air temps and humidity shifts. You can distinguish these from leaks because they are usually temporary, and not much.
– Make sure to elevate the coop base on the pier blocks if termites are an issue in your area. This protects the wood from the moisture of the ground and lets you see any trails they might form. A lot of the older homes in that area are build this way too!
– We’ve got a few coops featured from Louisiana, Texas, and Florida if you want to see what others around there are doing.
Hope this helps!
What is the approximate material cost?
Elizabeth, you can see a cost estimate to build this coop here.
About 5 years ago we built The Garden Coop for our first chickens and loved it, and (now addicted) have decided to up-coop to add more birds. The timing was perfect as it was right when The Garden Loft came out, so I bought the plans. I’m about 3/4ths of the way through building it, and I have to say, the plans are brilliant and well thought-out. I’ll definitely share pics when I finish!
Caity, your first coop was beautiful. I can’t wait to see the new one! I’m glad you’re enjoying the plans and the project.