Brian J.’s Garden State Chicken Coops from Plans
Brian in Northern New Jersey built modified versions of the The Garden Coop and the The Garden Ark chicken coops to fit his Garden State home and needs. He sent us some great notes and photos of his handiwork:
I wrote you a couple weeks ago with some questions after purchasing your plans and just wanted you to know you have another very satisfied customer. This was a very fun project. I made a few modifications here and there, many of them things I gleaned from others on your website. I haven’t totaled the hours, but it actually took less time than I thought, mainly due to the great plans. Thanks again!
Customizing the chicken coops
Some of the cool changes Brian made include the following:
- Shortened the run on The Garden Coop walk-in chicken coop
- Added two framed windows to the henhouse of The Garden Coop
- Used dark hardware cloth for better visibility into both coops
- Built external nesting boxes on both coops
- Made the henhouse ladder go through the floor on both coops with a lip at the top to help keep the bedding in
- Built the ark slightly larger
- Mirrored the roofing design from The Garden Coop on the ark
- Created a front door opening on The Garden Ark
Chicken coops surviving the wind and storm
In 2013, Brian’s area felt the wrath of Superstorm Sandy. While his chicken coop held up great (he had just The Garden Coop at the time), his solid-walled shed didn’t fare nearly as well. . .
We had a lot of damage in the area and were out of power for a week. Our coop came through it without a scratch. You can see I tied the coop down with a rope, but I don’t think I had to. The girls were safe and sound and got us eggs through the week without power.
The second photo is a shed we had on the property — the wind blew it right over and totaled it. Too bad is wasn’t as well designed as our coop!
Thanks to Brian for sharing all these photos. The wreath and paved entrance are great touches too. If you like what he’s done, please let him know with a comment below!
3 thoughts on “Brian J.’s Garden State Chicken Coops from Plans”
We live in the foothills of Tucson, AZ, so we get a lot of wind as we are exposed. It’s good to know the roof of the garden coop didn’t become a sail!
So true. We get seasonal winds every year coming off the Columbia Gorge, though this year they’ve been especially strong and sustained. No problem at all with any of our coop roofs or patio cover, which is built similarly.
Love knowing that the design works well in big wind! I’ve only had one bad windstorm here since building my coops (wind gusting to ~60 kts), and only one of the plastic roof panels buckled a bit, but snapped right back into place once things calmed down.