Laura’s Expanded Garden Coop Chicken Coop, Sonoma County, California
January 14, 2014
Michelle’s “Hippie Chicks” Chicken Coop, Durham, North Carolina
Michelle built this adorable North Carolina chicken coop using The Basic Coop plans and hardware kit. Her four chicks moved in in the fall, and she wrote recently to say that they made it through the cold, snowy winter with no issues — and no added light or heat (or lava lamps).
Power to the peeps
The Basic Coop is the perfect canvas for expressing your unique style. It’s also quite adaptable to your particular yard and chicken-keeping situation. Here are some of the things Michelle did to make The Basic Coop her own:
- Painted paisleys on the sides, her daughter’s idea to play off the “Hippie Chicks” theme
- Added external nest boxes working from our free plans
- Designed her own walk-in run, raised the coop higher off the ground, and added a ladder
- Hung one of our 1-gallon nipple waterers inside
“We have four hens, and they have lots of room in the coop,” says Michelle. “In fact, I think we could add two more if we wanted. All four share one roost each night.”
More photos of Michelle’s paisley chicken coop
“Thank you for the great design,” she says. “The plans were clear and easy to follow. I actually enjoyed building it!”
Thanks to Michelle for sharing your photos and notes. If you dig what she’s done, please let her know with a comment below. Peace.
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2 thoughts on “Michelle’s “Hippie Chicks” Chicken Coop, Durham, North Carolina”
Do you have any specific measurements or tips on adding the external box to the Basic Coop? I’d love to have an external box on our’s, but I’m not sure exactly what needs to be changed in the original plans to allow for it. This is so cute! I love the door to the big pen.
Monica
Monica, I haven’t worked out the specifics for adding external boxes to The Basic Coop, but the process should be very similar to what’s described in the tutorial linked above. Michelle positioned her external boxes lower than the internal box would be. I imagine you could keep the external boxes near the height of the existing egg door as well and just widen that opening.
Let me describe what I’m thinking. Picture the external boxes as a single unit mounted on the outer face (egg door side) of The Basic Coop, positioned between the legs. The side walls of the external boxes would attach to the legs. The floor of the boxes would be about 3–4 inches lower than the egg door opening (that way the bedding is held in on the coop side). The opening would be cut wider so the hens could enter the two external boxes from inside the coop. The roof piece would tuck into/under the plywood wall to keep rainwater out of the boxes.
I plan to build a version of this some day and add it to the tutorial, but I hope this helps in the meantime.