Chicken Coops
There some great sites on the net that talk about chicken coops. Really. It’s amazing what someone can have a specialty site about these days. Some poor schmo on a tiny farm in Michigan will probably write about chickens and daily life, too. Ahem. Seriously, what follows is the condensed wisdom of many other sites, which I’ll try to link to for further reading.
The thing to keep in mind here is that chickens, by nature of their having brains the size of Cheerios, are not very picky. Unless, of course, you spent several weekends building really nice nesting boxes for them, in which case, they are connoisseurs of butt lumber, but I’m getting ahead of myself. Normally, though, they just want a roost and a roof.
There are two main distinctions among coops: stationary ones and movable ones. My first coop was a movable one. Or at least, that was the plan. It turned out that you needed a Ford F-150 to move it, but that was because I was a clueless noob. You can benefit from my misfortune by reading on…
The Chicken Tractor
This is a small, movable coop that you move around your yard. The chickens scratch around, eat some bugs and such, and leave some fertilizer. Next day or week, you move the coop to a new spot. This was my big plan. Sadly, I overbuilt. I wanted to be able to walk into the coop to change the water and feed. I built using 2×4’s and 1×2’s to keep weight down, but to no avail. My wife and I could barely move it. Some of the best portable coops I’ve seen are about 2 feet tall and use PVC and chicken wire with a small closed area at the end for nighttime roosting. Throw a tarp over it for a roof and its perfect. You’ll want to consider how you’re going to retrieve any eggs, though. If you have to move the whole coop to get the eggs out, chances are you wont’ be eating many fresh eggs.
Note to self: put some links and pictures in here.
Note to others: one day, they’ll be some pictures and links here for you.
The only problem with portable coops is winter. We got about 75 inches of snow here this winter. It’s not Oswego, NY, but that’s still a lot. Chickens can get frostbite, especially their fleshy combs and wattles (Citydwellers: That’s the fleshy red bit on the head and chin, respectively.) so if you are using a portable coop where it gets cold or snowy, think about what you’ll do after Spring and Summer are history and this whole chicken thing has become a bit more permanent.
You might also want to consider the size of your grown birds when building your Chicken tractor. I had 2 turkeys (Christmas and Thanksgiving) who would not fit in a 2 foot high tractor. This doesn’t justify my 7 foot high Spruce Goose of a coop, but it is something to think about. Roosters get to be about 7-9 lbs usually. Toms (citydwellers: male turkeys) routinely hit 30 lbs.
The Stationary Coop
The size of your coop will depend on three things: how many chickens you want to keep, your available materials, and your budget. You’ve probably heard of old school buses and VW Vans being used as coops. Having owned a wonderful old VW Camper, I can’t conceive of ruining one this way, but it gets back to available materials. After my disaster with the portable coop, I repurposed an old horse stall. It had cinder block walls, so I sledged out a couple blocks for the chicken door. There are horse people crying right now as a result. They don’t know that I also replaced the plywood “windows” with plexiglass ones. This is less for the chickens to have a great view of the cattle peering in, and more because horses aren’t vulnerable to a zillion nocturnal predators and chickens are.
I re-used my nesting box from the portable coop only to find that the chickens won’t use it in the new coop either. They all lay there eggs in the hay just beneath it. Ugh. Brains the size of Cheerios, I tell you. Of course, it has nothing to do with the fact that I probably should install a perch or ramp so they can get into it, but for now, I’m blaming the chickens since they don’t blog.
Numbers to Remember
12. 42. 3.14.
Ah…I never get tired of old chestnuts like that. Seriously though, when building a coop you’ll want to make sure you have enough room for everyone. According to the books I read, you should have about 1 nest box for every 3-4 hens. You should allow about 12″ of roost space for every full size chicken and one square foot of floor space for each chicken. You’ll also want to keep all your receipts from Home Depot for tax time if you’re declaring your farm as a business. This is because even if you can remember all those numbers the IRS would like some proof that you really did spend $42.04 on lumber for a “Chicken Ark”. Frankly, they’ll audit you anyway, thinking that something called a Chicken Ark is a joke to see if they’re really reading the fine print on your return, but at least you tried, right?
There’s some question about high to build your roosts. For full size birds, 2 feet seems about right. This makes it easier to clean under them later. I built my first roost, in the portable coop, about 3 feet high. At that height it was too high to step over and too low to go under. The chickens didn’t seem to mind, however.
Egg collection
Your chickens will naturally find the most difficult spots in which to lay their eggs. Mine lay theirs in the corner, under the nests. Hard to see in the dark and just asking for the rooster to come over and bop one of the kids as they get down on all fours to get an egg. I’ve seen cool designs that have doors/hatches on the outside so that you can get the eggs without ever stepping through chicken dreck. They look great, but it comes back to available materials. The chickens want a dry place where they’re safe from predators. You and your neighbors (maybe especially the neighbors) are the only ones judging the aesthetics of your project.
A Word About Predators
After our recent experiences with raccoons, I can add this about coops: keep it as tight as you can. Raccoons are stronger and smarter than you think. They can dig and they can climb. Since my coop is a converted horse stall, I ended up using a zillion square feet of chicken wire stapled over the openings to keep out the coons. This has worked well so far, but remember to check your ceilings and corners! If you use a portable coop, make sure it has a latch/lid that is fairly secure. I have a brooder box that has a lid made from 1×2s. The latch is secure, but the wood is light and the corners can be lifted up a good 3 inches. Not enough for a raccoon, but enough for a weasel or a martin. I use a bungie cord on the corners now if I see any cat food missing.
I had a similar experience with the beautiful chicken tractor we built. We painted it to match the barn and soon learned that it is every bit as portable. Neighbors pulled up lawnchairs to watch us build it. In the end, we moved the dog into the chicken tractor and the chickens into the kennel!
Chickenkook-
They pulled up lawn chairs? That is cold! That’s like going to a barn raising to sit in the shade and drink lemonade. Did they holler advice, too?
In any case, I’m just relieved to see that I’m not the only one who’s made this mistake! I think everyone gets to make it once. Like drinking tequila shots.
We have what we like to refer to as the “Chicken Fort” at our homestead. It was formerly housing for a previous owner’s bucks and two of the walls are built with what can only be described as split logs. I dug a trench around the perimeter, lined it with chicken wire and filled it with big rocks. The predators stayed out for about a year but are now finding their way under.
Our biggest concerns with predators have been an australian shepherd I rescued (she’s kept leashed, in the house or in a now tightly fenced pasture) and other random neighborhood dogs. Another issue has been opossums. It’s horrifying what they can do to a bird and short of that they will break every egg in the house. We’re considering a movable coop with movable fencing now but haven’t worked out how it will be feasible for us yet.
I’d love to have fancy nesting boxes, but our chickens pretty much all lay in one plastic crate set out in the coop. I actually read that chickens will almost always lay where they see other eggs because their little, “cheerio” brains perceive that if someone else laid their eggs there it must be a good spot. Some people have ceramic or plastic eggs, or even golf balls that they put in their nesting boxes to encourage the chickens to lay in their designated spot.
My feelings on a rooster that feels entitled to peck or otherwise intimidate the human inhabitants of my homestead are that he will be more pleasant in the stew pot. All roosters who have developed bad manners under our care have found this to be their fate. They are useless to egg production (even a possible hindrance) so they’d better be polite if they want to keep eating and breathing here. Of course, I talk tough, but I actually send my husband out to do it.
Robinson-
If it makes you feel any better, they don’t use my nesting boxes except to roost on. Even little pretend eggs never really helped. They’d much rather lay in the dirt next to the front porch. Go figure.
As for the rooster, I agree. I’d vainly hoped to salvage something from the one I had, but he’s stew now. I’m not sure about a hindrance to egg production though – my egg production dropped right off after he got the axe.
Was thinking of building a movable coop in the spring got some good advise from all of you, DON’T. Have 50 chickens in a corner of the barn but notice the egg yolks getting less then golden without the bugs of the free range but I do not need extra chicks showing up when a hen decides to sit on a hidden nest. Thought the moving coops would help. Still may try something. Answer for the roosters if you have kids, pen them for the fair you would be surprised how well the free range roster place at the fair. The meat and colors are wonderful.
My 15 yr. old son and I finished an “ark” about 5 days ago. I had 31 Buff Orpington pullets in a homemade pen until we finished the ark. I didn’t use plans, just photos off the net to go by. I used 2X2’s for the frame, and 1X2’s for the other parts where I needed to be able to staple my wire netting. I used exactly 1 4X8 sheet of 1/4″ OSB for the part where they sleep and get out of the sun. We used wire “netting” that is very stiff, and for me is hard to work with. I think it may be for use in a garden. It has 1/2″ openings. We used one 25′ roll for this “ark”. We stapled it with a staple gun. It actually looks pretty good, but have found one problem… I read where it’s best to not put a floor (wood, or netting) in the ark, so I didn’t………MISTAKE……… When we move the ark, we have to be extremely careful because my buffs can get hung under the edges of it when we push it (I didn’t add wheels). Next one will definitely have a wire floor. If you do not have a floor in it, you need to let the wire extend from the bottom edges about 6″. When you get it settled, bend the extra wire out onto the ground to prevent critters, especially possums, from having a “chicken dinner”. I do love the ease of the ark, but really think it needs a wire bottom. Just food for thought..
Thank you all for all your advice! I’m taking my photos of what I have found on the web and pulling apart old picnic tables and getting my drill ready. I’ll remember the wheels, solid flooring and hopfully a golf ball or two to fool and “Cheerio-Chick” or two. Now I’ll just wait until my husband goes back to work from holidays to break into his tools – and finish before he gets home
I am a “backyard chicken” raiser in Los Angeles…I love all the information I can find on the web about raising chickens…thanks!
Last year, my husband and I designed and built a very sturdy, attractive 4′ x 6′ coop with an attached run (I had to make it cute, with a door and shutters, etc – so that if the great chicken experiment failed I could scrub it out and use it as a wonderful kids’ playhouse
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we have been letting the chickens free range during the day…unfortunately, we seem to have a coyote or something in the neighborhood that has been bold enough to steal chickens in the middle of the day….it’s happened twice now…
so I have been googling around trying to find a good design for a chicken tractor to give them a semi-free range experience!
I love to repurpose things, and we had a broken EZ-up (one of those collapsible shade tents) lying around the garage…so I had my 10-year-old take out all the screws and we have reconfigured it into a pretty sturdy yet lightweight rectangular shape – about 3′ wide by 6′ long…now we will add chicken wire…my only worry is that it is TOO light! but I guess I can stake it down wherever I move it to…
we don’t have to worry about snow, but it can get down to just abut freezing here on winter nights, so this will just be a sunny weather extra run…and also, a place to keep the chicks I now need to buy to replace the poor hens that got snatched… naturally, they were about 16 weeks old and just getting into the egg-laying zone!
Wonderful comments from all of you! I am doing Internet research on building a movable chicken ark. I just purchased the plans from catawba coops. This coop is really too heavy (175 lbs). I will try and modify. I would really like to see some photos of the coop mentioned that was part PVC. Does anyone have one?
Hi everyone,
Loved reading all these comments. I guess I have been pretty lucky so far with my ‘Chicken Tractor’. I use it in a chain length fenced garden to control weeds, rototill and fertilizer my planting beds. Last summer was my first go at this. I am excited about planting this spring and starting another row this summer. This time I am going to use meat birds so I can make it all happen faster and be done. My garden fence hooks onto my greenhouse and 5′ outside of the chain length fence I have a 4′ electric netting fence. I have a big problem with deer and they will not jump two fences close and parallel to each other. I let the egg laying chickens run in between the fences. Keeping the weeds down and the hawks can’t swoop in. So far no predators have been inside the fences.
Last year I let the chickens out of the tractor to move it because I wanted raised beds and so left it in one place adding 1″ or so of straw every couple of days. Then I moved it after a month to the next spot. My grand kids caught the chickens and put them back in after I moved it. They were very unhappy for a few days when ever I changed anything.
My tractor is 4′x10′ and 4′ high. I put two 2’spoke wheels on the back and can move it around by my self before the bedding begins to pile to high. I used the plans in the ‘Chicken Tractor’ book by Andy Lee. I am going to put greenhouse shade cloth over the top this year because it got to hot for them inside. I found I let them out more than I was suppose too. This year the garden will be planted and I can not have them destroying it. Last year was the first year and I was bring in cow manure, grass from the city folks bags along the road, about 400 bags of leaves and then I planted it all to winter wheat this fall. Will till it under in spring and plant my first garden up here.
I moved to the Northeastern lower Michigan in summer of 2007 after building a large garage, attaching a greenhouse and finishing off 1/2 to live in while I wait for my home to sell down state. It is going to be a long wait but I am having fun in my one room hobby room. It is neat finding someone like you guys doing the country life too only on a much bigger scale.
I will check in from time to time to see how you are doing and to have some good old fashion laughs. Makes me recall some of my real life experiences since I have come to the country to live. I love you style of writing and your down to earth attitude. Keep up the good work. Bonnie
cant decide what to have,!! a chicken tractor or convert and old shed in back to a permanent coop. i would like to raise enuff chickens to have some for freezer, but I love the idea of fresh grass and the “free range” idea? help!!!
just a quick note on chicken tractors. i have found the book by joel salatin pastured poultry profits to be quite helpful. this is a starting place for producing large quanities of chickens for sale.
mmmmm… I think its great!! pwonage post, thankyou for the story.
Thanks for the post my son is writting a report and the info realy helped him, also the pics are very amazing and beeautiful.
chicken coop -
I’m glad you liked it! I hope he wasn’t looking for chicken coop pics though! I don’t have any up since my coop is pretty ugly – a cinder block attachment to the barn that used to be a horse stall. The chickens haven’t complained though!
I have raised chickens for years ever since I was 7 or so, almost all on my own. My Dad & Grandpa took a old building and turned it into a coop. This year I ordered more chicks so now my coop is to small.
You can let your chicks out in the open if you have a need to save $$ on their feed bill. I just open the door and they follow me to the great outdoors.Chickens LOVE to eatgrass,seeds,&such.NO DOGS WHO LIKE TO EAT THEM. My dog learned the hard way.
i was just researching the size coop I want to build for my urban coop and run setup. thanks for sharing this advice
Hey, this is a very detailed article and the most enjoyable read. My husband and I keep a couple of chickens in our back yard and we built them a chicken ark. They seem to love it!
Keep the blogs coming.
Lucy