Remember these week old babies?
Look how much they have grown in two months!
And the coop that started out like this…
And then turned to this..
Is now finally complete with a fenced in area.
No more chicken poop all over my grass.
Hooray!
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at 8:19 pm
This is fabulous! I love it and am so jealous! What do your neighbors think?
at 12:57 pm
Would it be possible to see the inside details…I would love to make this for our hens too. Wonderful project. Marilyn at ganava1599@juno.com
at 1:14 am
I would also like to see the inside…and the window up close….does it open?
at 1:50 pm
Do you have any trouble during the day with critters trying to get in? I assume you lock them up in the coop at night? I’m hoping to build a coop this spring, and am looking for any and all advice!
at 2:07 pm
Hi Lauri! The window on the backside does open and lock shot. We lock them in every night, and let them out in the early morning. We had a problem with critters once. We found a mink in our yard. Random, yes, but we had to shoot it nonetheless.
As for everyone that has asked for photos of the inside, I promise to post some soon!
at 8:16 pm
I LOVE this!!! I can see it in my backyard;) my husband is planning on building us one….can you tell me how many chickens this is designed to hold??or about how many do you have in it?
at 9:06 am
Hi Bryn! We have four chickens. I would say a coop this size could comfortably hold six. Where we live residents are allowed to have up to six chickens so we went for four, with a little room to grow if we ever decide to get two more.
at 12:07 pm
THIS IS PERFECT! Several of my neighbors and I have been wanting to have chickens. This is the best looking and functional DIY coop I have seen. Can you please tell me about how much you think this entire project cost you. I can’t wait to show my friends. The timing could not be any more perfect. Thank you so much for sharing this.
Peggy
at 9:43 pm
Hi Peggy! Oh gosh, I can’t remember how much we spent! I think it was around $200-$300, which was mostly lumber and concrete for the posts. I remember quite a bit of that was the roofing materials too. The window was given to me, the red paint we had on hand. The walkway up to the coop is just an old wood shutter from ReStore. I would say the fence was probably another $50. We just painted sun ties for the fence posts to save money. The chicken wire was the most expensive on the fence. Let me know if you have more questions!
at 2:47 pm
My kids would love this! Especially one of my boys would live in that coop!
at 12:32 pm
I kept two hens in a Houston suburb for a year. I was able to keep them in a little pie shaped area between the garage and the fence where we kept our rabbit. I added a tiny chicken coop for them to sleep in (locked at night), but they roamed relatively free in our fenced back yard during the day. I originally got them to control garden slugs, but the slugs came out at night after the chickens had gone to bed. So they occupied themselves with eating my flowers, then the leaves, then the stems, then scratching up the roots and eating those. They ate the plants out of my big pots and would then get in for a dirt bath. It was quite a shock the first time I saw one because she was laid out across the pot and looked quite dead! They did find and kill a small snake (I think it was a Copperhead) one day. When I saw them with it I took it away. They fussed the rest of the day about that! After I gave them to a man with a flock, I had to put 6 bags of dirt back into the rabbit run and resod it. I have no idea what they did with the dirt. Even though all of the books said any dog would eventually kill your chickens, my chickens terrified my 28 pound Rat Terrier, and I would often see them chasing him across the yard. All in all, I did enjoy the chickens and would love to have some more. Unfortunately, we now live in a very snooty gated community that won’t allow anyone to have more than 3 or 4 pets and no farm animals. One day though…
at 4:13 pm
Hi, I know this is kind of an old post, but a really good way to keep animals from digging their way under the fence and into the coop area is to pound rebar poles, maybe 12 or 18 inches long, into the ground just surrounding the fence. This is really hard for coyotes or stray dogs to dig through. Probably not as important in a yard where you have tall fences like in these photos, but an important addition for anyone thinking of keeping chickens (or any other penned animals) in larger yards.