When I decided to get chickens for the first time, I had no idea how big of a chicken idiot I was. Even though I read some books (The Beginner's Guide to Raising Chickens by Anne Kuo and How To Speak Chicken by Melissa Caughey), I was very green at everything chicken. Including building a coop for them. A chicken's coop is their home. It's their safe place. It's where they lay you beautiful, delicious eggs. So here's my little journey to getting their first of many chicken coops built.
Adorable but tiny. I bought this really cute prefab chicken coop from Amazon. When it arrived, I immediately knew it would be too small for them after a few months.
What I bought:
What I should have bought:
So brilliant me decide to modify the prefab and add some extra room and a roost bar. I had read they like roost bars and swings. More on the swing thing later. All I needed to do, was add an expansion area to the attached run and area. No problem. I measured, calculated and flitted off to the hardware store. Well, I misread my own very careful math and came home with boards that were too short. A second (and third) trip to DIY combined with the very patient staff who cut everything for me, resulted in a final chicken coop that I was proud of. And it was all worth it when Dean, my little buddy, hopped up on that roost for the first time.
3 years later, I still have the coop! I use it as a hospital ward and baby chick outdoor exposure coop. I added wheels to it so I can move it around easily. It it very handy to have a separate small space to use for quarantine.
Here's a fun video of how it all went down: