I pestered Matthew about the idea of getting chickens for about a year before we bought our house. At the time, we didn't have a yard that big enough to make chickens a reality, but after moving here we suddenly had plenty of space and my desire for feathered friends intensified. Matthew and I talked it over, and we decided to get 5 chicks our first spring in this house (which was 2009).
We brooded the chicks inside in a large rubbermaid tote while we set to building a permanent home for the girls. It should be noted that neither Matthew or I are experienced carpenters, and that the chicken coop was the most ambitious project that either of us had ever attempted to build. We hit some snags right away, and without a written plan to follow, we were soon in over our heads. We had some friends come over and help us get over to first major hurdle, and for the next few weeks we muddled our way though it. Eventually, we had our coop done, and surprisingly enough, it was actually a pretty sturdy little thing! Sure, the roof leaked a little, but it held together and when the girls finally moved in, they seemed to love it.
A few months later, someone tattled on us and we had to find a new home for our girls - the coop went with three of them, and that was the end of our chicken adventure. When our city decided to hold some town hall type meetings to gauge the communities interest in chickens last summer, I attended and voiced my support for updating the urban livestock codes. To my delight, last November our city officially changed the laws to allow chickens, bees, and even miniature livestock! We are lucky to have a huge lot for a city home - at over 14,000 square feet we are allowed 3 bee hives, 2 miniature livestock and.....6 chickens! We were overjoyed at news of the change, and have been planning for our future flock ever since.
We chose this weekend to get started on our coop, and a quick trip to Home Depot filled our van with all the supplies we needed. We learned quite a bit from our last experience, but apparently not enough to start with any sort of actual plans! We just had some rough measurements, and a picture of what we wanted the end product to look like. What can I say....some people never learn! ;)
Chicken coop building is a great family project - here everyone is working on getting the frame nailed together:
Mike wielded the circular saw, while Matthew and I figured out what measurements we needed. I was so impressed with how smoothly things went - even when there were small hiccups (and there were only a couple) we put our heads together and figured out a solution in no time at all. For instance, for most of the wood cutting, we used the frame as a makeshift platform to hold the lumber while we measured and cut. But when it came time to cut the plywood piece for the back wall, it was too wide to slide into our frame for support. So we slid a couple of 2X4's in for support, but found that they were too wobbly at the end to hold the plywood at the other end steady. Our solution? The kids...and their bottoms!
We worked on the coop for about 4 hours, and at this point it is almost finished! We still have to build the front doors, install the roosts and nesting boxes, nail the roof on and paint the whole thing, but the hard parts are already done. Here is the almost finished coop:
The coop is 5 feet wide, 5 feet tall at the front, and 3 1/2 feet deep. It is split into two areas - the one on the left is where their roost will go, and the one on the right is the nesting area. We are going to double stack two nesting boxes at the back, and the door on that side will be solid, giving the girls a dark secluded space to lay eggs for us. We cut a doorway for them to enter through from the main coop side:
We are hoping to finish it up this weekend, and get chicks the beginning of March. We are all really excited about having chickens again, and are looking forward to their entertaining antics and of course, those delicious egg
We brooded the chicks inside in a large rubbermaid tote while we set to building a permanent home for the girls. It should be noted that neither Matthew or I are experienced carpenters, and that the chicken coop was the most ambitious project that either of us had ever attempted to build. We hit some snags right away, and without a written plan to follow, we were soon in over our heads. We had some friends come over and help us get over to first major hurdle, and for the next few weeks we muddled our way though it. Eventually, we had our coop done, and surprisingly enough, it was actually a pretty sturdy little thing! Sure, the roof leaked a little, but it held together and when the girls finally moved in, they seemed to love it.
A few months later, someone tattled on us and we had to find a new home for our girls - the coop went with three of them, and that was the end of our chicken adventure. When our city decided to hold some town hall type meetings to gauge the communities interest in chickens last summer, I attended and voiced my support for updating the urban livestock codes. To my delight, last November our city officially changed the laws to allow chickens, bees, and even miniature livestock! We are lucky to have a huge lot for a city home - at over 14,000 square feet we are allowed 3 bee hives, 2 miniature livestock and.....6 chickens! We were overjoyed at news of the change, and have been planning for our future flock ever since.
We chose this weekend to get started on our coop, and a quick trip to Home Depot filled our van with all the supplies we needed. We learned quite a bit from our last experience, but apparently not enough to start with any sort of actual plans! We just had some rough measurements, and a picture of what we wanted the end product to look like. What can I say....some people never learn! ;)
Chicken coop building is a great family project - here everyone is working on getting the frame nailed together:
Mike wielded the circular saw, while Matthew and I figured out what measurements we needed. I was so impressed with how smoothly things went - even when there were small hiccups (and there were only a couple) we put our heads together and figured out a solution in no time at all. For instance, for most of the wood cutting, we used the frame as a makeshift platform to hold the lumber while we measured and cut. But when it came time to cut the plywood piece for the back wall, it was too wide to slide into our frame for support. So we slid a couple of 2X4's in for support, but found that they were too wobbly at the end to hold the plywood at the other end steady. Our solution? The kids...and their bottoms!
We worked on the coop for about 4 hours, and at this point it is almost finished! We still have to build the front doors, install the roosts and nesting boxes, nail the roof on and paint the whole thing, but the hard parts are already done. Here is the almost finished coop:
The coop is 5 feet wide, 5 feet tall at the front, and 3 1/2 feet deep. It is split into two areas - the one on the left is where their roost will go, and the one on the right is the nesting area. We are going to double stack two nesting boxes at the back, and the door on that side will be solid, giving the girls a dark secluded space to lay eggs for us. We cut a doorway for them to enter through from the main coop side:
We are hoping to finish it up this weekend, and get chicks the beginning of March. We are all really excited about having chickens again, and are looking forward to their entertaining antics and of course, those delicious egg