Sometimes making a decision can be the hardest part of the process in getting something done. At least, this is often true for me. And when you plan to get hens, the first and biggest decision to be made, is where to keep them.
In general, there are 4 housing options:
1. Using a pre-existing structure on your property.
2. Building a coop from scratch, using a plan you create or a plan you buy.
3. Building a coop from a pre-fabricated kit you buy.
4. Buying a coop already made.
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| My kids help my Dad scout out a location for a coop in our yard. |
Pre-exisiting structure
At first, I considered modifying my garage so I could keep the hens in there. There are many instances I've read about, where a pre-existing structure works out well: old junk cars can serve as coops, even kids' playhouses.
My garage had two things going for it: a sound structure, and a concrete floor (for easy cleaning). But after more reading, and a few visits to coops of other hen keepers, I decided the garage wasn't going to work. Creating a way for outdoor access was going to be too complicated, and the garage inside was too dark. (Hens need daylight to stimulate egg-laying.) So I decided against trying to modify the pre-existing structure on our property.
Now I had to decide on a spot for the coop. The best location seemed to be at the far end of our yard, beside the southwest facing wall of our garage. Here it would allow us the rest of our small yard to play in, and it would be facing a direction to get decent sunlight.
So what kind of coop to get? Having read a lot on the topic, I had the "perfect coop" in my mind. More on that below. For now, I will mention the other factors that affected what kind of coop I would get.
LIMITING FACTORS:
- COST - I needed to keep it as reasonable as possible.
- MANPOWER - I don't have any woodworking skills. I can barely use a drill correctly. So I was going to be relying on the men in my life, (my husband and my dad) to help me out with this project. I didn't want to overwhelm their skills with a hugely complex project.
- TIME - We wanted the chickens to be our home by early summer, when they would start laying eggs. So we don't want to still be working on coop construction in October!
I viewed lots of pre-fab coops, hoping to find something that matched the specifications I had in my head. There are lots of cute and creative pre-fab options available. I think another plus to this choice would be the satisfaction of assembling it yourself. I did find the pre-fab coops to be surprisingly expensive, partly because of the high shipping cost. I chose to keep looking for another option, mainly because I did not find a pre-fab design that matched what I wanted.
Buying a Design and Plan:
Next I decided to try to find a coop plan that I liked. After looking at plans online, I finally bought Building Chicken Coops for Dummies. It contained 4 popular coop plans, including the materials lists and estimated costs of each coop. The four coops ranged from cheap to expensive, simple to complex. While I would recommend the book to someone wanting to build a coop, I realized this route probably wasn't for me. First of all, none of the 4 plans contained all the features I wanted. Second, the estimated costs for building materials and supplies for the coops surprised me....in that the estimated cost for the cheapest coop in the book was around $200. I didn't want this particular plan, so my expense was only going to go up from there.
Buying a Ready-Made Coop:
At first, I thought this would be the last choice I would consider. Would it be possible for me to find my "dream coop" ready made? As it turns out, no. However, I found a builder who would custom build my coop with the features and specifications I wanted. Now we're talkin'!
Additionally, when I started researching how much it would cost to buy a coop ready-made, against the cost of buying a plan, materials, and tools to make my own, I found that I probably wasn't going to save much money building my own coop. But in buying one already made, I could save time.
I found the website of a skilled carpenter in Chattanooga who builds customized coops for reasonable prices. I got in contact with the owner and explained to him the "dream coop" in my head. He drew up a design and gave me the estimated cost. I felt his price was fair, and I knew that I would be getting exactly what I wanted. This was worth it to me. I highly recommend Custom Coops and Cages. I'm very pleased with the coop I bought.
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| Our finished coop and run |
MY IDEAL COOP
Every hen owner has to decide what features are most important in a coop. For me, the following features were "must haves." I custom ordered my coop with the following:
- Off the Ground
I felt this was important for preventing wood rot, for predator protection, and for ventilation. Ventilation is particularly important for hens, because they can develop restpiratory problems. In addition, ventilation helps with coop odor.
- More Ventilation
Ventilation works well if air can move up and out. So by keeping the coop off the ground and including a hole in the floor (in our case, an exit into the run) air can rise up through it. Air then exits through a screen window on one side of the coop.
- Outside Access Nesting Boxes
I wanted nesting boxes that allowed for easy access. My kids will be doing this job, and I wanted them to be able to collect eggs with ease, and without having to get messy in the coop...although they will find other ways to get messy.
- Daylight
Hens need daylight to lay eggs. So in addition to a screen window on their south-facing wall, the hens also have a plex-glass window on their west-facing wall. This should maximize the daylight they experience in the coop. At this point I have not wired my coop for electricity, but I have read that in order to maintain egg production in the winter, you have to provide artificial light.
- Darkness
While hens want daylight, they want darkness when they are actually laying eggs in their nest box. So the nesting boxes are on the north wall of the coop, keeping them in the dark as much as possible.
- Cleanliness
Chickens are going to poop everywhere. And you want to minimize poop on your eggs. So the nest boxes are cubbies in the side of the coop with a slanted roof above, preventing the hens from being above to perch over the nest boxes and leave droppings. The hen perches, from which they will sit all night and leave droppings, are located over the center of the coop, so all I have to do is regularly rake out the litter through the main door. How often is regularly? I'm waiting to find out...but I'm guessing once a week.
- Appearance
Yes, aesthetic appeal was a factor for my coop as well. It wasn't so much that I wanted a cute coop, as it was that I didn't want an ugly eyesore. My coop builder paints coops any color you like, even Tennessee Vols orange. But I liked the red barn look.
- Weatherized
Roofing shingles keep off the rain, and a flap inside the coop allows me to close the screen window in freezing weather.
HOME TO ROOST
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| Securing the coop in my cousin's truck |
How'd we get our coop home? Custom coops and cages delivers, but I could save money picking it up myself. I am blessed with a generous cousin. She is blessed with an F-150. Its a dang big truck. When I ride somewhere with her I usually fall out, instead of "step out," forgetting how high I am up off the ground. Anyway, she drove me to Chattanooga to pick up my coop. After we got the coop to my house, she amazed us all with her awesome driving skills and backed her truck through the narrow gate into my backyard. Then we unloaded the VERY heavy coop. The kids had fun playing in it that day.
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| Unloading the coop in our yard. |
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| Doing the "chicken dance" in the coop. |
