Brian Builds A Chicken Coop

As my followers are aware, back in 2008 I attempted to raise chickens in the backyard of my college house. I ultimately was stifled by the unfair chicken laws of Ann Arbor which favored the landed gentry.

But alas, I vowed to one day fulfill the promise I made to myself to build my own chicken coop. Friends, that day has come. I proudly present the greatest and most challenging project I have ever undertaken, and one for which I am exceedingly proud.

The Completed Coop

When we bought our house two years ago, one of the immediate plans I made was to construct a chicken coop. A few other projects took priority, but eventually this spring I just decided to go for it. I spend a few weeks researching coops, and then made a few sketches and started building. I didn't have a real design to go off of, so I just kind of designed it as I went. I think it worked out okay, but there were some things I would do differently if I could build it again.

Here are some pictures from the project.

The base - with clean out opening.

The walls framed and ready to be assembled.

The cupola in progress.

At this point the chicks arrived in the mail. They lived in the shower so the cat wouldn't eat them. I still had plenty of work to do, and their smell really added to the urgency of getting the rest of the coop finished.

The day old chicks.

The walls up and assembled. Probably more solid than needed for a chicken coop.

The roof and sheathing were done the next weekend.

Me roofing the coop.

At this point I had the roofing done, the access door on and the chicken wire around the base.

The chicks are a few weeks old and watching me build them a home.

The run structure is built and ready to be installed.

The run structure in, and ready for the chicken wire.

The inside of the coop, pre-chickens.

The nesting boxes inside the coop.

The hens exploring their new home. Their roost is behind them.

The hens looking outside the coop.

Finished Product! The extension cord is temporarily there for the heat lamp.

In case you're wondering, the hens are named Dorothy (Easter Egger), Blanche (Easter Egger), Sophia (Welsummer), Rose (Barred Plymouth Rock) and BONESAW MCGRAW (Australorp). It will be another few months before we start getting our eggs, but the hens seem happy in the back yard. When they start laying we'll be getting 20-25 eggs a week.

I really enjoyed the challenge of building the coop myself, but it took a lot longer, and a lot more trips to the home center than I anticipated. I really couldn't have built this without having a pretty big collection of tools. Carly doesn't understand why I need 5 types of saws, but I swear I used them all on this project.

I feel like after building this coop, I can pretty much build anything. I'm not sure if that's true, but I was able to imagine something and then build it in real life, and the sense of accomplishment is without compare.