Building a Coop

Before you actually get chickens, you want to build a coop for them to live in. We take pride in our upcycling ways here, but they do have ready to assemble coops you can purchase. Ours is made with old pallets stacked longways on top of each other, so that we have a lower entrance, and an upper roost. We wanted something up off of the ground to lower the chances of predators having easy access. I’ve seen mini barns, and even old wood dog houses used, no matter what you choose be sure you have some kind of chicken wire, hens can easily get around even on fencing and wire, and a wood floor could cause splinters which could cause bumble foot. So if your coop isn’t right on the ground, and its raised, use chicken wire so the poo drops right through to the dirt floor.

Be sure to have a roost inside and outside the coop, we built a roof over half the run for rainy and snowy days, and also a dusting box the length of the other side of the run. As long as they’re comfortable and fed, they won’t try to get out or escape. We were fortunate enough to get some mini display windows that were going to be thrown in the trash, and installed them both in the coop as well, so it gets good air flow and circulation. Which is definitely needed in the hot months as the temperatures inside the coop rise. Stick with a dirt floor and use straw if you want. I’ve seen people use wood shavings which is not recommended because of spliters and also chemicals that the wood is often treated with, its also not recommended to have a sand floor, if they get too much in the crop that doesn’t digest out you can run into some serious health issues in the long run.

More often than not, hens will use the same one or two laying boxes, no matter how many you have, and really as owners it’s just something you need to get used to. Unless of course you have a few dozen hens, more will be laying at once, and using up the boxes if not finding sneaky places to lay. I have one right now laying right under the ladder to the upper part of the coop, honestly they never get broke or are dirty so I just harvest those like all the other eggs. Be sure to rotate fresh straw in the laying boxes, this is more comfortable for the hens, and the eggs. Try to keep your roost away from your laying boxes or you’ll get poo where you don’t want it, they just drop all day so be mindful of that. Even though we have a pretty compact coop, our laying boxes have a small roof over them, and there’s an extra roost on that side as well, which gets cleaned and scooped out regularly, and doesn’t contaminate the laying boxes at all. The other side and roost is right above the ‘floor’ of the coop, which is chicken wire so that the poo falls straight down to the lower level and ground to compost naturally into the dirt.

It’s best to have a door hatch for egg collecting, this will allow you to reach the eggs from the outside of the coop, and if you can, keep it shut at night. Also you’ll need some kind of roof, we happened to find a large piece of tin from the hardware store that was a cancelled order and marked almost half off, so we bought it, we also purchased the bird net, hatch latches, and wire mesh so overall we spent about $75 on the whole project. The wire mesh was recommended from a chicken group that I’m in to cover the entire surface of the pallets because of the gaps between pieces of wood, this has kept snakes and smaller rodents like mice or rats out of the coop, so I recommend getting some as well. This spring we took down the crushed soda cans that we originally tried to use as shingles off of the outside, and put up some sheet metal on. I’m hoping this will keep the coop much warmer in the cold months, although they’ve never had an issue in the past, I like for it to be as comfortable as possible for them.

No matter what size your coop is or how you decide to build it, above all it must be easily accessible to clean. You’ll need to scoop, wipe and water spray at least every 6-8 weeks or so depending on the architecture of your coop and run. Even if you’re doing a natural layer compost system for the floor of your coop, you will still need to discard the old straw quite often. Rake and replace, especially in the wet and cold months. Keep your eye out for insects building nests as well, you certainly don’t want wasps by the dozens in your coop. Don’t use sprays like insecticides or pesticides as the chemicals can also be harmful to your hens and the rest of your homestead. This experience is beyond rewarding, I urge everyone to consider owning your own backyard flock.