Chicken Coop

At the beginning of the summer I had a dream of owning chickens.  Turns out chicken coops are pretty expensive to buy, so with the help of inspiration from a friend, I decided to build my own.  I came up with this sketch and bought all my lumber.

During this project I learned that it is really helpful to have all the right tools.  My toolbox is quite sparse with inventory and it definitely made construction more difficult.  Still I had fun mastering the skil saw and drill.

My original estimate of how much this thing would cost to construct ended up  being a little more then I anticipated too.  I had no idea paint was so expensive!

I decided to go with a plastic chicken wire.  It got good reviews and was much cheaper then actual chicken wire.  I'm sure it was a lot easier for a novice like me to work with too.

Here is the coop minus the nesting boxes and roof.

And the finished product!... Minus the wheels.  The plan is to make it mobile so that we'll have "free-range" chickens, but they'll still be protected at all times from predators.

I wanted to make the nesting boxes low enough so that Brodie could reach in and get the eggs.  I think he'll have a lot of fun since he's such a collector already.

Brodie doing some last minute wood gluing.  He was such a big help throughout this whole process!

And that's that!  Now I just need some chickens!  This Coop is designed to hold 5-6 chickens, but I think we're only going to look for 3-4.  I'd prefer to just get hens that are already laying eggs, but if we don't get any this winter, then we'll start out with some baby chicks in the spring!