It’s mid-November, and our leaves (especially around the farmhouse) have really just come down. So, naturally, we have to rake them up, right? And it’s an all-day task, right? Well, not exactly!
Sucking up those pesky leaves
About three years ago, I bought an amazingly inexpensive tool that has been such a help each fall: it’s an electric, corded leaf blower with a twist: it blows, but it also sucks leaves into a bag, mulching them on the way. This blower was under $100; one of the best tools I’ve ever invested in!
Brief Digression: Deep Litter
At Storybook Farm, we practice the deep litter method for bedding. In case you’re never heard of this, here’s a brief summary of how it works. Basically, you make compost inside your coop by combining elements that will break each other down naturally. The elements you need are three: carbon (usually shavings or other bedding elements, like pine needles or dried fall leaves), chicken poop (nitrogen), and tiny microorganisms that live in soil, leaves, and all living organic materials (these break down the combined carbon and nitrogen).
First, you put down bedding and make sure that the microorganisms are present (I had to add dirt to my wooden coop floor the first year; now I add fall leaves and they do double duty.) Then, allow chickens to poo. The carbon absorbs wet fecal materials and interacts with solid poo such that the poo dries out and (if left alone) the carbon elements will harden and cake. This is why you must turn your bedding weekly.
Each week, you add a light layer of carbon (say, shavings or dry leaves): about an inch, tops. Then, you fork it over and thus renew your bedding—or you get the chooks to do so for you by throwing treats down first, and then new shavings on top. When you put down seed treats first, your chickens will scratch and dig looking for the treats and turn the bedding pretty well for you (as long as it hasn’t been that long since it was last turned allowing it to cake badly.
Every month or so, I make sure I go in and give it a deep and thorough turning. Light and fluffy, and over the months, increasingly deeper, is this bedding. It smells great and is easy peasy for the busy chicken farmer to maintain, which is especially welcome when cold sets in. (Bonus: bored chooks in winter really get into scratching for those treats!)
With employing the deep litter method, I deep clean my chicken coops twice a year: spring and fall. In both seasons, the all of the bedding comes out of the coop and goes onto the garden, enriching our soil. (Gotta love the circle of life!) So, each fall I need to renew my deep beds in the coops.
Let’s get back to today’s fun times.
First layer of bedding getting thin
For the first the last two years, we’ve sucked up/mulched fall leaves, and then transferred them into feed sacks for use as carbon bedding through the winter. This worked great. However, today I wanted to deepen the bedding in our new Family Coops.
There are seven of these small coops. This is our first year with them, and we just winterized them about two weeks ago. In the summer, these coops have an entirely open bottom (less work for me and great ventilation) but in the winter, open flooring is too cold! So, two weeks ago we spend a couple of hours opening up all the tarps and stapling down some landscape cloth, then putting down 2” of shavings on that. After 2 weeks, though, I could begin to see the landscaping cloth (see above picture), and knew I had to deepen the beds to get that great mulching process going. (Besides, there were no microorganisms in there yet.)
Leaves going into the nesting boxes
So, today was mid-40s and sunny, and the leaves were fresh fallen, but dry (very key that they be dry or they can mold quickly) so out came the handy sucker/mulcher machine, and away I went.
I put a bag of beautifully processed leaves in each coop. Unlike when we did the winterizing and had to get inside the coops to staple down the landscaping cloth, I didn’t have to remove the tarps.
I just opened the nesting boxes and shook the bag of mulch inside. (This was an advance over previous years where we’ve had to transfer the mulch to bags and then to the coop.)
Then, I used our “grabber” tool to push them further into the coops and spread them a bit. I left a generous supply in each nesting box as well, just to make things more cozy for my hens at night.
Coop with new bed of mulched leaves
When I got done, I felt like I had made such a deal! I had gotten the fallen leaves off the lawn, I had mulched them, and then (with very little effort) I doubled the coop bedding in each of seven coops and didn’t have to do the tiresome step of putting mulched leaves into bags for storage. Woot! I call that a win-win-win, and I’m smiling as I watch the happy chickens rooting around in the new fall leaves!
When I was first learning to keep chickens, I did a lot of research on coops. It was good that I did, because there are a surprising number of things to know that are not obvious to the beginner. There are a zillion plans and examples of chicken coops out there: the creativity of backyard chicken keepers is just as robust as it is in most hobbies! For the newbie, however, this variety = confusion, and often leads to regrets as the emphasis on certain features can be misplaced. That’s why I wrote this article!
1. Farmer First: What You Need
Feeding should be easy!
Whatever the design, it needs to be farmer friendly. Don’t build or buy coops that are hard to access for the following frequent activities:
Feeding
Watering
Accessing the floor of the coop for cleaning, or getting at sick/dead birds
Gathering eggs
Protection for your feed: a place to conveniently store feed in galvanized trash cans, or the like
Storage for chicken gear in off seasons
When looking at a coop plan or design, ask yourself how much effort it will take to service the birds and the coop floor. This is key to your longevity in (and enjoyment of) backyard chicken keeping.
So, if you’re going to have to crawl into the coop’s run, don’t use the plan.
If you can’t access inside the coop floor to clean it easily, don’t use it.
If feed and water are set outside (open to the elements) you’ll be wasting a lot of feed (it will go to rodents, to wild birds and animals like squirrels, and be ruined rain/snow).
If you have to stoop, or bend, or twist in order to feed and/or water, don’t use the plan.
2. What Chickens Need
Convert a shed by adding windows
In order of importance:
Fresh water (preferably cool in the summer, and definitely not frozen in winter)
Appropriate feed (the type changes three times over the life of a chicken: starter, grower, layer feeds)
Enough floor space inside the coop for the number of chickens you keep
A roomy place to run safely outside the coop (can include free ranging): a run
Bugs, grasses, seeds (and other natural foods) in addition to commercial feeds. For some, this means using chicken tractors that can be moved easily. For others, free ranging is the answer.
They need to be kept safe, especially at night: their coop/run need to be secure from predators.
Their preference for night time is to roost (ideally on wide boards, like 2 x 4’s, turned sideways) in a draft-free zone (especially important in winter) at least 15″ and no higher than 3′ above the floor.
Hens will lay on the ground, but if you care about harvesting eggs, provide one nesting box per every two hens.
A clean environment. This point takes in the absence of parasites, the management of the chickens’ bedding, and the condition of their nesting boxes.
It also refers to the fact that the coop must be well ventilated, offering fresh air that is free of amonia buildup. This means that a coop will be far more open to outside air than most beginners think, especially in winter months. Think about vents to outside air being both up high and down low, but not in the middle of the coop.
Blankets, sweaters, or tightly closed-up, or heated, coops. We get cold in winter, but chickens have feathers. If they have broad perches, they tuck their feet up under themselves in extreme cold. While some breeds have large combs and wattles that can be frost bitten, almost all of them are way more cold hardy than beginners dream.
Frozen or dirty water.
Drafts: ventelation is one thing; drafts are another. Learn the difference!
Aesthetically pleasing coops: those are for your enjoyment, not theirs. They don’t care how cute their coop is, and you can spend many more dollars than you need to on cute coops. Just sayin’. 😏
Over crowded (allow minimally 4 sq. ft./large fowl chicken inside and 10 sq. ft. of run) and/or dirty coops that reek of ammonia (which will sear their lungs and shorten their lives). This is where ventilation comes in again! Can’t really stress this one enough.
A place where they can be pounced on by dogs, hawks, or other predators by day. Most people in neighborhood settings need to cover their runs with wire and use sturdy wire to construct them.
4. Nice Frills and Extras
A light inside the coop on a timer in winters — if you want to try to boost egg laying rates. It doesn’t always work, though.
Heated bucket waterers with nipples: also nice for a farmer in winter. Be sure to check regularly to ensure that it’s working properly.
Automatic watering systems in summer: however, be careful that the ease of this amenity doesn’t lull you into a false sense of security. You need to check that it’s working daily. Fresh, clean water is the single most important element of your chicken’s diet.
Automatic pop door: these are expensive and, again, need to be checked to make sure that they don’t shut too early and leave chickens outside.
A cute coop that makes your neighbors smile. While the chickens don’t care, the neighbors might. Making your coop pleasing to look at (using a coat of paint even on pallet coops can do wonders) can go a long way to buying good will for your flock. The reverse is also true.
5. Building Your Own vs. Buying
In our experience, diy coops are always cheaper than purchased ones. A lot cheaper!
You don’t need mad carpenter skills to get the job done. Again: simpler is better, and farmer friendly is the key!
Check into hoop coop designs: these are by far the most weekend warrior friendly coops to build, and are usually the most economical as well. (We offer plans for a small one that meets all of the criteria above, and you can find examples of larger ones on our Pinterest boards — and more — by searching for Storybook Farm Poultry.)
Our hoop coops
If you have six or fewer birds to house, you might want to consider building a design that we’ve come to love. We practice clan breeding with five carefully selected hens and one rooster per coop. They’re pictured at the right. They take us about two good days to build (using average skills) and cost around $80 if you have to buy all the materials new. They are the easiest possible coops to service, work well in hot and cold weather, are extremely clean and well ventilated for birds (none needed for humans) and have the elegance of simplicity. We think they’re pretty cute, too! You can read details about this design here. We sell highly detailed plans for constructing them at our store, here!
This year (2017), we are working on expanding our flocks and taking on new breeds. Our goal is to create three “families” (or clans) per breed of chickens that we raise. This enables us to preserve genetic diversity without needing to import “new blood” every couple of years. We have a large garden (1800 square feet) and are cross fencing it into interior pens with hoop coops ringing the exterior while reducing the area we’ll use to raise food. This past week, we spent a few days building the prototype coop. We are thrilled with the results, as are the lucky Light Sussex birds who giving it its shakedown cruise. Come, take a peek!
General Parameters
This coop’s wire floor is 4′ x 6′. It has two 6′ long 2 X 4 perches (mounted sideways so birdies can tuck their toes in on cold winter nights). It has three nesting boxes, and below these is a food and water station. We plan to put 6 birds (one cock and five hens) in each of these coops, but its maximum size according to normal chicken math (because they will have outdoor space as well) is 12 large fowl.
Both ends of this coop are made from one 4′ X 8′ sheet of exterior grade 1/2″ plywood. We paint the edges, and then encase them in old garden hose shells (or duct tape) in an effort to preserve their life span. The middle two ribs of the coop are made from bent 10′ metal conduit. These are attached by setting them atop 10″ carriage bolts and wiring them to poultry netting. They end up being slightly taller than the ends, but this helps shed rain and snow, so we don’t cut them down. The nesting boxes/feed stand are all made from an additional half-sheet of exterior grade 1/2″ plywood.
About Tarps
Coop covered in silver tarp before modification.
In the prototype design, a silver tarp covered the coop, providing shade in the summer and protection from drafts in the winter. While this will work great, sometimes necessity is the mother of invention! We ordered 7′ X 10′ tarps, but (surprise, surprise) those are not the finished dimensions of the tarp — oh, no! They are actually 6′ 5″ X 9′ 6″. Grrrrr~ Let the imitator of our coop beware!
Luckily, I know how to sew, and I had some heavy duty vinyl left over from a different project. I cut the tarp and sewed in a clear panel (see picture right). We carefully considered how high this panel should go. We wanted to have plenty of shade for the birds in hot summer weather, but allow sunlight in (for warmth and increased egg laying) in the winter.
Tarp modified with vinyl panel
My husband calculated beautifully. The clear panel is south facing, and the high summer sun barely kisses the uphill perch, while leaving more than half of the coop in shade. In the winter, the sun will slant lower, filling the coop with light and warmth for much of the day, yet the birds can still go outside if on those rare, freaky days it gets too hot.
Yay for mistakes, huh? (If you are imitating us but don’t sew, a wee bit more expensive (but effective) option would be to purchase a clear tarp and an opaque one, and lap them so that the clear tarp would show similarly to the picture, right. (We have tried duplicating the sewing results with duck tape, and it doesn’t work, alas.)
More recently, we have made a great discovery for non-sewers, though! We have used a corrugated plastic panel and put the tarp over top. It works great! On the left is a pictur of one in production.
Under the tarp (as you can see in the picture at the top of this post) the coop has 24″ poultry netting lining both sides of the tarped area. The wire is laced to the conduit ribs (stabilizing both wire and ribs). This netting adds a layer of protection for the birds (especially at night) from raiders — around here, it’s usually raccoons — and also allows us to safely raise the tarp six inches or so on hot summer nights so that breezes can cool the coop. We considered putting netting all the way around the hoops, but rejected it because we wanted a way to access the coop (without installing a door) for winterizing. When we need to get inside the coop body (for winterizing, say, or to do deep cleaning in spring), all we do is shoo the birds out into their pen, close the pop door, remove the tarp, and work on the coop.
One more note on tarps: the one pictured advertized grommets every 18″. This is fine on the sides of the coop, but not good enough for the front and back (the 10′ sides). In these pictures, you can see the tarp as it came to us. However, my plan is to install grommets every 9″ on the next tarp we use. They are easy to put in — no sewing required! You can get grommets at some hardware stores, but even more reliably at sewing supply (fabric) stores.
Mobile or Not: Your Choice~
We are making these coops stationary, mounting them 18″ above the ground around our garden perimeter, but they are easily modified to become chicken tractors by adding wheels to the back side floor framing and repositioning the wire floors, attaching them to the bottom of the floor framing instead of on top, as we did. Such tractors would be light weight and can be easily moved by one person, especially if one added a cross piece between the two front “handles.” I am 5′ 2″ and, though I can carry this coop with my husband, I cannot reach the 4′ span. A cross piece here and wheels in the rear would make moving this coop a breeze, even for me!
Pop door
In our application, we’ve cut a hole in our garden fence the size of the pop door. (If your eye tells you that the coop is not quite level or lined up, you are accurate! What you need to know is that the land is sloping quite a bit and the garden fence follows the lay of the land. The coop floor — and perches and nesting boxes — are level.)
We first intended that the ramp would be the door. However, in refining our design, we came up with the current design (of standing at the back of the coop and operating the door from there) so the ramp became stationary. Therefore, on this version, we filled in the space we had first cut out with a piece of plywood, and then painted it red. In future versions, the cut out will be 1′ square, so the front will be solid except for that low opening. You could build this coop either way, or without any ramp at all, if it functions as a chicken tractor and sits on the ground.
We cut another another hole in our garden fence under the pop door and put wire to the ground under the coop’s frame so that our birds get even more space to enjoy that is shaded: under the coop! This has the added benefits of 1) more greens for the birds, 2) less trouble for my husband to mow, in summers, 3) the dogs can’t run under the coop for shade and scare the chickens half to death, and 4) in winter, the ground under there stays clear of snow so the chickens can get out more often! Word of advice, though. When introducing (especially young) birds to the coop, don’t allow them under it at first or you’ll have a hard time training them to go in at night! (Ask me how I know this… no, don’t.)
Stand in One Place and Do All the Chores? Yes, Please!
To continue: the coop’s pop door that is operated from the coop’s back side by a clothesline. The farmer, standing in front of the nest box and feeding station at the coop’s back, can 1) collect eggs, 2) open/close the pop door, and 3) feed and water the coop’s occupants.
We prefer to hand water, feed, and regulate the door ourselves daily (morning and evening) because we both battle rats and don’t trust automation. However, one could rig these coops with an automatic pop doors and watering systems, or bucket waterers.
There are two details to notice about how the pop door cord was constructed:
Detail: hose covering and PVC elbow
1) On the front of the coop, we were concerned about how the cotton cording would hold up, and/or operate when wet, if we just ran it through the hole without a pulley. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find a pulley that mounted easily the right way. In the end, we used a 1/2″ PVC elbow (pictured right) as a guide/preserver of the cording when running the line up from the pop door and through the drilled hole in the front face of the coop.
Detail of hole, cleat on farmer side
2) As you can see in the detail picture at the left, the line that then comes through the space at the top of the hoop coop (under the tarp) exits through a hole at the back and is cleated around two screws. (Be sure to put those screws about 6″ down from the top, or you’ll be fighting with the tarp each time you use it!) Because there is no downward pressure on the line in this area, we didn’t need to put the same PVC elbow, but we did insert a wooden toggle so that, when the cord shortens as the door is closed, the line can’t disappear into the coop.
Feed and Water Station Details
We prefer to not use electricity to heat water in the winter, so we have these shallow, thick yet flexible, rubber feed and water bowls (see below) which are easily dumped when frozen. In the dead of winter, I will use a wagon and go down the row of coops, popping out frozen water and replacing it with heated water morning and evening at least, and sometimes at noon. However, again, one could put a small nipple bucket with heater in the feeding area.
Detail: feed and water station
The bowls are wired off from the birds with 2″ X 4″ galvanized field fencing, curved in an “double S” format. The wire spaces are plenty wide for adult birds to put their heads through for feed/water, but do not allow for scratching of food or sitting on the water. (They can and do still fling it some, though.) This makes for less waste of food and purer water for longer.
Notes: Chickens regurgitate when they drink, so the water still needs changing morning and evening. Also, very young birds can go through these wire spaces. If I were housing juveniles in these coops, I would put a wooden panel on the back of the feeding station and remove the wire barrier until the babies were big enough that they couldn’t go through it.
Young Light Sussex eating
I dump the unused feed back into my metal trash can each night (even brushing spilled feed in as well) so that varmints have nothing to eat here. With the tarp in place, and nesting boxes above, shade keeps the water bowl from growing algea, and the overhang keeps food from being spoiled during rainstorms. I painted the floor of the feeding area in an effort to preserve the life of the plywood. If I was making this a chicken tractor, I think that I would put a lip on its back so that when I moved it, the bowls would stay put.
Nesting Boxes
nesting boxes and feeing station inside
The coop is designed for a family of 6-8 birds on our farm, but as I said above, you could house 12 here. With more than 6 hens, though, it might get a little tight when it comes to nest boxes. Because we anticipate housing only 5-6 hens and one rooster most of the time, we chose to provide three nest boxes. In our experience, multiple hens often choose to use the same box no matter how many are provided. We often find three to four eggs in one favorite box among our laying flock, but that is up to the hens!
The general rule of thumb is to provide one box for every two hens. Our boxes are raised, which laying hens prefer, and the lip in front of them keeps the shavings that we put there to help with egg cleanliness in the boxes, and not falling through to the floor. We do have hens that will sleep in the nesting boxes, so they do need cleaning out regularly (not my favorite farm chore) but that’s so with every nesting box we’ve ever built.
Winter Modifications
We live in the mountains of WV, where temperatures do go to zero in some months of the winter. In the fall, staple feed bags or landscaping cloth over the wire floor of the coop and fill it with dried fall leaves and wood shavings to a depth of 4″. Deep litter will result, insulating and remaining in the coop until spring (with monthly additions), when we will remove the barrier and the coop will become self cleaning again.
In winter, we also staple a clear vinyl flap or landscaping cloth to the back of the feeding/water area in order to cut the flow of winter winds into the coop. It’s great to have the vinyl in the back and on the side so that I can look out at any time and see how my chickens are doing, but an opaque landscaping cloth flap works just as well. In the picture at the right, you see that we added a landscaping cloth skirt. This was actually added in summer because this run had zero shade. But, as winter came on, we left it there for added protection against the cold, both in daytimes and at night.
You can get more detailed information about winterizing in this post.
Want More Information?
How do you like our design? Do you have any improvements to suggest? Got any questions you’d like to ask? Leave them in comments.
Update: We’ve now constructed seven of these coops, and have used them for over 6 months. We are thrilled with the results, so we’ve written up a detailed set of plans for those who are interested!
If you would like to purchase plans, click here. They are $25/set (delivered via PDF), have lots of detailed step-by-step instructions and pictures, and include a bill of materials.
The basic cost to construct one of these coops depends on how many of the materials you have on hand, and how much you need to buy, and where you live. For instance, you only need 6′ of four-foot galvanized wire per coop, but wire is sold in minimum rolls of 25′. If you’re just building one coop, that’s expensive wire! If you’re building eight coops, it’s cheap. (The good news on this wire is that you can also use it for the birds’ run as well.)
A ballpark figure for all materials purchased new, but assuming that you have tools needed for assembly, is in the neighborhood of $75-$100. (We’re building 12 of them, and they are costing us more like $60 apiece.)
More recently, we have made a great discovery for non-sewers, though! We have used a corrugated plastic panel and put the tarp over top. It works great! On the left is a pictur of one in production.
To continue: the coop’s pop door that is operated from the coop’s back side by a clothesline. The farmer, standing in front of the nest box and feeding station at the coop’s back, can 1) collect eggs, 2) open/close the pop door, and 3) feed and water the coop’s occupants.
We live in the mountains of WV, where temperatures do go to zero in some months of the winter. In the fall, staple feed bags or landscaping cloth over the wire floor of the coop and fill it with dried fall leaves and wood shavings to a depth of 4″. Deep litter will result, insulating and remaining in the coop until spring (with monthly additions), when we will remove the barrier and the coop will become self cleaning again.
How do you like our design? Do you have any improvements to suggest? Got any questions you’d like to ask? Leave them in comments.