Chicken Coop Plans

One of the first orders of business for our new house is to get baby chicks. I'm probably going to purchase them from a local feed and seed and keep them in a brooder for several weeks until they're old enough to go into their big girl coop. My plan is to get an even dozen as a few may die in the early days. Originally I was going to order from Murray McMurray Hatchery, but they require you to order no less than 25 chicks. Unless my MIL wants to start butchering this year, we don't need that many. I'd like to get Rhode Island Reds, Black Stars and one Orpington rooster, but am not sure if I can be that specific with local stores. The RIR and Black Stars are supposed to be really good layers and the Orpington roosters are supposed to be super friendly. I'm also thinking of getting some Guineas, too, but will have to do some more research on them. They are great at pest control (including snakes) and are good alarms systems.

Rhode Island Red

Black Star

Guinea

I did quite a bit of research online and in library books to figure out how to design our coop. I waffled back and forth over whether to go with a movable chicken tractor or a larger stationary coop. The benefits of the stationary coop are 1)we can make it as large as we want it, 2)I can include an attached storage area with shelving and feed storage, and 3)we can eventually hook up electricity and plumbing. The downside is that 1)we have to be more certain about their pasture sizes so they don't overgraze, and 2)once it's built, it's not going anywhere. The benefits of the chicken tractor are that they're portable so we can easily move them to fresh pasture as needed, including to unused garden beds that need tilling and they can follow the cows and horses to break up manure. The downside is that we can't hook up plumbing and would have to use extension cords if we want electricity.

I think the portability of the chicken tractor won out in the end, though. I've gone back and redesigned the coop (it was originally 10'x16' including a 10'x6' storage area), making it an 8'x6' so it will fit through our pasture gates. One of the shorter walls will have a 5' wide by 1' tall clean-out hatch at floor level. The roosting bars will be in a ladder formation over that area with poultry mesh stapled to the underside so the girls can't get into their droppings. The roost will have a hinge on it so it can be raised for whole-coop cleaning. The opposite wall will have the people door and possibly a window. One of the long sides will have a homemade feeder that will hold 30-70 pounds of feed, with smaller feeders on either side to hold their supplements. The other wall will have their pop-up door, nesting boxes, and the waterer. I'd like to have windows on each of the long walls for ventilation during the warmer months. The flooring will be solid linoleum to aid in cleanup.

This is similar to what our coop will look like, but bigger.

I'd like to have a hinged awning on one of the long sides so the girls have shade. It would be nice to be able to put a smaller roost and their waterer under there during the day. I'd also like to put a loft area in the roof for small storage. The coop would have wheels on all four corners and we would either move it by hand or hook it up to the tractor. I'm also planning to build an 8'x8' fenced run. This would be attached to the coop once it's in position each day and the whole thing would be moved as needed.

We may end up tearing the run-in shed down and using the lumber for the coop. I'll post pictures as we build it and do a coop tour once it's completed. I'm so excited!