The Chicken Coop of My Dreams

Chickens. I never would have thought that I would be such a fan of chickens but it turns out they are incredibly entertaining, easy to care for and don't live like a bunch of freeloaders since they contribute in more ways than one.

I was not an inexperienced chicken owner when Jesse and I met. I had had a couple of different coops over the years and even converted a portion of my shed into a coop myself. You can read up on chickens and how to care for them but you learn a lot once you actually have chickens. It came to be that Jesse built me an absolutely incredible chicken coop for me a few years back, the best I've had and I loved it. He has said that out of all the things he's built, this was his favorite.

For anyone who has had chickens you know that when Spring rolls around, chicken fever strikes! We had moved into a rental house that sat on 1/3 of an acre in Golden and had plenty of space so sure enough, Spring came and I very badly wanted some little baby chicks in our lives. We welcomed Olaf, Günter, Nighthawk, Dragon and Chicka.

If you've ever built a coop, you always try and do it on a small-ish budget. It just so happened that on the side of the house was an old never to be used again dog house. Ding! Maybe we could fix it up and turn it into the coop! Being in a rental isn't ideal when you decide you want a mini farm but we confirmed with the owners it was ok and they didn't care what we did with the dog house.

I don't have any pictures of the dog house before we tore it apart but it sat on the "unused" side of the house and was falling apart, living in weeds and was probably covered in more spiders than I care to think about. After closer examination we realized that the roof and floor were the only things salvageable. We tore that thing down and carried each piece to its destination. They were HEAVY and needed a sturdy grip but when I say "carried", it was me attempting to touch it with only my pinky finger, having a heart attack the whole time because I was terrified of what bug or creature might come out at any moment. Jesse was really lucky to have me as such a great helper.

The coop was going to be 4ft by 4ft since our "prebuilt" roof and floor were that size. This was plenty of room for our 5 chickens since they were going to be outside a lot and in the yard. As mentioned, I had learned things during my experiences of having chickens therefore, my coop required the following:

• Poop tray under the roosting bar. If you ever build a coop, do not skip this, it will be your favorite feature!!!

• Covered shelter outside

• Easy access to refill food/water

• Plenty of nesting boxes. No one wants to hunt for eggs around the yard like it's Easter. Been there, done that.

• Insulation in the walls. There have been times where I have brought my chickens inside in dog crates for the night because it has gotten so darn cold outside.

• Windows

• Locks and locks and locks

Away Jesse went! He spent a weekend working on it making it sturdy enough for a tornado in true Jesse style. I tease him about the fact that anything he builds will last hundreds of years to come but really I am grateful that he takes so much pride in what he builds.

I didn't want to cover the chicken run with a roof so to get covered shelter, we ended up setting the coop onto 4x4 posts in each corner. This gave our feathered friends access to a bit of outdoor space even when there was snow on the ground and made it easier for us to access the inside of the coop since it would be taller. A gate was added to the front of this space which was our access to their food and water that was kept under the coop. Since the walls were 4 ft., that gave plenty of room to put in 3 nesting boxes instead of 2. We got creative and found a budget friendly solution for the insulation. Corrugated cardboard. For a coop that only needs some insulation, it was a great solution. It was placed between the plywood walls and would not be subject to moisture.

Now for my favorite parts of the coop, the poop tray and the windows! Aside from letting some light and warmth into the coop I really just wanted to be able to hang flower boxes in front of them. The real winner though is the poop tray! I am telling you this will keep you from constantly having to clean the floor of the coop and will save you on pine shavings. Scooping out the floor can be time consuming and it's not fun but a poop tray?? Open the door pull it out, dump it, done. I swear it's the key to making chickens so darn easy! If I had known years later I would be writing about this, I would have taken more pictures. Since the chickens moved into the coop when they were still young only a small roosting bar low to the ground was built at first and we built the roosting bar and poop tray once they got bigger. Once built, the roosting bar was set high in the coop and was above the nesting boxes. A "platform" was placed underneath that we could put the tray on top of. It was built so they had room to fly on up to it but was still wide enough to catch what it needed to.

Another cool thing we did....we put the chicken door to the run on the floor of the coop! With a little pieces of wood around the edge to keep the shavings from being knocked out all the time, it was awesome. We had a door on it that we could close at night but since our coop was secure with locks, in the summertime we left it open so the chickens could get outside as soon as they woke up. Locks got put on EVERYTHING! The gate to the run, lock. The gate to the underneath of the coop, lock. The doors to the front of the coop, lock. The chicken door inside the coop, lock. Why? Because racoons are assholes! Chicken wire was not good enough either, hardware cloth is the way to go for the exterior run. Harder to work with but worth it to keep those ladies safe.

I painted it in my colors and after all this what do you have? The coolest chicken coop in all the land and happy healthy chickens that provide you with eggs, yard upkeep and hours of entertainment!

When we bought our house and moved we couldn't bring it with us since the new house didn't meet the requirements to keep chickens. I'm sure one day once our house has a taller fence that you'll see a new coop be built and it will probably be the same colors ;-)