This great-looking chicken coop is unfortunately neither easy nor cheap, but it is so fine-looking that we felt compelled to include it.
It took our two neighbors about two days (sixteen hours x 2 bodies) to construct and paint it, which is a little more labor intensive than we tend to recommend. But again, the end-result, we feel, justifies the extra time and cost put into this chicken coop.
The materials cost was a total of $730. This included the wood, the hardware, screens, and paint.
The face wall (bottom of floor plan) will have two small windows with a windowed door in the center. This part will be the “front” of the house and provide its cosmetic face. This does a lot of the work of the good looks we mentioned earlier, and gives the coop it’s “homey” feel.
It is important to provide for a windward wall to have fewer openings. This will give the chickens more protection from the harsh winter chicken-bone-chilling winds. In this plan, the wind is Westerly.
Opposite the windward wall is another largely blank wall.
Lastly, the back wall. It is important to open the south wall to as much sunlight as possible. This will help gain passive solar heat during the cold months and go a long way to keeping your chickens toasty and comfy all winter long.
time to construct: 32 man-hours
cost to construct: $730
Below are two pictures of the finished product. Stay tuned for pt.s 2 (construction) and 3 (interior views), coming soon.
