Chicken Chatter: Tour the Chicken Coop

Our chickens have been enjoying life in their coop for about 5 months now.  I thought I would share pictures of the coop I designed to help inspire others thinking about backyard chickens!  The coop is elevated off of the ground, and has a footprint of 4'x8'--this should be enough room for up to 8 chickens.

Inside view of the coop (with young chickens!). A feeder and
waterer are located on the side farthest from the nesting boxes.
You can also see one of the 2x2s we used as roosts.

Here you can see some external features of the coop (and
my handy helper!).

Here is a view of the open nesting boxes.

This entire wall is a hinged door to make cleaning easier. Also,
the nesting boxes have a hinged door for easy egg access.

The coop door folds down onto the ladder, forming a landing
for the chickens to walk out onto.

The chickens enjoy the chicken-height window in the coop.

They learned to use their ladder quickly!

So far I am very happy with the coop. I am confident that it is safe and predator proof.  The floor of the coop has a water-resistant layer, and right now we're using sand instead of wood chips.  The sand stays cool and dries really quickly, so I think it is a good choice for bedding especially in the summer.

One thing I may do differently is put one more window on the run side of the coop so the chickens have more opportunities to look outside in the evening.

Want more information on building your own backyard chicken coop for any size flock? Check out the coop design page on the Backyard Chickens website!