Our First Chicken Coop

My husband, his father, and stepfather came over to help build our first coop.  (pictured below)
From my research, I decided I wanted to do the Deep Litter Method for our chickens.  Mainly because I know I was not the type of person that wanted to be cleaning out a Chicken Coop once a week. 

What is the deep litter method?

It's laying down pine shavings, straw, or shredded leaves on the ground of your coop.  Once your chickens have sufficiently pooped all over it, you add more "litter."  During this time, your Chickens are scratching it up and turning it.  If it needs extra turning, you can do that easily enough with a rake or pitchfork.

Some of the Benefits of Deep Litter:

1.1.  During the colder winter months, the litter and poop build up and gives off a wonderful heat that can give your chickens added warmth.
2.  You only need to clean out the coop once or twice a year
3. It's said it's also healthier for your chickens
4. It saves time and is less work
5. And, it's creating great compost

These were the main reasons I wanted to do it.

This was our coop in the beginning.  It has since seen many revisions and also held Rabbits.

My husband, being the manly man that he is.  Didn't feel the need to look up the deep litter method I was telling him about he heard my description and felt he knew enough to build the perfect coop.  He drew out a rough sketch for me on a piece of wood.  With every question I asked, trying to gain further understanding of what I was looking at, he grew increasingly more agitated and pretty much told me to wait and see!

Sadly, when all was said and done, I did not give him the reaction he was hoping for, the coop was incredibly taller than I expected.  I think if it had been closer to the ground, things could have been more easily adjusted and tweaked. Clearly, neither one of us did an accurate job of communicating. 
However, we did have a home for our chickens.  It wasn't what I planned, but I have since figured out how to live with it.

During the Spring and Summer, the compost and deep litter method is pretty much none excitant.  The flooring of the coop is mesh wiring.  So most of the poop goes through the floor.  But we do get some nasty clogged up holes that need to be raked off.  There is also nothing keeping the poop or straw that falls from the coop contained.  See that rake?  Every day I'm raking that nice neat pile back under the coop!  The chickens are constantly demolishing it

However, during the colder months, I came up with a great idea and surprised my husband by grabbing a tarp, cutting it in half and staple gunning the tarp all around the base of the coop.  I folded the bottom in toward the inside of the coop so that as the straw and poop fell through it would build up and hopefully aid in keeping them warmer during the winter.
When the spring comes, I rip off almost all of the tarp so I can shovel everything out and haul it over to our compost bin.  This also allows a gentle breeze to come up through the coop and keep the chickens cool during the hotter days.

The Coop

Let's discuss what you are seeing. This coop has two windows with covers that can be shut over them.  Off to the left is their "sun deck" and entrance.  We used the side rail from our kid's crib that we are not going to be needing anymore as a wonderful step ladder for them to get into their "Highrise Penthouse"  The roofing was free. It was laying around our property when we moved in. On the back of the coop is a door to make it easier to collect the eggs.

The tarp hanging over the roof was put up many months after the initial building of the coop.  We thought our chickens could use some shade, and more importantly protection from flying predators.  Lining the outside of the pen, I got a great deal at a local brick shop on these cinder blocks (less than $1 each)  that were damaged.  It's fantastic for holding down the fence, and hopefully, keep animals from digging underneath.  But let's be honest.  Why dig if you can climb?  The whole right side of the pen is open.  Path of Least Resistance I say.  Either way, I made those cinder blocks serve as many purposes as I could find.  I turned them into planters with loads of herbs that are good for our chickens. 
In theory, this Garden for Chickens is a great idea.  IF your chickens will allow the herbs to get a start growing!!
This Highrise coop has been good to us.  It's kept our animals safe, and dry.  We used it for a small time to house four rabbits.  We wanted to try raising them in a colony style dwelling.  But, they ate the dickens out of the interior, so we had to move them to separate cages.  If you look at the picture above with the tarp around the bottom, there is a long watering tube going into the coop.  It was a sad day when I had to move the rabbits from their palatial palace to a small metal cage.  But when you eat your home, you leave me no choice!  That is a story I will get into at a later date.
Up next, our 2nd attempt at a new coop.