We have chicks!

But they’re actually not that exciting at the moment, so this post isn’t really about them. It’s about the chicken coop that I need to have ready for them in about a month.

They say you can build a chicken coop out of pretty much anything, especially here in California where it rarely gets below freezing or above 80 degrees. But our suburban lot is less than a quarter acre and we share fences with 5 different neighbors, so I want to have something neat and tidy looking to hopefully minimize the likelihood of complaints as much as possible. I also figured that trying my hand at a nice-ish little coop would be a fun project, and maybe good practice for a future kid’s playhouse or something.

I did some poking around the internet, and holy cow are there tons of gorgeous DIY chicken coops out there! I did my best to keep track of what would work best for my situation, and then I started drawing up my own plans. Here’s what I came up with:

I wanted to keep costs down at least a little and also try to keep the thing from being super heavy, so I’m going with 2×3 studs and trying to keep the number of boards for framing to an absolute minimum. A lot of coop plans I saw used 2x4s AND plywood for the walls, but that sounded like crazy overkill for my situation. I also have a pile of old but serviceable fence slats in my back yard from a previous owner, so I’m going to grab a bunch of them to use as siding.

The chickens will only be “free ranging” around the back yard when I’m here to keep an eye on them, so I’m also drawing up plans for a secure run for them to hang out in during the day. I want to get the coop finished first though.

I managed to get a little bit of building done in the last few days, so here’s the base! I’m planning on sticking it directly on the ground. It’s made out of pressure treated 2x4s, so hopefully it won’t rot away too fast…

I’ve started work on the walls, but I’m going to need a day without rain (and with Dave available) so we can pull the table saw out and cut the plywood, since I’m using it for the floor and the walls will then get screwed down after the floor is attached.

Gotta get on it, the clock is ticking…