This year the summer is buzzing with – in addition to sun and heat – chickens! Thomas has built the finest hen house a couple of years ago that we finally this year will be able to fill up with residents. Since I have have been looking forward to having chickens in the garden for
My finished chicken coop looked really nice when painted and set up in the back of my previous garden back in 2010. In order to save time and paint I only painted the coop on the outside, and left the wood untreated on the inside, which should also provide a more natural environment for the
I have collected the chicken coop blog post series in an ebook making it much easier to read. The ebook is called How I Built My Chicken Coop and you can download it for free from this link: How I Built My Chicken Coop (Download time is about 1 minute with a 5 Mbit/s Internet
The smart thing about this particular chicken coop design is that the roosting part can be removed from the coop for cleaning. A special box with a perch for roosting will catch any excretions from the chickens: The roosting box fits perfectly behind the roosting hatch, in the roosting area on top of the egg
To help the chickens get in and out of the coop I have built a small ramp for them: This is one of the last things to build before the coop is finished and ready for chickens, except a roosting box. Before painting I gave the coop a layer of wood primer: It’s thin and
I’m using two latches on the front chicken hatch as an extra precaution should a predator find its way to the hatch. Our cat has been caught doing crazy stuff too so I think it’s better having two locks 😉 : This is the normal position of the hatch during daytime. There’s actually a string
It’s time for mounting latches and locks on the door and hatches. I’m going for cheap, wooden ones as these will be sufficient for the chicken coop. On the main door in the side wall of the coop I’ve mounted a wooden latch at the top of the door because this is just irresistible to
I found a hole in the clouds and removed the tarpaulin to work on the chicken coop project, so now the window has been mounted with two screws: I thought the chicken hatch was ready for mounting but of course it wouldn’t fit in the hole in the gable 😉 Off with the plywood and
The weather is still unstable and it’s no fun getting all my tools out and freeing the chicken coop from the tarpaulin protection just when the rain starts pouring down. I did manage to find a hole in the clouds and mount the roosting hatch though: I went to the DIY shop to buy screws
I took a week of vacation last week away from home and the garden. I was a bit worried what would happen if my garden was left by itself at the peak of the season. The weather turned out to be windy and wet (and so did my vacation 🙁 ), and below is a
