Our version of a Carolina Coops Coop — Lynda Meyers and Company

In hindsight, we probably should have just had Matt DuBoise and his crew from Carolina Coops come out and build this thing for us. We have spent EVERY day for the past five weeks designing and building the Taj Mahal of custom chicken coops, and while I am absolutely in love with how I’ve been able to make it exactly the way I want it, it has been a THING, people. An all-consuming thing. It has also not been cheap. No pun intended.

And caring for the baby chickens, if I’m being honest has taken a lot more time and energy than I imagined as well. I believed all the people who said “You know, having chickens is really easy.” Maybe I’ll feel that way soon. I hope I will. Because up until today, when I was still putting the bedding inside the coop and setting up the panel heater and finishing the nesting boxes and glueing together the PVC feeding system and putting together the temporary watering system I was still thinking “Really? There’s still more to do?” OMG I just wanted to make it all stop.

I have been living, breathing and consuming chicken “content” for over two months now, starting with breed selection and color of eggs to trying to find someplace that wasn’t sold out of the darn things to standing in line for an hour and a half at the farm store - twice - to get our five chicks… it’s been an ordeal.

Having never been a chicken mom before, I wanted to do it right, so I did what I always do - I dove into research! Copious. Research.

Physical books, websites, YouTube, friends with chickens… More YouTube… In fact, I was THAT person on a flight from San Francisco to Santa Barbara and back, watching downloaded YouTube videos instead of taking advantage of the On Board Entertainment.

I have notebooks full of notes, and up until a few days ago, I had a greenhouse full of plants that were either grown or bought specifically FOR THE CHICKENS.

Chicken Math:

Ok, so at this point I should probably tell you their names: In alphabetical order starting with “F” we have Frankie, Gracie, Hazel, Izzy, and Jewel. Frankie is a Rhode Island Red, Gracie is a Gold Star, Hazel is a Sexlink, Izzy is an Easter Egger and Jewel is a Buff Orpington.

Five chickens. It was supposed to be “three, maybe four”. But that’s a story in and of itself. Our run could easily hold eight. The coop up to twelve. We’ll see how it goes with five. Chicken math and all…

Low Maintenance: Coop wise, I knew I wanted a deep litter system. In fact, a lot of the things I designed into this coop were to make it as easy as possible for someone else to keep an eye on things for us when we are gone. Hence the deep litter, which only needs cleaning once or twice a year and makes incredible compost in the meantime. I also wanted a couple of large PVC tube feeders that could be filled from the outside, and a 50 gallon rain barrel that feeds a water bar. This way no one has to go into the run to check the food and water status if they don’t want to actually interact with the chicks.

Roll-Away Nesting Boxes:

About the only thing we designed into our coop that Carolina Coops doesn’t currently offer is the roll away nesting box system for eggs, which has the nesting box at a slight incline so that the eggs roll down past a divider and the eggs stay cleaner (because they don’t get pooped on) and out of reach of potential peckers and “egg eaters”.

I know, right? Whew! I increased the height of the nesting box design to accomodate a ramp with a 12% incline like they use in commercial egg production facilities to make it easier for the eggs to roll down past a divider so that the chickens can’t get to them. This trial and error design was frustrating for my husband so I built a cardboard “model” and some wooden eggs to simulate the size, shape and ‘heft’ of a real egg and took it to my son who is a mechanical engineer to help sus out the details. Nothing like getting a little help from your friends!

The Plans:

Before you start thinking we are completely amazing, we didn’t design everything from scratch! We worked with two different sets of plans: One for a Board and Batten-Style coop we purchased on Etsy and another set we’d purchased previously for a run and combined them, but also made significant design changes to the roof, run and nesting boxes. My husband and I worked together on almost every aspect of design and building. It. Was. Exhausting. For me, anyway. He’s used to working that hard all the time. I’m not. In fact - I finally went for a massage today and was astounded at how badly my body needed that. My carpal tunnel is totally flared up in both wrists, my right knee is tweaked and I have an 8-inch bone bruise and wound on my shin from tripping over some rolled-up hardware cloth straight into the chicken ramp inside the run. But hey, them’s the breaks, right? At least this time I didn’t actually break any bones.

Here are the Coop and Run “Stats”:

The henhouse, or “coop” itself is 5 foot x 6 foot on an elevated base that is 24” high. Using the 4 square feet / hen calculation we would need 16 square feet in the hen house for 5 chickens and we have 30, so we’re doing good there. We also raised the walls by 2 feet so it’s tall enough to stand in if you’re a human and not a chicken, giving them even more room in there, should they want to throw a rager while we’re in Barcelona.

The main run is 5 feet by 10 feet (50 square feet) but because the coop is elevated they get to utilize the space under the coop as well which is an extra 30 square feet for a total of 80 square feet for 5 chickens. Using the typical 10 square feet of outside space / chicken, we’re well set up for any future chicken math that might occur.

Materials:

We used mostly 2x4s, plywood and t-111 siding for the coop construction while the run is primarily 2x3s. Metal roofing panels, hardware cloth only (because chicken wire might keep chickens in, but it won’t keep anything out!) and pressure-treated lumber where there is ground contact.

I am particularly proud of the 3 part Dutch Door I designed and built while my husband what out of town for a few days.

Dutch Door with chicken door / ramp at the bottom

This way you can open just the top to toss in some food or treats and the miniature Velociraptors can’t escape. It’s also super handy for going inside the coop to be with them but not accidentally locking yourself in there! You can keep the top part open and then reach the latch when you need to make your exit.

Chicken Door with Mini-Ramp: My favorite part of this door is the chicken ramp at the bottom: It folds down and has a little mini ramp on it so the chickens can get into a chunnel, chicken tractor or free range (not ours, but theoretically).

Predators vs. Free Range: Why in the world wouldn’t you let your poor chickens go free range? Aside from the fact that I don’t plan to have a rooster, I will give you four simple words: We have a whippet. He quite literally salivates, licks his lips constantly, and looses his shit every time he gets anywhere near them. Honestly, even with the hawks, eagles and owls that constantly patrol this valley, and the four labradors who don’t have a fence (nor any manners) next door, I might have considered some supervised grazing from time to time. Until I saw how Maverick absolutely loses his mind where the chickens are concerned. Sight hounds, amiright? He honestly cannot help himself. He’s bred that way. I get it. But I realized with some amusement yesterday that all the work I put into predator-proofing this structure was to keep the chickens safe NOT from the coyotes, foxes, cougars, bears or birds of prey we share space with, but from their very own home-boy, Maverick. Finn (the cat) was pretty interested in them as well, when they were babies. But he’s an indoor cat (see previous list of major cat predators) so I’m not too worried now. I mean, Finn definitely watches all the birds, all the time, but the chicks will be bigger than him soon.

Let’s talk predator-proofing:

We went with 1/2” hardware cloth everywhere, as well as a predator apron made of green pvc-coated 16 guage welded wire fencing that’s about 2 feet wide. I overlapped the edges and used poultry staples and tacked it every 5” around the entire base of both structures and then landscape staples at the outer edges to tack it down into the grass. The kind we bought had smaller, tighter rectangles on one side and then larger squares as it went out farther.

The theory is, something might want to dig under the coop to get to the chickens, but they’d have to dig starting 2-3 feet out from the edge and dig a long tunnel to get to them, and most animals just aren’t that determined.

To add insult to injury I then lined almost the entire perimeter with cinder blocks, that I planted all sorts of herbs, flowers and veggies in. The cinder block planters provide two-fold protection:

1) They’re heavy and they’re right up against the hardware cloth so provide an additional deterrent for animal predators.

2) The plants I chose will help deter pests, as well as being able to be snacked on through the hardware cloth or used to make medicine for them. Many of the herbs and flowers will be dried to make blends for the nesting boxes to keep things fresh.

Finished side view of cinder block planters over the predator apron

If you’re interested, here’s a list of what’s planted around my coop and run:

Herbs: Sage, Parsley, Dill, Peppermint, Lemon Balm, Wormwood, Lemon Thyme, Oregano

Flowers: Viola, Pincushion Flower, Nasturtium, Chamomile, Lavender,

Veggies: Kale, Endive, Spinach, Arugula,

Still to come: Red Malabar Vining Spinach and Passionflower Vine (Maypops) to grow against the coop on the south side and provide some edible shade, at least during the hot months of the year.

I also plan to eat many of the things we planted. They’re not just for the chickens!

Food and Water: As you can see below, the two 4” PVC feed tubes mounted to the outside of the coop that terminate underneath the run for their food to be protected from the weather, as well as the 1/2” PVC water bar mounted inside the run which currently is hooked to a bucket on the other side of the run but eventually will be attached to a rain barrel and gutter system which is still in the works.

Water Bar to 5 Gallon Bucket (Until we finish gutter and rain barrel installation)

I decided to use a 1/2” PVC pipe watering system with one cup-type waterer and 4 horizontal nipple waterers. As I assumed, the water cup gets nasty and needs cleaning out occasionally but I like having two different fresh water options for them. I had to build platforms near the waterer and the feeding tubes because they weren’t tall enough to reach them at first. As they grow I can take the platforms away, rather than having to move the tube systems.

Feed Tube is 4” PVC with a 90 degree elbow and a 45 degree elbow capped with an offset gutter adapter to keep it a little cleaner.

Inside the Coop: Bedding Choices / Ventilation / Insulation

Inside the coop we installed a large three section ventilation window with a solar exhaust fan, as well as having ventilation up high near the roof. Every opening got covered over with hardware cloth, and then I did a little whitewashing of the lower sections of wood for mite control. The base has 4 coats of Spar Polyurethane to prevent moisture from rotting the floor of our deep litter system.

I put a temperature probe in there and realized that although the coop was providing a wind break, the temperature was exactly the same inside as out. I wanted to do some insulating but wasn’t sure how to do it on the cheap, so I decided to use up our leftover siding pieces to Jenga together coverings for the insides of the wall which I then stuffed with straw for a little extra insulation. When I ran out of siding I stapled some leftover pieces of hardware cloth to the walls to hold the straw in. I’ll admit, it looks crazy in there now with all this straw sticking out everywhere but hey - this is no Parade of Homes chicken coop! (Insert imaginary GIF of my husband shaking his head and biting his tongue when he saw what I did in there) For the bedding inside the coop we’re using industrial hemp mixed with the leftover straw for now. Will go with all hemp in subsequent cleanouts.

The "Actual” Inside View (Livable space)

Straw insulation, plus industrial hemp bedding. Heater panel is by “Cozy Coop”.

I’ve covered over the nesting boxes for now until they’re old enough to lay eggs. Don’t want them getting used to sleeping / pooping in there! Nesting boxes are only for nesting…But speaking of that, here’s a little tour of our nesting box design:

I use a large cat carrier to transport them between the brooder in the garage and their new home, leaving them in there for a couple hours a day to get them used to it.

I’m going to stop here, lest this become a small book! If you have questions about the coop feel free to comment with them below. I’m new at this but will certainly do my best to answer the whys and wherefores. PS - Hazel says goodbye!

An Overview of “Our Version” of a Carolina Coops Chicken Coop and Run

Seed Snail Update #3