Keep Chickens!: Tending Small Flocks in Cities, Suburbs and Other Small Spaces (10 page)

The climate where you live will influence not only what breed of hens you get (see
chapter 6
) but also what kind of coop you build.

In colder climates, the henhouse should be equipped with a heat lamp for cold nights. It also should employ double-walled construction for additional insulation against the elements.

In warmer climates, the coop should encompass plenty of shaded areas. The henhouse should have windows that you can open on hot days for additional ventilation. You may want to design the henhouse roof so that it’s hinged to the frame instead of permanently affixed; you can raise the roof and prop it open for extra ventilation on especially hot, humid days. Another special option for a warm-weather coop might be an automatic watering system that ensures a continuous supply of fluids on the hottest days. If you’re keeping large hens, install a box fan in the coop to help keep your big girls cool. How do you know if your chickens are feeling too hot? Well, if you’re feeling too hot, chances are the chickens are, too.

A compact, warm-weather coop can be designed to be mobile. While mobile coops are most practical on larger parcels, they can also be used by suburban gardeners. The idea is to put the coop and chickens in one area, let them naturally compost and till the soil for a few weeks, then move the birds to another spot where the soil needs tilling and amending. This way, you (forgive the pun) get two birds in one shot — housing for your flock and year-round direct-soil composting.

A mobile chicken pen allows you to have your chickens “graze” different sections of your yard, tilling and composting the soil as they go.

Location, location, location
is the guiding mantra for real estate, no matter what type of building — a simple restored cottage, a sprawling Victorian mansion, or a chicken coop. In the long run, location matters much more than appearance.

If local code specifies certain setback restrictions, put these into play in your yard. You know about how large the coop needs to be (see
How Big?
). Eliminate from the list of possible sites those that won’t accommodate the coop without exceeding the setback boundaries. Depending on the code where you live, the boundary may be related to the nearest door, window, or property line of neighboring residents.

Common sense and courtesy dictate that you should locate the coop site as far away as you can from your windows and your neighbors’ windows. By practicing coop etiquette in the planning stages, you prevent the likelihood that the scent of summer-warmed chicken droppings will waft into any nearby windows — including yours. As an added preventive measure for my own coop, I planted jasmine and honeysuckle on one side of the henhouse and run. Their lovely and scented blossoms upstage any unlikely possibility of a whiff of chicken coop on a breezy day.

Make sure the proposed chicken run gets adequate amounts of both sun and shade, so if you’re not home during the day in summer, your chickens won’t roast inside their coop. Also make sure that the proposed coop is not sited on ground that’s lower than the rest of the yard. Otherwise, be ready to provide your hens with snorkeling equipment during rainy weather.

When you have settled on the most likely coop site, envision where you will put the door leading into the coop, making sure it will have plenty of room to swing out. You must give yourself access to the nest boxes (where hens lay their eggs), especially if you are building a short coop you can’t enter standing up.

Once you find the right site in your yard, use string or spray paint to outline the general size of the coop area on the ground. Double-check to make sure the run has enough room for each hen. Check the paint or string boundaries once and then again. If you are confident that the coop is the right size, is in the right place, and falls within setback regulations, then you’re ready to proceed with construction.

Chickens don’t care what their coop and henhouse look like, so long as their living arrangements are clean, dry, warm, easy to clean, and adequately ventilated. As you imagine your future coop, begin in your mind’s eye with a basic structure made from wood — a shed, an A-frame cabin, or an enclosed lean-to. Then let your imagination run free, like a chicken in an unfenced clover pasture.

Supplies and equipment for a simple coop and henhouse can run as low as $100. A larger, roomier coop, like the one I built, might cost a few hundred dollars. All supplies are readily available at any well-stocked hardware store.

To protect the floor of your henhouse from ground moisture, which leads to rot, you must keep it raised off the ground. Setting the henhouse on cement blocks will work. However, setting the house on a solid cement slab is better, because it insulates the birds from drafts and prevents incursions from tunneling rats. A cement slab can also serve as the actual floor of the henhouse; it’s easy to scrape and sweep.

If you decide to go with the cement blocks, make sure that the floor of the henhouse, when set on the blocks, is level. You may have to dig out around the blocks and fiddle with their placement to achieve a level footing.

If you choose the cement slab instead, you can pour it yourself (if you know how) or have a local contractor do it for you.

Poultry Tribune,
circa 1940.

The run can be constructed of chicken wire, chain-link fencing, or heavy-duty netting — anything that secures the hens away from outside dangers and predators, such as cars and neighborhood cats.

If you’ve ever fenced in a garden, you know that it’s tiring, sweaty work. In the case of the chicken run, you’ll need to make sure that the work is carefully done and the resulting fencing sturdy — you wouldn’t want an animal throwing itself at an unsuspecting chicken to hit the netting and knock it down. To be installed properly, chain-link fencing generally requires the expertise of a professional. A fence of chicken wire or netting can be a do-it-yourself project. However, if you’re uncertain of your carpentry skills, you may wish to have a contractor do the job for you. If you’re willing to brave the challenge, read on.

The fencing will be supported by a series of anchor posts spaced 3 to 4 feet (0.9–1.2 m) apart. The anchor posts will also support the roof rafters, so they must be placed symmetrically — each anchor post must have a corresponding post opposite it. Most of the coops I’ve seen use 2 x 4s as anchor posts. Cut the posts to the desired height, taking into account that they’ll be set 8 to 12 inches (20–31 cm) in the ground. You may wish to have the posts on one side be 6 to 12 inches (15–31 cm) taller than the posts on the opposite side, with the posts on the two remaining sides (if any) sloping from one end to the other. The difference in height will cause the roof, when fit on the rafters, to slope, forcing rainwater to drain off in the direction of the lower side.

Use a post-hole digger (available for rent from most garden centers) to dig a hole for each post. Prepare a batch of quick-drying cement. Place a post in its hole and pour the cement into the hole. Hold a level along the side of the 2 x 4 to ensure that it is upright, and hold the post steady in place until the cement sets. (This job is easier done by two people — but quite amusing if done by one and watched by another.)

Once the anchor posts are secure, cut and fit roof rafters over the anchor posts, spanning the gap between each anchor post and the one opposite it.

It’s usually easiest to staple the netting or wiring, attach the roof, and install a door and doorframe to the run
after
the henhouse has been framed. You’ll have to look at your particular setup and decide the proper sequence of steps.

A fully enclosed coop gives chickens freedom to roam without fear of predators.

The henhouse should be weather-tight and draft-free for the winter yet able to provide adequate ventilation for hot summer days. You can reduce the possibility of drafts by siting the henhouse adjacent to a protective wall, a fence, or shrubs. If this isn’t possible, create a windbreak by planting shrubs near the henhouse or putting up a wood fence on one or two sides of the coop area. If you keep your hens warm and dry in their run and henhouse, they’ll be happy and lay lots of eggs.

We’ve already discussed a few ways to keep hens cool in hot weather, but they’re important enough that I’ll mention them again here. To ensure your henhouse is adequately ventilated during summer, plan for one or more of the following:

• A roof that can be raised
  
• Windows that open on opposite sides of the henhouse
  
• Screened doors that open on opposite sides of the henhouse
  

However, make sure these openings are constructed so that they shut and seal tightly for cold or rainy weather.

If you’ve poured a concrete slab foundation, then the floor of the henhouse is good to go. If you’re going to set the henhouse on concrete blocks, you’ll need to frame a floor from 2 x 4s and place a large solid sheet (plywood works well) over the framework. For more detailed instructions on foundation work and framing, check out
How to Build Small Barns and Outbuildings
by Monte Burch (see
Recommended Reading
).

If the henhouse was designed to adjoin the coop, you may have installed 2 x 4 framing for the henhouse walls at the same time you were putting in anchor posts for the chicken run. If the henhouse is a freestanding structure, you’ll need to frame and roof it separately. If you don’t want to do a lot of measuring and cutting, consider buying a premade shed for use as a henhouse; you will most likely be able to put it together easily and then have to make only minor modifications to make it suitable for chicken living quarters.

If you’ve never framed anything before, I would suggest that now is the time to solicit the help of a licensed carpenter.

If the coop is close to your house and an outdoor electrical plug, you’ll be able to run extension cords out to the coop to power fans and heat lamps, when necessary. However, if your coop is located a good distance from your house, you may wish to hire an electrician to wire it. Contact the electrician early on in the construction process to find out at which stage of construction he or she would prefer to work.

Paint or seal all exterior wood. However, don’t use paint or sealant inside the henhouse — hens nibble on everything!

Inside the henhouse, secure a wooden dowel 2 inches (5 cm) in diameter to a wall, no less than 2 feet (61 cm) off the ground. Chickens always roost above the ground, for warmth and for safety. To the opposite wall, attach two or three nest boxes — little wood compartments — also about 2 feet (61 cm) off the ground. Chickens are quite secretive when laying eggs, and they like to find cozy, out of the way places to sit and lay. Make your nest boxes about the size of a shoebox stood on its narrow end, or perhaps a bit bigger for a “super-sized” hen. In colder regions, the back wall of the nest boxes should be against the inside wall of the henhouse, not against the wall exposed to the outside.