Our chickens have a decent coop, but it’s time for some upgrades to make it a better place to be in the winter and summer.
The Goals
- Room for 10 to 25 hens.
- Cool in the summer, dry and closed up in the winter.
- Predator-proof, with no gaps anywhere.
What’s Changing
The roof. Everything gets a white metal roof: the henhouse and the whole run. It’s a ridge roof at a 4:12 pitch with an 8″ overhang all the way around and a vented ridge, so the hot air that collects at the peak has a way out. No gutters; the rain just runs off the edges.
The size. The henhouse is 8 × 10 ft and the run is 16 × 10 ft. The henhouse stays smaller than the run, since the birds only sleep and lay in there.
Inside the henhouse. A bank of 9 nest boxes, three by three, with a sliding panel on each column that drops at dusk so nobody sleeps in the boxes. Tiered roosts along the back wall with a droppings board underneath, which makes cleaning a lot easier.
The run walls. Half-inch hardware cloth all the way around with a buried apron, so nothing digs in. The lower half of each side is solid plywood all year. The upper half is a panel hinged at the bottom: bolted up in the winter so the run is fully enclosed, folded down in the summer for the breeze.
The door. The gaps around the screen door get closed for good, with wood stops, a strip of flashing on the hinge side, a threshold and a door sweep. The strips of bare wire beside the door get covered with plywood, too, so winter rain and wind stay out.
Water and cooling. The waterer hangs in the shade of the run instead of the henhouse, and a misting line runs along the run for the hottest afternoons.
See the Plans
The full plans are here: Eckert Ranch Coop Upgrades. There’s a 3D model you can spin and zoom (try the Inside and Door buttons), dimensioned drawings, and a close-up of how the run panels and the door work. And yes, there are little chickens walking around the bottom of the page. Click one.
What It Costs
All in, it’s roughly $2,600 to $4,300, done in phases. The roof comes first, since it makes the biggest difference before next summer, and that part runs about $800 to $1,250.
