I teased you guys about this build several weeks ago on my Facebook page. So let me just say to those of you who sometimes wait forever for my reveals and then I don’t get to them for….forever, that’s because those reveals are things I’m doing for myself and not for a client and those things ALWAYS come last. It’s the downside to doing what I do but it’s really the only downside so I’m not complaining.
Several weeks ago we got these A-frame chicken coop plans and quickly realized we wanted to make some changes. The first thing we added was a door. Since our chickens essentially free-range they’d need a way to get out easily each day. The coop plans were originally designed to be a chicken tractor, meaning the chickens would remain in the coop and it would be moved around the yard as needed.
What would a door be without some adorable decorations? And a pink doorknob, of course.
I saw this ‘KEEP CALM and RAISE CHICKENS’ verbiage on Pinterest and I knew I had to have it somewhere on my coop. We cut out and routered the wood. I painted the front white and used my Silhouette machine to cut a painting mask. I went over the mask and the rest of the sign with Very Berry by Valspar then peeled off the mask to reveal the white underneath.
And of course any proper diva must have a grand staircase – also done is Valspar’s Very Berry.
I put herbs in with their pine shavings for bedding; Rosemary (pain relief, insecticide, respiratory health), Sage (antioxidant, anti-parasitic) and Mint (any kind – insecticide and rodent repellent). Yes. They are spoiled.
This night light doesn’t really serve any purpose other than it’s cute. If I had a million dollars I’d invent something that looked like this but had a powerful enough light to scare off a predator. But it sure looks cute, doesn’t it!
Three of the four roof panels lift up for easy cleaning and maintenance. I got these brushed silver handles from Lowe’s for under $2 each.
Three of the four panels are hinged and we added the roof cap to keep water from dripping down into the nesting box.
FYI. They do not make pink weathervanes. They barely make weathervanes with hens instead of roosters, which I would’ve gotten, but they’re hundreds of dollars! So I broke out my trusty spray paint, see my post on spray paint here and took care of business. Now, I know I’m working with a pink rooster here but I’m hoping no one will notice. Or care.
This is Phyllis, as in Phyllis Diller. I’m betting you can figure that one out without explanation. A Polish Crested Hen. When she was just nine weeks old she became very ill with something called coccidiosis and almost died. Thankfully I was able to save her. She has some kind of personality, that one!
This is Oreo, so named for her chocolate and white feathering. A Wyandotte. We’ve taken to calling her Double-stuft because she’s so fluffy. She was considering a peck at my camera lens in the first picture and was going for it in the second.
And here’s my sweet Tanny, a Buff Orpington. She was a bit camera shy today but she’s the first one to come running to Momma every time.
So, I know what you’re thinking, a southern girl with chickens. Shocker. But the truth is, until just 5 years ago, I had never lived outside of walking distance from the city. Not that you can’t have chickens in the city, but I didn’t. I have wanted them for years and recently took the plunge into chicken keeping. This flock of 3 was my first. I’ll have to tell you about my rescue flock of 10 another time!
Love your cute coop 🙂 I giggled when I saw your reveal was about chickens. We are bringing home our 42 chickies we just ordered from Ideal as I type this. This is our 3rd round of chickens. We are branching out with some new breeds this time: Ameraucanas, Black and Brown Sex Links, and Rhode Island Whites. We’ve don’t Rhode Island Reds before and loved their easy demeanor. We also got Barred Rocks which also have a mild demeanor. Keep those cute reveals coming!!
REALLY??!! 42?? I am so jealous! I am just praying somebody buys me an incubator for my birthday. I will be a hatchin’ fool!
I started with 3 of each of the breeds that were available the day we got these. Now I find myself wanting one of EVERYTHING! 😉
Darling! and Clever! Nice job!!!Your girls are spoiled!
Adorable! Love it.
I was just stopping by from Cleaver Chicks to say hello! 🙂 I LOvE your coop! We just built the same one with the same plans! 🙂 I was wondering, how do you keep the bedding in? My gals just kicked it all out onto the ground!
Do they kick it out of the door or the side panels? Mine are being good girls, I guess – no problems here. 😉 Though I will say that now that I have it built I can think of a hundred things I would like to have done differently to make it more keeper/chicken friendly. I use pine shavings, do you? If so, maybe try hay or wheat straw. Maybe make it a little harder for them to kick out? Good luck!
Stopped over via The Chicken Chick……cute chicken coop!!
Also found you via the Chicken Chick’s blog and so glad I did. Love the details of this coop and that sign on the front especially. Cute!
Thank you Cath!
Did you link up to our Blog Fest! I would love to have you join us: http://fresh-eggs-daily.blogspot.com/2012/09/farm-girl-friday-blog-fest-1.html
All linked up! Thank you!!
In from clever chicks blog hop. Great coop and tell the divas they look marvelous! I’m bookmarking your blog… I’m new to chickens and I’m sure you’ll see me dropping in reading your blog post.
Great! Look forward to you visiting again soon!
How fun, I can see the how much you love your chicken. So nice. Thank you for sharing.
Ahh thank you Kathleen! I really, really do love them. That’s for sure. Thanks for stopping by!
I love that you painted your weathervane pink! Thanks for linking up at the Clever Chicks Blog Hop this week; looking forward to another clever post next week!
Heeeeyyy!! The Chicken Chick! So honored you stopped by. And honestly I’m shocked they don’t make pink weathervanes! 😉
Btw, I know you get about a million people coming your way but Phyllis, my Polish, up there is the one you helped me save from Cocci with your advice and poop post. We are forever grateful!
What a cute coop! I have been wanting some hens forever, I just need to get busy on a cute coop! Loving your blog, now your newest follower!
Oh thank you! I’m so glad. Thanks for following along!
Thank you so much for marking your pics! I found you through a broken link on pinterest, but at least I could google you. And so glad I did! I love so many of your furniture make-overs, one of my favorite hobbies. And I also have polish crested chickens! We are sadly down to a hen and rooster, I am in serious need of some more hens to keep poor Gertie company. Anyway, just wanted to comment and say hi, and what a wonderful coop your girls have!
Oh wow! I’m glad I watermark them, too! And I’m even happier you took the time to track me down. I love the name Gertie. Reminds me of Drew Barrymore in ET. I wanted to be Gertie when I was little! 😉
I love what you did here! I came from Ana White’s website. I’m going to use that herb idea! Btw, this may be an impractical question because I’ve never raised chickens, but where do they lay their eggs? how do you collect them?
What did you use for your roof cap? I built a coop but as of now there is a gap in the top of the A frame.. thank you!
It’s an actual roof cap we purchased from Lowe’s. I am going to do an update to this post in the next couple of weeks detailing all of the changes we made, cost and where products were purchased. Thanks!
perfect I will be watching for that.. love the build! I may build a second coop just cause I love this one soo much!
Aww cool! Well you could always use this one as your hospital wing or nursery. 🙂
I just love this!! And the light…brilliant. You’ve got me super excited to finish my coop now =) Marcy
Ahh thanks! I can’t wait to see your coop. It’s is going to be super cute!
I absolutely love your coop! I just got 6 chicks a few weeks ago and I came across your design. I think we’re going to build one similar to yours but I am wondering how many chickens your coop holds? I want to make sure we build it large enough. Thanks!
Thank you! Personally I wouldn’t put more than 3 or 4 in there if built by the instructions. We modified ours quite a lot and even still I wouldn’t do more than that. I am planning an update post on this coop for Mon, Apr 21st with details on how and what we did differently, etc. If you’re able to check that out it might be helpful! Thanks again and good luck with your sweet chicks!
We are new to chickens and are getting our first three next week. We are currently building this coop but have a couple questions. What did you use for a roost? And where did you get your roof cap? Thanks!
First of all, congrats and welcome to the chicken keeper family! I have LOVED this journey with my girls (and the one little roo I never planned on having!). As you know this coop is not designed with an actual roost which at the time was not something I realized the chickens needed/preferred. To be honest, I didn’t even realize that this didn’t qualify AS a roost. If I had, I would have altered the plans even more than I did. The coop was complete by the time I realized a) how much they poop (even just 3 of them!) and b) they preferred not to sit in said poop at night. So what I did was place a 2×4 on its side across the middle and placed pine shavings at the back for nesting and a little sand (think litter) with a bit of pine shavings on top in the front for catching droppings. They could use the board to “roost” because I laid it on its side so they could stand up on it. Like I said, if I’d known from the beginning I would have altered the coop so that they could really roost and their droppings would go down to the ground but if I had done so at this point their droppings would have wound up in their food since it hangs below. As it was, I was replacing pine shavings every other day. We no longer use this coop full time because I have too many chickens. I keep meaning to do an update post on it. Maybe I should get to that this week!
We got the roof cap from Lowe’s.