Building a Chicken Coop Anyone Would Love in Their Backyard

Do you need a chicken coop? I’m here to help!

I realized just a few weeks ago while I was searching for pictures of my henhouse on Instagram that I never shared anything more than a single picture. You see, last year at the beginning of quarantine my husband thought it would be awesome to get some baby chicks for the kids to learn to take care of. Only one of the kids is interested at all in looking after chickens and she’s now claimed them all as her own. I guess I should also mention that we got two ducks.

We knew we needed a coop and I knew I wanted it to be big enough to house more chickens than we were planning to have. The number one thing I saw while researching was to build a coop bigger than you need because most people end up wanting more chickens. I also knew I wanted it to be big enough to walk into.

Then I found the perfect one!

As I was perusing Pinterest I saw exactly what I wanted. The chicken coop that dreams are made of. It was gorgeous! It even came with plans! Naturally, I didn’t want to use plans. I love to be in control of my own destiny so I started making my own plans based on the picture I saw. (At a certain point, I bought the plans. I thought it would help me explain better than my chalk drawing. It didn’t. And now the page with the plans is totally gone.)

So, I decided to go with a 6×6′ chicken coop. That would give our chickens plenty of room and leave lots of room for more later on. We built everything from scratch, from the raised floor to the front door. One of the things I really loved about this particular coop was the nesting boxes that were easily accesible from outside. We still always have to check the inside of the coop though. The ducks lay their eggs in a little nest in the corner and some of the chickens will lay there also.

(Sometimes the ducks will lay their eggs in a random bush or behind something. Any hidden place. If we don’t find two duck eggs in the coop we have to go searching. It’s like an Easter egg hunt every day!)

Actually building the chicken coop

First, we built the platform for the floor and nailed down the plywood. Then it was time to build the frame. We built each wall individually which was interesting because each wall was different. The front needed a door frame where the back didn’t. The left side needed to house the nensting boxes and the right side was for the roost and the chicken door.

I’ve never worked so hard in my life to make sure something was square. Once we had the wall frames put together and painted we attached them to the raised floor. We worked hard getting everything attached without leaning or being out of square. It was definitely a whole family job with each person holding their own part of the frames. With everyone helping we finished up pretty quickly.

Next, it was time for walls. The walls are plywood. We were painting them as fast as they were going up. I wanted to protect them as much as possible so we painted both the inside and outside with exterior paint. We used PPG Timeless Glacial Ice (PPG1014-1) with an eggshell finish. That’s what the original inspiration post had used. It took 2 full cans to finish it. We also used it to paint the wall frames. We thought it would probably hold up well to the chickens. So far so good.

We used plywood for the roof (which we also painted) and topped it with corrugated metal panels. Thank goodness I have a super tall son who has a ridiculously long reach! After that the only thing left to do was to build, paint, and install the nesting boxes. It sounds like a lot but we got it all done in one day. That night, our little birds were finally able to sleep in their brand new coop.

It took us a few more days to build the frame for the run and cover it with the hardware cloth. It was definitely more expensive than regular chicken wire, but worth it to keep our birds safe from potential predators. After hearing horror stories of things getting under coops and chewing through the floor we dug out and buried some of the hardware cloth around the chicken coop. When I tell you I’ve built the Fort Knox of chicken coops I mean it. NOTHING is getting in there.

Time for accessories!

We finally finished the coop. Now it was finally time for all the pretty things. I used scrap 2x4s to build a little platform at the front door. I didn’t stain it but I covered it with LOTS of coats of poly which gave it a beautiful shine as well as some weather protection. Then, I used some 1x3s and my Silhouette Cameo to make a sign with all our birds’ names to hang beside the door. We got some solar lamps to put in front of the coop and some flowers to hang. Did I mention that I built some shutters for one of the windows?

We love our chickens and ducks. It’s so funny how each of them has a different personality. We’ve been thinking of getting more, but we need a small coop to keep the new chicks separated from the others until they’re able to be integrated with the flock. I’m not quite ready for it yet so we’ll revisit the idea next spring. But I’d encourage anybody who wants chickens to do it. It’s fun.

Click here to see the small backyard pond we built for the ducks.

Have a blessed day friends.

The Lord will send a blessing on your barns and on everything you put your hand to. The Lord your God will bless you in the land he is giving you.

Deuteronomy 28.8