The Bruffett Chicks Coop

I’ve featured more than two dozen coops in this Cool Coop Builds series. My usual M.O. is to contact folks that have posted their coops in online chicken groups and invite them to share their stories. Some folks never respond, some politely decline while others enthusiastically jump at the chance to show off their hard work.

Darryl was a bit different in that he contacted me by leaving a comment on one of my coop posts with a link to his YouTube channel. I watched one of his coop build videos and then reached out to him. I’m glad to say that he was willing to share his design plans and the features he’s incorporated into the coop to make caring for his flock less time consuming.

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This is my first time raising backyard egg laying chickens, but both sets of grandparents raised chickens on their farms when I was a kid 50 years ago. 

I have six hens: three white Leghorns and three Rhode Island Reds.

I build a lot of stuff around my house and after retiring from 37 years as an on-air TV Sports Anchor at the CBS affiliate (KBTX) in Bryan, Texas, I now tinker around as a handyman. This is my first coop build. I researched online a lot and remembered different things that my grandparents, who were professional chicken egg farmers in the Missouri Ozarks, shared with me. My grandpa Ernie had two huge hen houses that each probably housed 250 – 500 hens each and then a brooder house for raising chicks.

I did all of the work on my hen house from the layout to the finished project. Getting into backyard chickens was a by-product of COVID 19 and something good that came out of that time. My wife Lori couldn’t find any eggs at the store so I decided to build a coop and get chickens. There weren’t a lot of sports going on during COVID, so I had time on my hands. 

I’m fortunate to live in the shadows of Texas A&M University and their world renowned Poultry Science department. In fact, a retired A&M Poultry Science Professor Dale Hyatt is my chicken mentor. He supplied me with my first set of hens and is just a phone call away if I have any issues. One time I had a 15 month old hen that dropped dead and he came over and necropsied her on my patio table. FASCINATING! He determined that  she was egg bound which was just something that we all know happens. 

It probably took four weeks to build my coop and run. I was sidelined for about a week after getting bitten by a Copperhead while building it.

Budget

I didn’t have a budget. Lori told me to build something that wasn’t ugly and $2,500 later I have a conversation piece in my backyard that has served me well for almost five years now.

Coop: 4’ x 8’ with sloped roof  Run: 8’x10’

I put 25-30 pounds of food in the feeders every week and do a major clean of the coop every six months. I would classify my coop as low maintenance, unless it’s so cold that their water freezes. My set up makes having backyard chickens pretty easy. There is lots of peace of mind knowing that the most knowledgable chicken guys in the world are just a call away. I feel very fortunate.

Features

• Space underneath the hen house for the girls to get out of the heat/rain and to access their food. 
• Four gravity fed feeders made from 4” PVC pipes, two inside, and two below, the coop. 
• Two automatic doors from JVR that close up the hen house from the run at about 10:45pm and then open back up at 6:15am every morning. The second door gives the hens access to an extended run that has a 15’ chicken tunnel (chunnel) that connects to a movable chicken tractor that is 4’ x 10′ that I rotate every week to allow the flock access to a new patch of grass. 
• Two rain barrels collect water and gravity feed to six different waterers in the run and hen house. 
• Lights on timers in the coop and run so my hens produce year around.

Future Plans

I hope to expand my exterior run to be about 250 square feet with a net covering the top for protection, with irrigation so they always have grass to eat. 

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Check out Darryl’s videos on his YouTube channel for more info on his coop build and taking care of his flock.

Thanks to Darryl Bruffett for sharing his story and photos, used with permission.