I think lots of folks see chicken coops as practical structures intended to house their flock. If they are viewed as livestock those birds usually get a basic home that, hopefully, protects them from the elements and predators. Pet birds are often given more attention, which is reflected in the time and energy their keepers have put into making their coops aesthetically pleasing. Most folks are constrained by budgets, while others may not have the skill to undertake a DIY project.
And then there are the chicken keepers who go whole hog and build something so over-the-top that it sets itself apart from what we usually have come to expect. This story is about a little town of chicken homes that replicate a saloon, jail and church. I’m really hoping that Bill and his wife expand their flock and carry on with the theme to incorporate new buildings into their town.
My wife and I live in New York and have kept chickens for 18 years. Seven years ago we took a year break to regroup and start over which is when we built our Over Easy Saloon.
We currently have 30 full grown hens 17 that are eight weeks old and 26 that are two weeks old . The younger chicks have not been sexed yet so we will see how many hens we end up with! We have a Wyandotte rooster some Red sex link, Black Australorp, Cinnamon Queen and Wyandotte hens . The younger chicks that we have are crosses from those hens with our rooster, plus a few Australorp eggs that we purchased and hatched. A few years ago we noticed that the black Australorps were not taken by birds of prey so we started moving to more black chickens to help deter hawks and eagles. The local crow population helps us too.
We use our chickens for more than just laying eggs. We also have a small vegetable farm. Inside the run is part of our compost operation. We dump all yard and vegetable waste and some hay from our beef cows into the chicken run. They dig it up, turn it and deposit fertilizer.
We also have a movable chicken tractor that is built for meat birds. When it’s not in use for them we often put some layers in it and put them to work which is why we have three separate coops. In the fall I will get a coop of 20-30 chickens 20 and put them in the chicken tractor. I’ll also put them on a few vegetable beds to let them clean up crop residue or weeds, bugs and slugs.
If I have weeds in my yard I put chickens on it for a day and it’s fertilized and the weeds are greatly reduced. In the pasture where we rotationally graze beef cows, if areas are not as productive as others. The chicken tractor moves daily.
Plans
This is not my first building project. I have built a large portion of my house, a garage, a small barn and few chickens coops but I would not consider myself a carpenter either.
The plan was to move our chickens closer to our house and build coops that function well, look good and are fun. We decided to build an old western town. We took the knowledge we had from our previous coops and built our Over Easy saloon six years ago. Last year we decided we needed another coop so we built the Over Easy Town jail. This year we built the church. They are all similar but a little different and improved. Each one provides great shelter and function with as little work as possible, are easy to clean, have good ventilation and large amounts of feed storage.
My wife and I did all of the work. It took about four weeks for the church, working on it after work for a few hours here and there.
Budget
The church was the most expensive one to build: $1000. Most of the framing wood was free recycled materials. The boards for the walls and floors were purchased from a small local sawmill for $250. The roofing material, because we shingled it for looks, ended up costing $440. $100 in hardware; $100 in feeder cups, plexiglass and hardware cloth.
Saloon: 4’ x 8’x 7’
Jail: 8’ x 8’x 7’
Church: 6’x 8’x 7’ Total height to the top of the bell tower is 14’
Run: 50’x150’
Features
- Automatic feeders gravity fed (must use pellets or it clogs up).
- The feeder, which holds 13 bags of feed, is also placed close to the door as possible to make filling them easier.
- Plexiglass window in feeder makes it easy to see how much feed is actually in the feeder
- Roosting bars are made out of natural tree branches.
- Nesting boxes are the full length on one side: 8’ long with dividers every 16” and accessible from outside.
- Water is located just inside the large people door to make filling and cleaning easier, along with cleaning out bedding and filling feeder.
- I use JVR chicken doors. I have tried many other brands and they all ended up in the trash. The ones with the little holes that a gear runs up and down to open and close are in my opinion complete junk. They fail and then it’s a coop full of dead chickens.
Thanks to Bill Paulhamus for sharing his coop builds and photos, used with permission. To watch a video of Over Easy Town click here
Bitchin' Chickens 
0 comments on “Over Easy Town Coops”