Carpenter Built Upcycled Coop

In my search for cool coop designs I’ve focused not on the biggest or most well built, but those that express something about the folks that made them to house their flock. Sometimes that has meant using upcycled materials or fumbling along with no previous experience to create something they’re proud of. 

As an experienced builder Pogo has put time, energy and thought into protecting his little flock from both the elements and the myriad of predators in Iowa.

You might not be a professional builder but there are a number of features he’s incorporated in his coop that we could all learn from.

---

My family and I live ten miles north of Dubuque, Iowa way back in the weeds. My 27+ acres is on a dead end road that comes off of another dead end road, then we’re about a thousand feet back into the forest. We’re only one piece of property away from the beautiful Mississippi River Bluffs.

I’m a lifelong woodsman. All three of my sons are Eagle Scouts. We are a scouting family, with me spending about 14 years in assistant leadership positions. Email communication is what keeps me from being the high school master – I don’t want to deal with it.

I’ve spent just about my whole life, almost 52 years, as a fur trapper. I’m 61, and I started when I was nine. For many, many years it was my sole income for half the year.

Our home was all built by hand by my family and me along with the help of good friends. The only thing hired out was the stone work. I worked for the stonemason as a tender and cutter by the hour. My time card went against my bill. I also had the furnace set with the main duct work.

The chicken coop is just off to the left of the lodge about 30′ from the far left stone pier.

Everything inside was made by us. Three hickory trees were cut out of the neighbourhood. I dropped mailed dried this lumber and we built the cabinets as well as the bathroom vanities from scratch right here in our great room.I’ve got a bucket list for stuff I have to finish up before I’m dead.

Our home was made from eight-five 98-year-old white pines that were planted by some German colonists. We harvested them after they endured a storm. The house is 32’ x 32’; each side wall is made from eleven logs that are 14.5’ tall. Only the bottom log was milled flat; the rest are round on round. Most have a butt measurement of 16”- 22”.

The hickory cabins are all scratch built from our own trees. The group is all built from materials that were here on our property. As a carpenter who owned a deck building business for 18 years, I had leftover 6”x6”s, steel galvanized 2”x2”x1/4” rod grid panels and cedar decking that had been taken off of decks to replace with composite. I love cedar so I can’t throw it away.

This is not our first flock. We have had chickens in the past, but never a dedicated full size coop – mostly just little Mickey Mouse setups. The one I replaced was purchased by my wife from a farm store, but it could only hold three or four hens and was always falling apart. 

Once I brought home a few chickens and became a chicken father, I had to build a real chicken coop. My wife called it a huge ugly monstrosity as I began to frame it in the backyard, but when I dragged it into place and it began to take shape she understood and embraced it. It seems like that’s how it always goes with any project. It’s always ugly until it’s finished. 

The exterior is 100% repurposed Western red cedar decking. It needs nothing, but I’m considering painting it. I like the patina the way it is, and it adds to the rustic motif of our log lodge that my family built from scratch.

We have three mature hens: Rhode Island Red, Cinnamon Queen and a barnyard mix as well as 16 new chickens: four each of Barred Rock, Rhode Island red, Easter Eggers and Buff Orpington. One of the Barred Rocks wandered into the forest and disappeared and one of the Rhode Island Reds is a rooster. The three older hens are still being mean to the 14 younger ones. 

Coop: 6’ x 6’ Run: 6’x20’ including the area underneath the coop 

Features

• Automatic door
• Storage bin integrated into the lower area
• Super security galvanized bars
• Roost bars made from cedar branches
• Double-decker nest boxes

Plans For The Future

• Things to keep them from getting bored: such as obstacles to climb on 
• Low box of diatomaceous earth for them to dust bathe in
• Enclosed foraging 
• Free-range area. Right now they just run all over the yard and into the woods, but I worry about predation, and I hate it when they get on the porch and make a mess.
• The upper window faces south to allow sunlight to come in 
• The coop was built with the “deep litter” system in mind. As the wood chips decompose and hold more manure they will provide heat for the birds in the winter.
• Landscaping starts tomorrow. I’ll move soil behind it so I can put a level rock garden all the way around to match the lodge.
• Some window boxes with flowers.
• Maybe a sign that says “All the single ladies”. I sing as I work. They heard that dumb song a thousand times as I worked around the girls.

---

Thanks to Pogo for sharing his coop build and photos, used with permission.