Chicken Coop Construction

This August, aside from skipping around the lovely Mount Baker neighborhood from house-sitting position to house-sitting position, I had the opportunity to try my hand at the trade of carpentry, something I’ve always fantasized about mastering. As the end of the month neared and I dropped my duffel at my third and final destination, I agreed to help a friend construct a chicken coop in her backyard. The East Coaster in me is still somewhat mystified by this Northwest trend of urban farming* (from raising chickens to growing robust gardens along the sidewalks) but, when done well, it’s also very, very cool.

*City of Seattle’s Office of Sustainability and Environment:

http://www.seattle.gov/environment/food.htm

(My friend's lovely child and the final product)

In short, I’ve abandoned my dream of construction due to a fear of band saws and impatience with calculated measurements and geometry. I did, however, quite enjoy my role digging, leveling, and surveying. And, the final result is nothing short of AWESOME. It’s official; my friend’s an artist and a bit of a genius. Erected from nothing more than her sketches and vision, it’s made entirely from repurposed doors (screen and otherwise), hardware cloth, plywood and plastic. These are shots of the various stages of coop, from start to finish.

a.

b.

c.

a. Leveling is no joke! It took the better part of an incredibly hot afternoon. Also, digging a trench around the outside of the coop was critical to eventually predator-proof the sucker.

b. Frame. Clearly, I was a HUGE help here, what with my superior knowledge of power tools and engineering. Oh, wait... No.

c. A third of the coop has plastic roofing to allow in light. It also looks beautiful, obvi. My, what lucky (and arguably oblivious) chickens.

Here, you can sort of see that the front consists of screen doors on their sides.