[Mel Rice]

When I was in the last house my coops were childrens playhouses...first one outgrown by our kids. The second one was ex-display and we borrowed a pick-up to collect it in-tact.   If i was buying again I would but a shed. Mine are in a small walk in 'room' attatched to the barn. its stone and brick built. I put the perches quite high so that the wheelbarrow fits under the droppings shelf which is covered with old lino to aid scraping. My chooks fly (well as much as chooks can) up to the droppings shelf then hop onto the perch. I have put up a plank slope up which a few use!

[Rich/Jan]

My OH makes our chicken houses out of thick 8 x 4 ply.  He cuts off approx 2ft from the length and this serves for the back of the coop - he then cuts the two sides by measuring  2ft on one side of the remaining ply and marks 2 ft on the other side.  With a pencil he marks up the two sides - and cuts these on the diagonal - and so far has two sides and one back.  Then he makes up the front with another piece of ply and cuts a bob-hole in it and makes vertical runners to create the bob-hole sliders, plus a door,.  The rest of the ply serves as a roof (make sure it is overlapped to stop water running down the outsides too much) and another back for another house or whatever. He doesn't permanently fix the roof but drills holes to take screws to fix the roof to the sides.  It is then covered in roofing felt and then onduline.  The advantage with ply is that there are not loads of gaps (when using planks etc) for the dreaded red mite to hide.  He makes nestboxes either inside or outside.  For the perchs he cuts two 5" x 5" squares with a notch cut in each.  These are then fixed to each side and a piece of batten slots into the notches.  He prefer batten to dowel as the chickens can get a better grip.  2 x 2 timbers are cut to length to fix the sides and back together.  Even with the cost of thick ply it doesnt make them that expensive.  The whole thing is then creosoted/stained etc.   I hope I have explained his way of building coops ok.    If he gets a spurt on he can make two in a day - I do the paint work.  Jan

[chrismahon]

When you convert a shed be careful how you add things. Make sure they can be easily removed, as the next red mite season will soon be upon us. I converted our 10 x 7 into two coops and a 4 x 7 storage area. The problems we had! Took most of the perches and shelves out in the end and what little remained could be lifted out easily.