The Great Chicken Coop Reno

Reader Contribution by Cam Mather

There is a great TV show in which Canadian contractor Mike Holmes goes into homes that have been poorly built or had bad renovations, and he rants. Awesome rants! “Look at this wall, there’s no foundation!” “Look at this outlet, it’s beside a sink and it’s not grounded, someone could get electrocuted!” “Look, they put the vapor barrier on the wrong side of the insulation!” And on and on and on.

It’s awesome, because I’m the kind of guy who does the type of stuff that Mike Holmes has nightmares about. And with that, I have created the ultimate project for Mike to have a conniption fit about. Mike would seriously blow a gasket for this one!

I have made an addition to our chicken coop. And it is not up to any residential building codes. Or chicken coop codes if they exist. But I think it’s pretty awesome regardless.

We had ordered four more chickens, to add to the flock of four that we got last summer. Our flock also includes “The Colonel.” our rooster who arrived a few months ago. I think nine birds may have been able to sleep in the existing coop, but we didn’t want to crowd them. I think the added space will make for more comfortable sleeping and morning roaming. We don’t let the ladies out before dawn; I like to wait a little bit since some of them are still sleeping on the roost. This way the early risers can have a bit of room to strut around and eat while those that like to sleep in can stay on the roost.

Michelle and I considered a million different ways to get a bigger chicken coop. The cheapest “shed” you can buy from the local lumberyard is about $1,000 and it’s just made of chipboard. We hunted around for an old ice-fishing hut, but just couldn’t seem to find a cheap shed anywhere. I looked at designs to build one from scratch, but unfortunately I’m at the peak of planting season and just didn’t feel I could do a reasonable job on it at this time of year.

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