I set out to work on this page after a discussion about how to keep hawks from getting to one's chickens. I think it is important to note that there are more than just the two extremes in housing birds: free range or caged. There is a happy medium, the chicken house. Indeed it is a house, providing everything a chicken needs: food, water, shelter, and a place to run around a little.

It has been brought to my attention that I ought to give credit to the builders of these chicken houses. I didn't build them. I could not hammer a nail in straight if my life depended on it. My part in the construction is usually putting up chicken wire, securing the roof netting, painting the walls, etc. These houses were built by my brother, my grandpa, and my dad.

Whenever we decided to build another chicken coop (and I am in need of yet another) we would visit all the local chicken high-and-mighties, look at their coops, and sort of synthesize all the good things about each one of them. I highly recommend that method. The pictures I have here are just that--pictures. I am not giving out the plans because, well, there are no plans. The plans for these houses seem to either get written on incomprehensible little scraps of paper, or on 2 X 4s, which the dogs promptly eat. But you are certainly welcome to take a look, and get some ideas, and I will try to point out the good and bad aspects of each coop. Click on the coops for more information about each one. Sorry these photos are kind of small and crappy, this part of my website has been around for a billion years and I'm not too eager to re-scan all these old pics. I NEVER in a million years thought that this would be the most popular section of my website, but it is! About half of all the hits I get on the ENTIRE domain go to this part. Jeepers!