Chicken Coop Ideas | Our Favorite Coops - Murray McMurray Hatchery Blog

Chicken coops come in as many shapes and sizes as there are breeds of chickens. As popularity for keeping chickens has risen over the past decade, chicken coops now range from those built purely for function, to a custom dream home for backyard flocks with white glove delivery. Just searching Google for ‘chicken coop ideas’ brings up more examples than you can shake a stick at.

Planning is important when it comes to getting chickens — time passes quickly when raising baby chicks. After 4-6 weeks, what was once a fluffy little chick is now a lanky teenage chicken that wants to jump and fly out of its brooder. By 6-8 weeks, most are fully feathered, no longer need the warmth of a brooder, and are ready to move out to a coop. So, just as you would plan ahead to have a brooder ready when your baby chicks arrive, you’ll want to have your coop and run ready to go by the time your chicks are ready to move into it.

As you can imagine, we’ve seen our share of coops over the years. In this article we are highlighting several coops we like and sharing what features we think are essential for keeping a happy and healthy flock. These coops range from pre-fab to completely custom.

OUR CUSTOMERS’ CUSTOM COOPS

After 103 years in business, we have seen our share of unique coops — just take a look at this photo album of coops from one of our old photo contests. Each year we receive photos from our customers sharing their custom coops designed to fit their unique personalities and needs. These three coops are just a few of our favorites: the mobile chicken coop designed by Jake Grzenda of White House on the Hill, the beautiful double-door coop by Whitefeather Farm, and the very impressive Hatt Coop in Washington state.

White House on the Hill Mobile Chicken Coop

Late last year, our friends at White House on the Hill moved to their new farm. Jake spent much of the winter building a mobile chicken coop — and it’s no ordinary mobile coop! It’s a full-sized chicken coop with a walk-in door, attached rain barrel, solar powered chicken door, and cupola and weather vane on top. And, it’s all built on a steel trailer which can be moved around his farm by hitching it to their truck. White House on the Hill is known for keeping a wide variety of chickens, emus, pheasants, ducks, turkeys and geese. Their chicken flock is living in style now in their very impressive mobile coop. Click here to view the video where they unveil the finished coop.

Many of our customers have beautifully designed and creative coops that fits their personalities. One of our favorites is Wildfeather Farm who we follow on Instagram. Wildfeather Farm is home to Arrow and Aurora, a pair of Sebastopol geese, and countless other geese and chickens. The beauty of their two exotic geese is matched by the picture-perfect coop they have designed. This all-white coop features double-doors that open wide, a coordinating white picket fence and a stepping stone path entry, and large lettering that spells COOP above a perfectly centered nesting box. Their coop and birds can be seen on their Instagram account at @wildfeatherfarm.

Hatt Coop | Custom Built Chicken Coop in Washington State

This Spring we have been following along on Instagram as one of our customers in Washington state built the #HattCoop. This massive structure is built to withstand four feet of snow load during the winter winter months and protect their flock from wild northern predators including raccoons, hawks and eagles, coyotes, and cougars. Hatt says, “If predators want in they’ll have to work for it pretty hard unless somehow, inadvertently, we forget to swing a gate closed or latch a door.” The exterior is an impressive 16’ x 32’ with an insulated and raised hen house in the center measuring 8’ x 16’. Head over to Hatt’s Instagram to see the step by step photos he took while building this amazing coop.

PRE-BUILT COOPS FOR BACKYARD CHICKENS

Backyard chickens have become increasingly popular over the past decade and more and more people in urban areas look to live a more sustainable life. Today, chickens are being kept in backyards from coast to coast and from suburban backyards to the center of New York City. Even celebrities have been known to keep chickens like Jennifer Garner, Isabella Rosselini, and Martha Stewart. Along with keeping chickens comes the desire for coops with personality and pizazz. A few of our favorite pre-built coops include the Chicken Chick’s Essential Coop, Cutest Coops, and the Eglu from Omlet.

The Chicken Chick’s Essential Coop is a labor of love by Kathy Shea Mormino. Kathy is an author and backyard chicken keeper in Connecticut. Fans of her Facebook page tune in daily to ask her questions about keeping backyard flocks and watch as she collects fresh eggs from her nest boxes. Last year Kathy debuted her own branded chicken coop for sale featuring all of the bells and whistles you can imagine. A few of our favorite features are her removable roosts over droppings boards for easy clean-up, her double door entry and roll-out nest boxes to keep eggs clean and prevent egg eating. Each coop is custom-made in the U.S.A. by Amish craftsmen and delivers fully assembled.

Another favorite of ours is Cutest Coops which are also made by Amish craftsmen in the U.S.A. Cutest Coops was started by Kathy Vegh as an alternative to retail coops that didn’t live up to their description nor meet her level of expectations of accessibility, predator safety, ventilation, cleanliness, quality & design. Her full line of coops ranges from the Classic to the Chateau and are customizable down to the color, roof material, number of windows, and even a cupola and weather vane for the top.

If you’re looking for a smaller, moveable coop for a backyard we like the Eglu Cube coop from Omlet. The team from Omlet paid a visit to our office on a recent trip to the U.S.A. and spent the afternoon setting up a coop in our store room. These unique, European style coops are well-designed and well thought out. While they have been around in England a while, they are relatively new to the U.S. market. These tiny coops would be a good starter home for an urban flock of 6 or fewer hens. Features we like on these coops are the tightly fitting predator-proof doors, the automatic coop door, the ease of moving the coop, and the large wire run.

CHICKEN TRACTORS FOR PASTURED POULTRY

Interest in homesteading is on the rise as more and more families look to live a more intentional and sustainable life. One of the main tenants of this trend is establishing meat or protein sources on the homestead as an alternative to what many believe to be a broken food system. Pioneers in this field like Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms, John Suscovich of Farm Marketing Solutions, and Justin Rhodes of Abundant Permaculture and the Justin Rhodes Show teach newcomers how to raise pastured poultry in easy-to-move chicken tractors. These moveable coops give meat birds such as Cornish Cross access to continuous fresh grass while creating healthy pastures with vital nutrients from the birds’ droppings. These mobile chicken tractors are lightweight, low-cost solutions that are relatively easy to build — often made with reclaimed materials.

This easy-to-make and easy-to-move chicken tractor was developed by Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms. Joel Salatin is a pioneer in pastured poultry, and his influence can be seen in others including YouTube’s Justin Rhodes. Chicken tractors are designed to keep broiler chickens on grass continuously by moving them often. This makes for more healthy poultry, and a richer soil and fields. Learn more by visiting the Polyface Farms website. Photo by Ann Accetta-Scott, courtesy of the Fewell Homestead.

In this video, Justin Rhodes talks with John Suscocvich about his stress-free chicken tractor. This tent-shaped mobile coop has a lightweight frame and a door for easy entry. Tarps or plastic is often layered across the top to protect birds from the elements. This coop can be moved by one person. Homesteaders across the U.S. have used this design including White House on the Hill and Sow the Land. Click here to view the plans on the Farm Marketing Solutions website.

If you are interested in raising pastured poultry and haven’t already, check out this video by the Justin Rhodes Show. The Rhodes raise and grow most of their own food on their property and utilize mobile coops so their poultry follows along behind their larger livestock to scratch and peck and work manure and nutrients into the soil. Justin’s ‘chickshaw’ is an his updated take on a Salatin chicken tractor. Also look in his videos on YouTube for a small version of his chickshaw called the ‘mini-me’.

Do you have a cool coop you’d like to share with us? We’d love to see it. Tag us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, or send your photos and information on your unique chicken coop to media@mcmurrayhatchery.com.