Free Keep Chickens!: Tending Small Flocks in Cities, Suburbs and Other Small Spaces by Barbara Kilarski Page B

For more detailed instructions on foundation work and framing, check out How to Build Small Barns and Outbuildings by Monte Burch (see Recommended Reading ).
    If the henhouse was designed to adjoin the coop, you may have installed 2 x 4 framing for the henhouse walls at the same time you were putting in anchor posts for the chicken run. If the henhouse is a freestanding structure, you’ll need to frame and roof it separately. If you don’t want to do a lot of measuring and cutting, consider buying a premade shed for use as a henhouse; you will most likely be able to put it together easily and then have to make only minor modifications to make it suitable for chicken living quarters.
    If you’ve never framed anything before, I would suggest that now is the time to solicit the help of a licensed carpenter.
    If the coop is close to your house and an outdoor electrical plug, you’ll be able to run extension cords out to the coop to power fans and heat lamps, when necessary. However, if your coop is located a good distance from your house, you may wish to hire an electrician to wire it. Contact the electrician early on in the construction process to find out at which stage of construction he or she would prefer to work.
    Paint or seal all exterior wood. However, don’t use paint or sealant inside the henhouse — hens nibble on everything!
Indoor Amenities
    Inside the henhouse, secure a wooden dowel 2 inches (5 cm) in diameter to a wall, no less than 2 feet (61 cm) off the ground. Chickens always roost above the ground, for warmth and for safety. To the opposite wall, attach two or three nest boxes — little wood compartments — also about 2 feet (61 cm) off the ground. Chickens are quite secretive when laying eggs, and they like to find cozy, out of the way places to sit and lay. Make your nest boxes about the size of a shoebox stood on its narrow end, or perhaps a bit bigger for a “super-sized” hen. In colder regions, the back wall of the nest boxes should be against the inside wall of the henhouse, not against the wall exposed to the outside.
    A henhouse should always have nest boxes (top right) on one wall and roosts or perches (bottom left) on another.
Feeders and Waterers
    Suspend a feeder and waterer from roof rafters of the run, about 6 inches (15 cm) off the ground. If you have an open-roofed coop, put the food and water dispensers in the henhouse, away from the perch. Make sure the dispensers are away from the coop and henhouse doors and all foot traffic to prevent spillage.
    Hang the feeder and waterer inside the coop’s run.
Finishing Touches
    The perfect coop depends on you. You can be a minimalist. Run chicken wire around some posts for the run. Set a big wooden crate on short posts or thick, heavy bricks, cut a square hole in it for a door, lay down a small plank as a door ramp, and rig up a perch and nest box inside for roosting and laying. It can be that simple.
    Or be laboriously elaborate! Add decorative moldings to the henhouse and coop framing to invoke Victorian, Bavarian, or Art Deco styles. Paint the henhouse crazy colors and hang silly signs. Or paint a mural on it of a Mexican cantina, complete with faux shutters, climbing ivy, and a sombrero, and hang a painted sign over the henhouse door that says “Casa de Pollo” (that’s “House of Chicken” for all you gringos). Use a French bistro mural theme and call your gaily painted henhouse the “Chez Poulet.”
    The only limits to your henhouse design are your creative genes and your wallet. So long as your hens are safe and sound inside with plenty of personal space, the coop and henhouse design are up to you. It takes vision, chutzpah, and a certain degree of wackiness to add a chicken coop to your city garden. Why should our chickens’ coops be rudimentary when they can be extraordinary? The perfect coop is whatever you want it to look like.
Building a Coop for the Girls
    My coop started as a lean-to shaped like a parallelogram alongside