After a whole lot of hoopla over chicken coops, we have finally come to “the one”. Our primary criteria were the following:
- 16 bird capacity
- Protected run for the winter
- Inside nest boxes
- Easy access for cleaning
- Raised coop for security from predators at night
We searched high and low for one that met these criteria and one that Colleen found attractive. We purchased several other plans but ended up dismissing them after more consideration. We finally came back to the Garden Loft from the thegardencoop.com. We built one of their smaller coops several years ago and were impressed with the instructional detail they provided.
This was a great coop over the years that withstood Alaska winters and kept the birds happy when the snow was up to the door handle. This coop (The Garden Coop) was only for 6 birds which happened to be the Anchorage limit as well. Homer is open ended so we are going to (try to) limit ourselves to 16. The only tweak to the new coop will be the roof. We are going to swap out polycarbonate panels for a metal roof. These plans were the most expensive ($55) of any we purchased, but they come with 89 pages of detailed information and helpful suggestions.
We are planning to let them free range on portions of the fields that can be setup with moveable poultry netting. Happy birds means lots of eggs!
Green dreams!
Leave a Reply