So, have you ever thought what is the best or right chicken coop for my needs.  Of course, if you only have about 3 to 7 hens that could be different from the type that you will need if you say, 30 hens?  What do you do when you have @ 120 to 150 hens???

When we first started, we had a medium sized coop.  However, this one was given to us by our friends.  It weighed a ton. Literally, and why because it was made out of waterbed material.  Imagine what a struggle that was!

Needless to say, that coop really didn't last long, and my husband thought that the chickens needed a Hotel.  Now, I am talking almost literal.  It was a beautiful coop and very airy, however, in the winter time that is not always good.  I will touch basis on that a little later on!

So, this coop was about a 8x8 and about 4 ft off the ground.  They loved hanging out under the house.   That is also not always a good idea, since they go under their and hang out and if they are small they always don't go into their house on their own by themselves when they are still small.  Thank goodness my daughter is.  LOL!

We have had a lot of practice on building coops.  In our current yard, we have 3 large coops that hold about 25 to 30 hens each.  In Coop One we have our variety, in Coop Two we have our Americauna and Aracana birds with the Leghorns, and in Coop Three we have all of our Orpingtons, w/one Orpington Rooster and one Banty Rooster (which is happy feet son).   We have 5 medium sized coops.  I have one that is just for my Silkie Hens, this includes One Wing and Fancy Feet, which are my two roosters in there.  One wing, only has use of one wing, somehow it was damaged when born so has a hard time staying on the hens, he is black. Fancy Feet is my white one, and they get along for the most part, along with their 8 hens.  Then in my 2nd medium sized we have our Banty House.  We have Happy Feet, who is beautifully Black!  He has two women, one is Ms. Frizzle who is beautifully white banty, and Misses Garrett. (yes after facts of life).  He also has three others that live in there that are a banty type mix, I have two little birds that look like pigeons, but they are called english game birds, and their names are lucy and ethel.  (yes, I love lucy).  and then our Partridge banty, who is brown in color, I call her Matilda (yes after the movie, because she goes from yard to yard).   In our 3rd medium one, we have our Polish Hens with Rooster, and right now my Ameracauna Rooster.  Then the 4th one is our Light Brahma area with a rooster too!  Of course the last 4 areas our ones that I use to incubate and make more chicks with to use and sell.  Then in the 5th medium coop we have our variety mix, which include one more of happy feet son, and a couple of birds that actually had frostbite, which happened in brooder box since babies spread out and when we had our awful chill, two of them got frost bite.  We renamed two of them to stumpy and hoppy due to that fact.  Not a fun time, we had to cut the toes that were falling off and spray w/wound coat, but they made it through!   I I have 1 brooder box that hold now all our little chickies that the hens hatch, and some that we have incubated as well!  

I will try to post some pics of the areas.  You will be able to see the different designs that we have, in the Silkie area they have one that Looks like a condo.

We had actually redid the large coops after the winter time, since they had too much air space. Please be careful when making a coop, they like to snuggle it keeps them warm!!