New home for the family, and a new home for the chickens!
Since we are in Colorado and actually have changes of weather here, I decided to purchase a wood shed instead of building a coop myself. I wanted something that was weather proof, with windows, and a very solid roof…plus it was really fun to design it online! We didn’t have too much freedom with color choices, since our HOA insists that backyard sheds match the color of the house. I did, however, choose a really pretty blue for the door…since they can’t see that from the street. The inside of the shed came very plain and unfinished so making that functional for the chickens is a work in progress.
We decided to build the chicken run to match the shed, and chose to have a solid roof with shingles, so the chickens can still be outside even when it’s raining or snowing. The sides of the run are metal wire, or hardware cloth, and it actually extends into the ground about a foot down around the entire perimeter, to help prevent digging predators from entering. The shed coop sits on a cement slab, which we were pleasantly surprised to find in the backyard, and the run is built on dirt. There is an automatic door on the side of the coop that opens using a timer to let the chickens into the run in the morning, and closes to lock them safely in the coop in the evening.
