Art of the Chicken Coop: A Fun and Essential Guide to Housing Your Peeps (Fox Chapel Publishing) 7 Step-by-Step Coops, Expert Profiles, & Practical Information to Keeping Chickens in Your Backyard

by Chris Gleason

A fresh approach to designing and building chicken coops! Keeping chickens—even for city dwellers—is a hobby that just keeps on growing! With this book, today's modern backyard farmer will find plans and construction techniques for making seven different chicken coops, along with interesting chicken facts and great recipes for all those eggs! Farm-raised woodworker and author Chris Gleason has a hip eye for design and uses sound woodworking techniques that make the coops both attractive and sturdy. Practical information such as how to properly size a coop and how to source reclaimed materials is included. Don't miss the author's "tour de coop" where he visits coops from other backyard farmers to find out why they keep chickens and what lessons they have to share with others interested in doing the same. This fresh approach to designing and building chicken coops includes seven stylish designs that your flock will adore and your neighbors will envy. Hop on board the backyard chicken raising trend! Use your woodworking skills and the fun designs in this book to build your flock a comfy new home.

Genres: Nonfiction, Animals, Crafts

160 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2011

Reviews

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Now, don't get me wrong, this book is FULL of amazingly artistic and downright PRETTY chicken coops... but I don't think the subtitle aught to include the word "essential"... because these chicken coops are hardly practical. They'd work for a few pet hens, maybe. They're not exactly built with the chickens in mind, but for humans to show off and feel good about.

I have a lot of mixed feelings, personally, about people who keep chickens purely as pets, but the main thing is that they aught to be functional about how they KEEP them. All philosophy and opinions aside, I didn't find these coop plans to be very practical at all.

I got some great views of how to build these amazing bits of yard-art, because the book does a pretty good job of showing you how they're made... but in most cases, they'll be dirty in a few weeks, or the hens will outgrow them, or just plain have all the eggs and hens eaten or chewed on by predators of every kind. I wouldn't suggest many of these plans... but they're sure pretty to look at.

[raccoon reader · Rating 2 out of 5]

An okay book. Better for people who want to build stand alone runs/houses. I have to build a movable one for my yard so these designs aren't helpful. They did have one movable hen house but no movable hen house + run. We don't have a fenced in yard so we need a secure but movable unit. Also, the designs they give aren't that inspirational or cool. The best part of the book was the highlights of chicken owners and their own coops which were way cooler and more inspirational than the designs the book gives which to me felt kinda lame. Like you got a grad student to do your book and they kind of half assed it because they aren't in love with the project. But the people highlights- now those were great. Couldn't the whole book just have been that? The few inset tips on every so many pages were also helpful. There just weren't enough of them. Oh well... back to the drawing board.

[reading is my hustle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Creative and well-organized book for those looking to make their own coop. We were looking for a design that allowed our chickens to roam around, included sunny and shady areas, and (MOST importantly) secured the ladies from predators. The self-contained coops highlighted in this book were just what we were looking for after a *tragic* incident involving our four ladies (RIP: Beauty, Henny Penny, Butterscotch, and Peanut Butter).

Last, I admit to being a form over function kind of backyard farmer and really appreciated the focus on aesthetics.

[Shawnee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really neat book and the designs are great! a little too fancy for me but I liked how the coops themselves were different and there were many options. I didn't read much about insulating though, and that concerned me a bit. it has been in the negative temperatures this week, and I wouldn't want to build a neat coop only to have my chickens all freeze to death in their 'pretty' house.

[Annette McIntyre · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loudly clear directions and plans for various sized chicken coops

[Jacqueline J · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely pictures of fun and arty chicken coops. Includes materials lists and instructions for 7 coops. Nice.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good instructions for a variety of coop designs, but probably nothing I'd use. I'd use NW Edible Life's sand-box/deep litter coop. Some cute paint ideas, though.

[Sabrina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very cute designs, instructions are easy to follow, and spiced with a bit o’ wit

[Marcy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lots of good ideas in here!

[Charla Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

More and more people are discovering the joy of gardening in their back yards. Even in a small yard, You can find enough space to enjoy fresh vegetables. Just one tomatoe plant can provide fresh tomatoes all summer long. Well now with the help of this book, you can add the joy of having fresh eggs to your table. I used to raise chickens and I loved having fresh eggs. They seem to taste so much better than store bought. Besides, you know what goes into their production and your chickens are not suffering in cramped, crude living conditions as most of the chickens producing store bought eggs are. Another positive thing about backyard chicken coops are the benefits of fertilizer for your garden. You no longer have to throw away those left overs bevcause chickens will eat just about anything you give them. But, they really love fresh vegetables and fruits. You can feed them the peels and pits. Also, Chris suggests using salvaged goods for building uour coop. You can find salved wood from construction and demolition sites.




This book by Chris Gleason has really sparked a new interest in chickens for me. Now, if I can just talk my husband into it. I am contemplating just sticking to a few of the bantam chickens. When I had chickens, I loved the Old English Bantams, the Frizzle's (these were the best momma's and the sweetest birds), I also had a few of the rumpless Aracauna chickens that lay green eggs.




Not only does the book provide wonderful ideas for coops, runs and nest boxes, but it also provides the materials needed for each project and step by step instructions. Most of the steps have color photographs to go along with the directions. Also icluded int the book are several recipes for using the eggs. One of the suggestion that I believes is one of the best things ever, is for making a hand sanitizer holder that is attached to the door of the coop. This is such a simple thing, and yet so smart. This makes it easy to have clean hands before touching your birds as well as clean hands before going back in your house.

See my full review, including pictures of my chickens, go here:
http://thehappytonic.blogspot.com

[Aislynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

When my hubby M and I first contemplated getting chickens we scoured the internet for coop designs and ideas. This book would have been a great thing for us a couple of years ago! This was a fun book, filled with great designs, concepts, ideas, chicken facts, recipes and tidbits of fun info.

For someone looking at getting chickens and need help with a coop design this is definitely a book you should check out! Now, a lot of the plans aren’t designed for cold weather which was something we had to take into account with ours – as it can get pretty darn cold here in the winter! I would have liked to have seen a few more ‘northern’ friendly ideas, but it was a great book overall!

[Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

This would be a great book for people who are thinking of a small flock (under six chickens). However, we're needing a coop for 25+ birds for which none of the designs would be appropriate.

That being said, there were quite a few ideas that I could adapt to use in a coop within our barn as well as for the outdoor run. Appreciated the dimensions of wood size for nesting boxes, roosts, and outdoor runs.

Enjoyed reading the profiles of people who are raising chickens, the recipes, and interesting facts about chickens that are sprinkled throughout the book.

[Celeste Batchelor · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed skimming through the plans for chicken coops in this book. There are very detailed instructions with photos as well as lists of materials needed. The author includes information on square footage per hen and gives the approximate number of layers that will fit in each coop design.

Personally, I would most likely do something similar to the Chicken Condo as it has the smallest yard footprint and will house the right amount of chickens for our needs.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book offered lots of step by step ideas for chicken coops and their setup, as well as helpful information about what you should have in your coop and why. I was mostly just looking for ideas for a shed to coop conversion, so I definitely got some good ideas. The photos of different coop designs were really fun to look at too.

[Shayne · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a fun book to read. I love the pictures and decorations that are used on the chicken coops. I have not made any of these coops yet so i will update when I do BUT I recomend this book for everyone who loves raising chickens.

[Rachael · Rating 4 out of 5]

the coops they feature in this book are all very cute, clever and adorable. I love that they not only show you their cute, clever and adorable coops but the supplies you would need to one. And I also enjoyed the bios of the chicken "farmers".

[Ami · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author gives lots of step by step instructions with his designs. My only complaint is that there weren't that many designs to chose from and there weren't many pictures of the insides of these coops. A little light-weight all in all.

[Beverly J. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book with really cute ideas. The plans are very step-by-step, total DIY project. Nice tips on breeds of chickens, even a few recipes tossed in. Loved it!

[Smellsofbikes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very pretty, somewhat repetitive, but ingenious designs throughout. I like his reuse philosophy.