Making a DIY Chicken Coop from a Doghouse
Before I got chickens, I already knew I wanted to build their coop myself. With a bit of DIY skills and determination, you can build your own coop too.
Although tempting, the relatively inexpensive prefab coops sold by many retailers are not a great long term investment. Most of these coops are made of flimsy wood, and aren't large enough to comfortably hold more than a couple of chickens.
I have heard good things about the Omlet Eglu-- so this is an option should you decide not to make one yourself.
The Process
The first thing I did when I got the green light for chickens was to search the online marketplace for an old doghouse. I certainly could have built the coop from scratch, but with the current high price of lumber as a result of the pandemic, I thought this step of using the bones of a doghouse would save me a few bucks.
If you choose to go this route of up-cycling a doghouse or other pre-built structure too, it's a good idea to take a garden hose to the roof to make sure there wont be any leaks. Although chicken coops do not require a heat source, they must be dry and free of drafts (not including ventilation--more about that later). When checking the roof of this doghouse, I realized it would need to be replaced. So I disassembled the edging pieces (which were still in good condition), and traced the roof onto a piece of exterior grade 1" plywood. After I had the right sized piece, I simply reattached the edging and screwed it back on, and painted it with exterior semi-gloss paint.
*If my coop roof would be open to the elements, it would need another layer to protect the plywood. Roofing shingles would work, but I eventually added a roof over the entire run and coop, so I skipped this step.*
The original floor of the doghouse was made of thin slats of wood with small gaps between them. I knew this wouldn't work for the floor of the coop, so I removed it all (and saved it of course!), and replaced it with another piece of the 1" plywood. On top of the plywood floor, I added cheap peel and stick vinyl tiles to protect it. I think they cost something like thirty cents each, and adding them has made cleaning the coop super quick and easy.
Another coop essential is a droppings tray. When the chickens roost at night, they poop... a lot. If you add a slide-out tray beneath the roosting bar, the majority of the mess will be confined to the tray, and you won't have as much messy bedding to deal with. I like using sand in the tray, and I use a kitty litter scoop that I got from the dollar store to clean it. The sand helps to dry out the poop for easy removal, and it lasts quite a while.
To make the droppings tray, I cut a hole in the left side of the coop, about 24" wide. The chickens will roost facing either direction, so you'll want the tray to be wide enough, with the roost bar in the middle.
I made the bottom of the tray from a steel sheet that you can find at any big box store. I screwed some 2" furring strips to the edges to keep the sand in the tray. On the end of the tray, I added a piece of T-1-11 that was larger than the 24" opening, to seal the coop shut when the tray is pushed all the way into position.
One of the most vital things you can do to ensure your flock stays healthy is to provide the coop with adequate ventilation. There should be openings along the top of the coop (higher than the chickens heads when they are roosting) so that any moisture inside the coop that comes from respiration and poop can escape.
*As a side note, you should never store food or water inside the coop. Doing so, can attract both pets and predators to the coop, and can create a breeding ground for mold and bacteria from too much moisture.*
To add ventilation to the doghouse coop, I removed two slats from the top of both sides of the coop, framed it out with 2" wood, and secured it with hardware cloth.
The next consideration I had to make was for the nest boxes, the area where the girls will go to lay their eggs. Chickens like to lay in private spaces, so it is recommended to make one 12x12" box for every 2-3 chickens in your flock. I started by cutting two 8" square openings in the rear of the coop, and built a 2ft long box with a sloped lid out of T-1-11. I attached it to the back of the coop with a 2" furring strip screwed into the coop and into both sides of the box. I added another strip below the box, to decrease the amount of weight pulling down on the top strip. T-1-11 is exterior grade lumber but it needs to be painted in order to be fully weatherproof.
By this point, the coop was really starting to look more like a coop, and less like a doghouse. The final modification that was needed, was to make the door opening smaller. Because it was originally built for a dog, the opening was much bigger than I needed for the chickens. Using another piece of T-1-11, I covered over the top half of the opening from the inside, and sealed any gaps with exterior caulk. You can view the finished door frame in my next post.
Finally, I removed the legs of the old doghouse, built a frame out of pressure-treated 2x4s, and secured it to the base of the chicken coop. This frame provided a secure anchor for the next step: elevating the coop up onto posts and building the run.
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