Building the “A” Frame

When my husband and I built our original “A” frame coop, the Coop de Clucks Chalet, we had no idea it would continue to evolve over the years. We have updated it at least five times now. The latest addition was to make room for the Hollywood Divas (Ingrid Bergman, Greta Garbo, Marilyn Monroe, Katharine & Audrey Hepburn and Ava Gardner) and my two silkies (Poppy & Daffodil) to sleep at night and then we added wood to the sides for winter warmth. What started as three hens in suburbia is now 24 chickens and one duck in the mountains.

It all started when I wanted a few hens to give the two of us fresh healthy eggs. I grew up with all kinds of poultry especially chickens so I wasn’t new to the dedication and work it takes to care for chickens. After finally talking my husband into it, we decided to build our own coop for three hens in suburbia. I got three chicks and named them after my grandmother’s as my Granny, Mildred, was my main inspiration for having chickens.

The Original Coop de Clucks Chalet

It took us three long very hot (think 105F) weekends in July in our garage to build this coop to my specifications. There were some disagreements but the results came out great. Mildred, Mabel and Pearl were in our bathroom (with a tarp) in the tub growing big enough to be in a coop. Meanwhile, we were building the “A” frame with a roosts on one side and egg boxes made from plastic buckets on the other. Below the coop part in the bottom was a little run that the girls stayed in when I wasn’t home to watch them. It had a ramp to get to the pop door of the coop above.

This worked beautifully and then…we decided to move to the Sierra Mountains. I had to really protect the girls in this predator rich environment so the Coop de Clucks Chalet was enclosed in a run that has hard cloth below it, above it and around the bottom of all sides of a chain link dog run. That worked wonderful, too.

Then…I wanted more chicks and the top of the coop pop door was closed off, the egg door became to the pop door and we added egg boxes to the coop. Then…more chicks, I made the bottom into a grow up pen. Then, more chicks and we added roosts to the bottom run for summer night time safety and now we’ve added wood over the hardware cloth of the bottom run which has become a coop.

I’m sure at some point we will add even more nest boxes. They have six now with the other little coop in the same run but there’s always a waiting line so guess what? I think we are in for more “improvements” to the Coop de Clucks Chalet.