Want to update your coop?  Elle Pugsley has several suggestions.

There are many reasons for updating your chicken coop and/or run, making them safer and more secure is a very important reason to make changes, so is making it bigger to provide more space for your beloved hens. I wanted to talk about how my coop started and why I’ve made the changes I have.

Where We Started

I started out with the Omlet Eglu Cube, Mark two, with attached run, I love the eglu cube, it’s secure and so easy to clean, being plastic there’s no worry of red mite burrowing into the material like there is with a wooden coop. It was all placed on a strip of Astro turf on top of my decking. After a while I realised not only did I want to provide my girls a larger run but bending down to clean such a low run was causing me back pain and was much more effort than I would like it to be.

Omlet and Astroturf

 First Up-Grades

So I started shopping around for a larger run, at first I looked at Omlet’s runs which were rather out of my price range so shopping around I went to trusty amazon the answer to every shopping need, found options for different size enclosures so I measured up my remaining decking space and put in an order for a walk in run.

More Up-Grades

I continued using Astro turf for a while before I felt concern for the wooden decking not being able to dry out fully between washes and rain but there wasn’t another space in the garden for the girls to move to that wasn’t decking or Astro turf (one of my dogs in allergic to grass). Time to problem solve, so I bought trays of ridged plastic cells used to contain small pebbles on pathways and with plastic flooring gifted by my next door neighbour I was able to build a slightly raised up floor with and edge surrounding it inside the chicken run. I then filled this with sand, also including a paddling pool filled with a dirt bath. I can now clean the chicken run as if it’s a giant cat litter tray and air flow can get to my decking below so it can dry out fully. The whole run is a huge dust bath now which the girls love, their droppings dry out so quickly, covered in sand, there have been far less flies since, even in the high heat of the summer so far.

Wooden framing and deck

Shopping around

Because there are so many ex commercial hens that need homes, I’ve now started shopping around for a second hand eglu go up, with the intention of removing one of the two green houses at the bottom of my garden as I really only need one, then that space can house more hens in desperate need of a forever home.

Elle Pugsley started growing her own food last year, and it went so well that the next natural step was to acquire chickens. Starting off with four bantams she fell in love and quickly became a crazy chicken lady. Now she’s opened her coop to three ex-commercial free range hens to rehabilitate and provide them with a forever home. You can see pictures of her hens and gardens on Instagram.

If you need coop ideas, Community Chickens Shop carries books, plans, ideas AND coops. Let us inspire you.