Chicken coops are like snowflakes:  no two are exactly alike.  They come in every imaginable size, shape, and color.  If you don’t believe me, visit the Coops and DIY Pinterest board for Community Chickens.  There are over 230 coop and coop related pins there and the number seems to grow every day. 

You will be amazed at the incredible variety of coops featured there from the simplest sheds to elaborate little poultry villages.  Some of them left me speechless with their intricate design and decor.  Others were memorable for their practicality and resourcefulness.

I’m not the only chicken keeper who thinks that chicken coops are such an interesting topic.  In fact, I have been enjoying all of the recent Community Chickens posts on the subject.  I find myself eagerly reading Rebecca Nickols Cool Coops! posts and Jennifer Sartell’s series of CoopStories.  Judging from the fact that they are among the most popular posts on Community Chickens, I know that I am not alone.

Here at 1840 Farm, we’ve recently expanded our scope of experience with chicken coops in more ways than one.  Not only did we increase the number of coops here on our property from one to two, but we also added something completely new and different.  We added a ready to assemble coop to permanently house the flock of bantam chicks that arrived this spring.

We designed and built our main coop during the summer of 2010.  It was planned with the purpose of utilizing the materials we had on hand.  We struggled to finish the coop in time for the chicks to move in before winter arrived.  Every time we thought that we were close to completing our coop project, an unexpected surprise would appear and move the finishing line one step further from our reach.

This spring, when I began planning to add a new group of chicks to our farm, I had to carefully consider the capacity of our current coop.  For the last two years, it has been home to our mature flock of seven standard sized heritage breed hens.  From a size perspective, it has the capacity to house our existing flock as well as the five new standard heritage breed pullets that arrived in May.

Our birds spend their days with free access to a generously sized run and I felt that it was an option to include the bantams in the mix.  However, I hoped that where space was concerned, offering our hens a little extra breathing room was the right choice.  I also knew that allowing our hens to be relaxed and happy meant the potential for finding more eggs in the nest boxes.

I considered building a second, smaller coop to house the bantam hens.  We surveyed our available space on our farm for a possible location.  1840 Farm consists of a little more than three acres, which seems like ample space.  However, once you consider the footprint of the farmhouse, barn, goat paddock, main chicken coop, hoophouse, heirloom garden, and bordering wetlands area there’s not much real estate left to consider.  I struggled to determine where our flock of heritage breed fancy bantams could call home.

Then I realized that I had neglected to look behind the farmhouse.  What if the smaller coop was nestled in the perennial garden in the backyard?   I had a spot in our garden all picked out.  In my mind, there would be a little coop that blended in and accented the garden space in the backyard.  Locating it there meant that my children would have the freedom to visit the garden coop and tend its inhabitants without the help of an adult.  They could have a little flock of their own.

My primary goal as a chicken keeper is to produce fresh eggs for our family table.  Running a close second is my desire to involve my two children in the process.  They are intimately involved in the decisions we make and the work in bringing those eggs into the farmhouse at the end of the day.  I knew that they would love to have a little coop and flock all their own. 

Once I saw a potential second coop in that light, I knew that a smaller coop would find its home in our backyard garden.  Now I just had to figure out what kind of coop we needed.   Then I was going to have to convince my family to take on another coop construction project.

My family was lucky enough to escape a second round of coop construction.  This time, there would be no need to mix concrete or use the circular saw.  We didn’t need to take an inventory of the building materials housed in our barn.  Better yet, I was hoping to avoid making another trip to the emergency room where I would need to explain how I sustained a second injury from a chicken coop.

As it turned out, we would only need an instruction manual and a screwdriver to construct our garden coop.  I was fortunate enough to be given the opportunity by Ware Manufacturing, Inc.to evaluate one of their ready to assemble coops here at 1840 Farm.  Our pullets have been calling the garden coop home for several weeks and I’ve been gathering photos and videos of them as they investigate their new coop.

In the coming weeks, I will be sharing a full product review of the Ware Premium+ Chick-N-Barn.  I’ll share the specifications of the coop as well as many photos and videos of our pullets living within the coop and enjoying the sunshine in the attached run.  Until then, I’ll be enjoying the sight of my children tending to their little flock living in a garden coop of their own right outside the back door.