An earth-sheltered, solar-tempered chicken coop.

Our earth sheltered solar-tempered chicken coop was built in the summer of 1979 while our first chickens waited impatiently in their temporary trailer turned-coop apartment. The structure is a five sided, log bottom, frame top, pole raftered creation yielding a floor area of 85 square feet. Enough quality room for 20 chickens.

The poplar logs and maple rafters came from our woods, and most of the other materials were scrounged and salvaged. About the only out-of-pocket costs were for the polyethylene covering, nails and roofing cement used to coat the outside of the logs.

The building will be 15 years old this summer. It more than fulfilled its promise of chicken shelter for eight years. A I few repairs, a few changes and it has been a great garden shed for seven more. Who knows what it will do for the next years of its life!

Originally we covered the building with 6 mil polyethylene for waterproofing, salvaged beadboard foam boxes for insulation and straw bales for "backfill" on top of the sand -- because that's what we had.

As the years went on the straw bales broke down and settled, pulling plastic with them and causing rips and exposure. We unburied and dug out the coop, covered it over with black 1 O mil polyethylene (being careful to leave it loose enough to handle the settling dirt), added 1/4-inch high density foam to protect the plastic and buried most of the coop with dirt. We still didn't have enough sand to completely bury the back side, so we piled brush from a clearing project to hide and protect the high density foam that was showing. The raspberries and grass and weeds have grown up through this maze and are fine for our purposes.

As a chicken coop it worked great. The south facing windows did their basic solar heating job well, the earth sheltering tempered the highs and lows of the outside temperatures and the tiltout front windows and side hinged side windows made a fine manual ventilation system. The chickens had their own small door cut and hinged into the larger people door for their private comings and goings. The floor was of comfortable, packed sand and always had a deep bed of sawdust and hay to keep the chickens (and human noses) happy.

The one problem with the dirt floor came the winter a weasel tunneled in and took care of five of our flock. He and I had an eye to eye discussion, knowing we were both right. We both understood as I stood outside the coop door that - 15 degree cold morning holding a shivering gun. In terms of composure and finesse, he won.

Another night, years later, we came home late to find all the chickens outside, and a marsh hawk inside. He had walked in through the small chicken door. Other than a pine snake (happily munching away in a nest box) and a few mice now and then, the rest of the visitors were chickens and people.

The interior design of the coop changed little over the years. When the first hen-hatched chicks arrived a small wire and board mini coop was built against the west wall for the new family. Even after we built a small outside coop and area for them we kept the indoor one. Seems there was always a hen that insisted on hatching a chick or two in the cold months.

After eight years we made the difficult decision to get rid of the chickens, and turned the chicken coop into a garden shed. The chickens and equipment went to others; the roosts, nest boxes and other built-ins to the junk pile. The bedding was hauled for the last time to the garden and compost pile. We sorted through our roughsawn poplar board reject pile to construct a wooden floor. A fresh coat of white paint, a number of properly placed nails for hanging tools and the transformation was in full swing. It didn't take long for the garden tools and related supplies to settle into their new home, and the change was complete.

The pine snake still checks it out occasionally, but the weasels and hawks don't bother.

Make a simple brooder 

This is a simple brooder I made several years ago, from scrap sheet metal duct parts I found in the dump. It can be built of most anything and the dimensions are flexible

The cover is simply a wooden frame, covered with screen. Mine measures 30" x 29".

There is a cloth flap between the run and the main house, to retain heat.

Basically it is 38" wide 46" long, and 12" deep. The opening is 38" x 28". The front window is 6-1/2" x 31". The two side windows are 6-1/2" x 20". All are covered with window screen.

I started out with a 75 watt bulb and as the chicks got older I reduced that to 60 watts.

To increase the temperature, lower the bulb; to decrease it, raise the bulb. Keep an eye on your chicks: they will let you know if the temperature is about right.

We raised 25 heavy-breed chicks in this brooder until they fledged, with no problems.