Coop Design (first run)...

I have decided to model our coop design after the one that the Eastside Egg Co-operative ( Zenger Farm in SE Portland) came up with. Ours is modified in a couple of ways to allow for the floors to be removable and the walls and doors to be insulated. In the end, I really liked the idea that they had of being able to open the roof and multiple doors so that the coop could be well ventilated or sealed up depending on the weather. We will be using plastic plywood so that the whole thing can be hosed down regularly. The supports for the roof were also modified so that they could be pinned open or closed. The stacked doors on the end of the coope are intended to allow access to the nesting boxes and will not be open very much. I have a couple of details to resolve such as how to level to coop as we move it around and how to insulate the floor and still have it removable...

Time for Chickens

I hesitated to make this my first post as it seemed a bit cliche given the name of the blog. So, after much deliberation on my part, i have decided to go ahead with the post regardless.

I have always wanted to live on a farm, and now that we have the land, I have convinced my husband that we should have chickens (for eggs not meat). Well, the time of year has come that we need to get the chicks and we have no house for them. In two weeks we will have half a dozen Rhode Island Red pullets at our house and hopefully by then have a place to keep them.

I have been struggling for the last several months with how to design and build a chicken coop that compliments the style of our home. Since our house is non-traditional, I think it is only appropriate that the coop mirror that and be out of the ordinary as well, at the same time I really do not want it to push my neighbors over the edge (they have been so accepting of us to this point).

These are a couple of great resources that I found for keeping chickens : The Country Chicken , Operation Coop Coup

The chicken coop with an enclosed 'play' area:

A bit out of the box:







This just may be taking things a bit too far. This coop has a green roof:



photo by mipsy6



I am loving just about everything about this coop by by hen power; it is made of easy to use materials, funky and functional all at the same time! how cool!





...And in a pinch we could always go this direction temporarily:




Hopefully by the end of the weekend, I will have a design to post.

The beginning

I have been reading other people's design blogs for many years. I have never felt comfortable writing publicly and thus have been a blog lurker.

I love my profession. I have worked as an architect/mom from my in-home studio since 2004. During that time I have had the opportunity to work on many interesting and challenging projects. The thing that I miss the most about working in an office with other like-minded persons is the opportunity for collaboration.

I have two reasons for writing a blog, to better my writing skills and to gather my thoughts, ideas and concepts in an organized format, in one centralized location, open for comment and review.

-jf