Several months ago, our kids started asking for chickens, so we decided to give it a go. The first thing we needed was a coop. After looking online at new ones (most were expensive, low quality, and too small) and on FB marketplace for used ones (expensive and hard to move), we decided that our best option was to turn an old playhouse into a chicken coop.

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TURN AN OLD PLAYHOUSE INTO A CHICKEN COOP

About 10 years ago, when we lived in Alabama, we turned a playhouse into a chicken coop, so we felt pretty confident we could do it again.

One Saturday morning, I found the perfect old playhouse listed for just $25. It felt like a steal!

OLD PLAYHOUSE

Here’s the before picture below:

Same Playhouse on Amazon

It definitely needed a lot of work, but it provided a solid structure to start with and I could easily envision turning it into a cute chicken coop.

We spent a 3 day weekend fixing it up. We needed to:

-Rebuild the rotting wood floor

-Add an egg box

-Build a door

-Close up the extra openings

-Put on a tin roof

-Paint the entire thing white

-Build a secure run

And since it was ultimately the kids’ project, they worked hard right alongside us, planning, building, and painting.

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CUTE CHICKEN COOP

Each of the kids researched and decided on a chicken to buy.

We got a Silkie, a Cochin Bantam, a Frizzle, and a Colombian Wyandotte.

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Update 3/4/23

(Since I’ve gotten several questions about the inside of the coop, here are some additional pictures.)

INSIDE OF THE COOP

When you open the door to the coop, the egg boxes are on the left and the opening to the run is on the right.

We added a roosting pole up top. (You can see in the next two pictures how we secured it by attaching it to the egg box on the left and a small block of wood on the right.)

We also built a ledge in front of the egg boxes with a ladder going up since one of our chickens is a Silkie and doesn’t fly. All the chickens have seemed to enjoy having the ledge though and even sleep there at night sometimes.

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In order to make the opening to the run, we had to move around some of the boards since originally the opening was up top and we needed it near the bottom.

Tim added an automatic chicken door . It’s been so nice not to have to jump out of bed first thing in the morning to let the chickens out into the run or go out and close the coop at night.

THE CHICKEN RUN

We originally laid sod in the run, but we realized that the chicks enjoy having dirt to scratch and peck around in and also for taking dirt baths. So we removed some of the sod and added a shaded dirt area for them to play in. When they aren’t free-ranging in the yard, this is their favorite place to be.

There is also a place up top for them to perch in the sun.

I planted some bougainvillea behind the coop and I’m training the vines to run up the sides and hopefully over the top. This will provide some more shaded areas for the chickens during the day since it can get pretty hot when the sun is beating down all afternoon.

The other day, we saw a swinging chair sitting out by the road for the trash, so we snatched it up and brought it home to hang on our avocado tree. It’s the perfect spot to sit and hang out with the chickens.

Since the chicks are still young, it will be another few months before we get any eggs, but so far, we’ve enjoyed having backyard chickens again.

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I love looking out the back windows while I’m cooking or we’re eating dinner and seeing the chickens running around the yard or playing in their coop.

Update 1/2/23

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After several close calls with the hawks in the area, we decided it was no longer safe for our chickens to free range in our yard so we decided to build them a hawk-proof covered run. We felt that the easiest option was to enclose the area behind the coop and add a gate from the back of the existing run into the addition.

Of course it ended up taking a lot more time and money than we initially planned, but we love how it turned out and now the chickens have a safe place to scratch and peck without worrying about a hawk attack.

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I found this Hanging Feeder and Poultry Waterer to add to our coop.

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Some of our favorite chicken supplies:

Galvanized Hanging Poultry Feeder

Automatic Chicken Door

Scratch and Peck Organic Feed

Galvanized Poultry Waterer

Wooden Playhouse

Galvanized Food Container