Art of the Chicken Coop: A Fun and Essential Guide to Housing Your Peeps

(Paperback)

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Description

A fresh approach to designing and building chicken coops with seven stylish designs that your flock will adore and your neighbors will envy. Hop on board the backyard chicken raising trend! Use your woodworking skills and the fun designs in this book to build your flock a stylish coop.

Reviews

Ever since we bought our first house I've been wanting to convert a portion of our backyard into a food source of sorts. A small garden and perhaps a chicken run would be ideal. The gardening idea hasn't made it farther than a few herbs and tomato plants but we're in the process of redoing our backyard's landscape. In the meantime I've been reading a book here and there about keeping chickens and realized there's no way I can pull it off. LOL That said, I loved this book! Not only is it inventive and inspired, but Gleason's approach is very Earth-friendly. One of the things I expected to see was all new supplies and instead the reader is encouraged to reuse old doors or scraps of wood when possible. As someone who values reusing and repurposing when possible I was really happy to see several of the coops had been made using repurposed materials. The designs themselves are each charming and adaptable. Designed for different sized flocks and with different features for both the keeper and the hens' convenience I would honestly love to build any of these if I was sure I could make it worth my efforts. Additionally this book is peppered with cool information about chicken breeds, history and recipes featuring eggs. As a whole I would recommend this book to an experienced chicken keeper looking for some nice design plans for a new coop. I also think it's a great inspiration for a new keeper, or-as in my case-someone considering keeping chickens. Maybe this would even make a neat gift for someone who just adores chicken paraphenalia.
The Book: Chickens need a coop, and what better way to show your love than building one In The Art of the Chicken Coop, seven unique coops are presented with detailed building instructions, along with an additional gallery for more inspiration for your ideal coop. With additional information from other chicken owners, the lessons to creating a place for your chickens starts here. The Yarn: When I saw this book sitting in the NetGalley listings, I knew I had to scoop it up. I dream about having chickens one day, and the idea of being able to construct my own coop seems daunting. Gleason's book helps to show anyone how to create sturdy coops from materials people may already have or can acquire easily. Chris Gleason is a known DIY author on woodworking who deals with recycled materials, but the materials lists presented for each coop are clearly able to be gleaned from any large store you can buy construction materials. Bright, colorful, step-by-step photos along the way assist in making sure that the instructions can be followed as much visually as in print. I liked the additional information such as how to build chicken runs (attached to the coops or not) or how to resize the coops based on a standard 2sf (square feet) per additional bird. Little informational bits such as chicken breeds and recipes are scattered throughout the book. At the end are three profiles of "chicken keepers", who outline why they keep chickens and how. All three are based in Salt Lake City, Utah, which while showing that even urban backyard areas can support raising chickens, they don't quite give as diverse a look at urban poultry keeping as I would like to see. The Art of the Chicken Coop is not as expansive a collection of construction plans as probably exists in other titles on the market. However the vivid photographs, construction techniques and focus on reused materials make this good for those looking for a budget-conscious DIY book.
Cute Coop Ideas! I've had backyard chickens for two years now. I love my chickens and as I'd like to have more in the next few years, researching coop ideas has become a hobby for me. I was very happy to be able to review this book. Art of the Chicken Coop by Chris Gleason, has seven different coop ideas. Four of them are for flocks of six chicken or less, which is a great size for a back yard flock. We get on average five eggs per week from each of our chickens, which has given us more then enough for our family, as well as some to share. If you are planning on keep more chickens, three of the coop designs are for larger coops, if you'd like to have twelve to fifteen chickens. Also included are some guidelines on how to increase the size of any coops in the book. There's even instructions for a coop made out of salvaged materials. This is also a great book for the beginning chicken owner, because not only are there coop designs but there are a lot of chicken keeping tips through out the book and explanations for what you need to have in your coop and why. The book includes a completely supply list, step-by-step pictures - which I love - and some great egg recipes as well. There is also a section on the popular backyard breeds with pictures and a bit on info on each. The only thing I didn't like about the book was that it called for chicken wire in the coops. From my research I have learned that you need to use hardwear cloth in your coop building as the holes in chicken wire are too big, and raccoons and other predators can get through it. Also I would have loved more then one movable coop idea. Other then that, I thought this book was just great. I do not have much building experience but I would feel confident trying to build any of the coops in this book. Recommended!
We've had backyard chickens for two years now. It's been so wonderful to have pastured, organic eggs, right from our own backyard. I love my chickens and as I'd like to have more in the next few years, researching coop ideas has become a hobby for me. I was very happy to be able to review this book. Art of the Chicken Coop by Chris Gleason has seven different coop ideas. Four of them are for flocks of six chickens or less, which is a great size for a back yard flock. We get on average five eggs per week from each of our chickens; this gives us enough for our family, as well as some to share occasionally. If you are planning on keep more chickens, three of the coop designs are for larger coops, if you'd like to have twelve to fifteen chickens. Also included are some guidelines on how to increase the size of any coops in the book. There's even instructions for a coop made out of salvaged materials. This is also a great book for the beginning chicken owner, because not only are there coop designs but there are a lot of chicken keeping tips through out the book and explanations for what you need to have in your coop and why. The book includes a completely supply list, step-by-step pictures - which I love - and some great egg recipes as well. There is also a section on the popular backyard breeds with pictures and a bit on info on each. The only thing I didn't like about the book was that it called for chicken wire in the coops. From my research I have learned that you need to use hardware cloth in your coop building as the holes in chicken wire are too big, and raccoons and other predators can get through it. Also I would have loved more then one movable coop idea. Other then that, I thought this book was just great. I do not have much building experience but I would feel confident trying to build any of the coops in this book. Recommended!
More and more people are discovering the joy of gardening in their back yards. Even in a small yard, You can find enough space to enjoy fresh vegetables. Just one tomatoe plant can provide fresh tomatoes all summer long. Well now with the help of this book, you can add the joy of having fresh eggs to your table. I used to raise chickens and I loved having fresh eggs. They seem to taste so much better than store bought. Besides, you know what goes into their production and your chickens are not suffering in cramped, crude living conditions as most of the chickens producing store bought eggs are. Another positive thing about backyard chicken coops are the benefits of fertilizer for your garden. You no longer have to throw away those left overs bevcause chickens will eat just about anything you give them. But, they really love fresh vegetables and fruits. You can feed them the peels and pits. Also, Chris suggests using salvaged goods for building uour coop. You can find salved wood from construction and demolition sites. This book by Chris Gleason has really sparked a new interest in chickens for me. Now, if I can just talk my husband into it. I am contemplating just sticking to a few of the bantam chickens. When I had chickens, I loved the Old English Bantams, the Frizzle's (these were the best momma's and the sweetest birds), I also had a few of the rumpless Aracauna chickens that lay green eggs. Not only does the book provide wonderful ideas for coops, runs and nest boxes, but it also provides the materials needed for each project and step by step instructions. Most of the steps have color photographs to go along with the directions. Also icluded int the book are several recipes for using the eggs. One of the suggestion that I believes is one of the best things ever, is for making a hand sanitizer holder that is attached to the door of the coop. This is such a simple thing, and yet so smart. This makes it easy to have clean hands before touching your birds as well as clean hands before going back in your house.
This colorful guide to chicken coop construction provides step-by-step instructions for building artistic yet practical small scale housing for chickens. The volume provides plans for seven coops of varying shapes and sizes and includes three case studies of urban chicken owners and their egg-producing pets. Additional sections provide information of building runs and a collection of photographs of other coop styles and designs. Gleason is a professional coop builder and the author of several other do-it-yourself titles.
Coop-a-doodle-do! The first step in the increasingly popular hobby of raising chickens is to provide your birds a home. "Art of the Chicken Coop" provides detailed instructions for building seven functional, cool-lookin

Author Bio

Chris Gleason is the author of several books for the DIY market. He was raised on a farm in upstate New York. He has been raising chickens in his Salt Lake City backyard for over six years and currently builds and sells chicken coops. He has owned Gleason Woodworking Studios for over 13 years.