Chicken Coops: 45 Building Ideas for Housing Your Flock

Great book to have when deciding to build a coop. We got lots of ideas and found the one for us!

This book about chicken coops provides everything you need to create your own style of coop for your own needs. It has city coops, urban coops, coops for 2 - 5 chickens and coops for a thousand. I enjoyed the focus on using recycled materials to create the coops and the well written summary for each design. We live on a farm and I found it just as useful if not more useful than the traditional coop building books . . .

For those who are into poultry husbandry, whether professionally or personally, this book gives useful guidance for those who want to keep chickens either as a hobby or on a small farm. The range of building scenarios (but not detailed plans) that are discussed is geared both to the expected size of the flock and the expected weather. For some the expense will factor into the choice of coop, along with local codes regarding the keeping of poultry. This reviewer speaks from many years of experience in the raising of chickens, both in hatching them, breeding them, egg production, and attending to their ailments. Most of this experience came from the keeping of chickens in the context of a backyard or a small acreage, with definite extremes in temperature between summer and winter.The information presented in this book, which is written by authors who are clearly enthusiasts for the raising of poultry, is definitely useful. The brooding of chickens can be a challenge for the newcomer, usually because of the temperature requirements. But chickens in general are very resilient, which is no doubt due to the intense breeding efforts over the last one hundred years. And luckily the drive for hormonally induced growth has ebbed due to the dangers involved, for both humans and the poultry themselves. Genetic engineering will no doubt play a role in future generations of poultry, as it already has, and bring forth new interesting patterns in both plumage and behavior. And one can only hope that the authors' belief that backyard poultry-raising will continue to increase, with the appropriate zoning laws and other legalities relaxing so as to encourage this highly interesting and rewarding hobby.

I would say that this book offers exactly what it is stating. I did not find the type of coop I have in mind, but there are several optimal choices in here and there are diagrams provided. I am very glad I purchased the book and would encourage the individual that is looking into ownership of a flock or just a few chickens, this book will offer choices in housing them.

Well it has nice pictures with some basic measurements but im sure you can get good plans on line for free.

This book has to be the biggest disappointments in a "How To" book I have ever purchased. (Understatement)I honestly felt ripped off, and I've been buying online since it's inception.I have very little construction experience, but enough to follow a decently drawn plan, maybe even some poor ones. There were NO plans in this book.Maybe times have changed. But I wanted a book with ideas or plans for something basic, and ultimately efficient and applicable for housing an average backyard flock. This book offered none of the above.Material list? Not even. Nor I am not a fan of cutesy or fringe.I mean really, one plan was an 'egg-loo' constructed from straw bales. Another using the top of a truck bed topper. Have we become so unintelligent we need a book to tell us how to do this?! I think not.My only regret is I didn't post a BEWARE review sooner, and return this book for a full and immediate refund.Truthfully, I am surprised Storey even published it, much less attached their name to it. I have many of their books, but they have lost a customer after this. I would be ashamed.I won't even even donate it to the library.If you need a book on building a chicken coop, poultry house, or anything of this ilk, please, don't waste your money, much less your time.

No plans!

I really appreciate this book. It has a coop for every situation. It is also full of great advice from people seasoned in poultry care. Even if you don't use a design from this book to build your coop you will have enough information to design a really good one if you read it. A worthwhile purchase.