My husband and I bought our homestead more than 4 years ago and named it “The Outskirts of Heaven.” We truly felt blessed to have a little piece of country land to start our homestead life. We initially dreamed of building our chickens a larger coop, so we purchased a basic farm-supply version.
It didn’t hold up for too long, but it did the job initially on a budget.
My husband looked at several henhouse designs that others had built and came up with plans of his own.
Read more:This family converted an old playhouse into one very cool coop.
This coop has a wonderful feature, which is an area underneath to integrate new hens with existing, as they always need a few days to get acquainted with one another. We use a deep-litter system to keep our hens healthy and pine pellets to keep the floor nice, clean and free from mud when it rains.
It truly is a sanctuary for us to enjoy our flock.
Together, we made our dream a reality for our small flock. We’re truly excited for them, and they’re so much happier. We have since expanded our flock and plan to sell eggs at our local farmers market next year.
Our Dorking rooster, “Handsome Boy,” simply loves all our new girls, and we love sitting with them and giving them treats. — Ken & Penny Varble, Frankfort, Kentucky
This article originally appeared in the May/June 2022 issue of Chickens magazine.
