How We Built Our Chicken Coop 🐓 (And Why I’d Do a Few Things Differently)

This is one of those projects where I say…

“I have an idea…”

And somehow, my son makes it happen 😂

💡 The Goal

I didn’t just want a chicken coop — I wanted something that was:

Easy to clean
Easy to collect eggs
Safe at night
Simple to manage every day

Here’s what we came up with 👇

🏠 The Chicken House

My son built the main chicken house from scratch.

We made sure to include:

A side door for easy clean-out
Roosting bars inside
A secure structure for nighttime protection

At night is when chickens are most vulnerable, so this part was really important.

🥚 Nesting Boxes (My Favorite Part)

This might be my favorite feature of the whole setup.

We attached the nesting boxes to the back side of the coop.

They’re mounted from the outside
You can flip them open to collect eggs
No need to go inside the coop

Even better — the boxes are slightly tilted so the eggs roll away after they’re laid.

That keeps them much cleaner.

I ordered these nesting boxes on Amazon.

🧼 Easy Cleaning

We added vinyl flooring to the bottom of the coop.

This makes cleaning so much easier — just scrape and wipe.

Definitely something I would do again.

🚪 Automatic Chicken Doors (Game Changer)

I did NOT want to worry about opening and closing the coop every day.

So we added an automatic chicken door.

Solar powered
Opens and closes automatically
Can be set by time OR sunrise/sunset

I actually use two of these doors — one for the coop and one for the run.

If you’re someone who might forget (like me 😅), these are absolutely worth it.

🐓 The Chicken Run

I wanted the chickens to have outdoor space… but not free range all day.

So we added a walk-in chicken run attached to the coop.

I ordered the run on Amazon and connected it to the house.

What I like:

Gives them space during the day
More controlled than full free range
Easy to walk into and manage

What I would change:

The netting that comes with it is not very secure.

That’s actually how Dolly ended up getting into it 😅

So if you’re using something like this, I would recommend:

Reinforcing the netting
Or upgrading it for better protection

It’s still a good setup — just something to think about.

🚪 Second Door for Free Range Time

This is where another “I have an idea…” moment happened 😂

I wanted the chickens to:

Stay in the run during part of the day
Then free range later

So we added a second automatic door to the chicken run.

This one opens around 2 PM so they can go out — but not all day.

Attaching it to netting wasn’t easy… but my son figured it out.

I’ll share photos of that setup because it took some creativity.

🤔 What I’d Do Differently

Upgrade or reinforce the run netting
Figure out how to get ALL chickens to use the nesting boxes 😂

Some of them understood the assignment…

Some did not.

💬 What Do You Think?

If you’ve built a chicken coop, I’d love to hear:

What worked for you?
What would you change?

And if you’ve figured out how to get chickens to ONLY use nesting boxes… please tell me 😂

If you enjoy following along with our farm life (the peaceful parts and the chaotic ones 😄), you can check out our stays here:

Dana’s Florida Getaways