Building a chicken coop for all seasons start to finish- Ontario, Canada 

I am so glad you liked it! Finding a "real" winter coop design is a trial that is for sure! After building about 7 plus coops at previous homes/farms (military family) we felt fairly confident in what we wanted, how to make it safe, how we needed and wanted to build it but this time I felt we needed to share it. We built it the demesions that we did because hubby didnt want to cut plywood for the floors, so built the way it is you can see it is three pieces of uncut plywood, course we had to cut lots of other pieces but thats besides the point...lol I do not believe any coop or farm build should cost a huge amount of money and I strongly believe in using what you have or getting second hand when you can. Thanks for watching!

Round St cloud mn here. Building a chicken tractor. Lots of learning. More learning Nicely said..... Mind if I ask your general location in Minnesota ?

Yeh family. Good job.

We live in Ontario, Canada. ☺️

thank you! I hope it helps you build your coop. Feel free to ask any questions I will do my best to answer them for you.

Yes you do! I lived there for 5 years in Cold Lake. Thanks for watching

Lol thanks! Great eye!

Thanks for watching!

Thank you :-)

Thanks!

Thank you!

Thank you 😀

Thanks so much! There’s lots of years and lots of building coops behind this design.

The blocks under the coops are like cinder blocks but are intended specifically for building. They have notches in the specifically for wood to sit into. They are a building block. If you are not breeding chickens a brooder box is not necessary but they are handy if you ever have a sick chicken that needs a little TLC or what not. In a cold climate a screen is not enough. Chickens need a draft free place to live in a cold climate but it has to have good ventilation. You will definately need glass windows that can be closed for the colder months. You dont want your nest boxes two high as the higher they are the more likely they are to roost in them. That and three rows is a lot of nest boxes, how many chickens do you plan to have? you dont need one box a chicken, most of mine lay in only one or two boxes despite having multiple boxes to choose from. Chickens are funny like that, they have their favourites and their friends favourites are the same one...lol you do need a roost. Chickens naturally roost as it makes them feel safe to be elevated off of the floor it has nothing to do with a rooster or with breeding it is a safety thing for them. Dust baths are 100% necessary. It is how they keep external parisites to a minimum. Lice and mites get mostly smothered by the dust bath. It is also how they keep their feathers clean and healthy. (how would you feel if you never got to shower or bath?) same concept for a chicken. Hope that helps

@@connerty_meadows_farm thank you for the answers! I will be having 20 hens.

@@ryanw6920 you will only need like 5 nest boxes then

@@connerty_meadows_farm thank you.

It’s actually much healthier for them not to have heat. So long as there is good ventilation but draft free they will be fine

No heat or insulation needed. Heat makes your chickens dependant on it. Which means when the power goes out they will suffer, get sick or could die. We live out in the country. We lose power regularly. Chickens adapt to the cold just fine. Mine go outside all winter long traipsing through the snow with no issues. Heating also opens things up for fires to happen. Insulation means a build up of condensation and gives mice and rats a place to hide. I don’t want mice or rats moving into my coops. In the 40+ years I have been raising chickens I have never had an insulated or heated coop and I have lived in Ontario, New Brunswick, and Alberta (all in Canada)

@@connerty_meadows_farm thank you so much, about to build a home and want chickens in the mountains of North Carolina, which has similar weather pattern is upstate New York your video is very helpful, thank you so much. Your response, was very thorough and detailed make me understand about rodents and moisture that I never thought about keep it up I’ll keep following :-) thank you.

You are very welcome! Enjoy your chickens

I can’t remember off hand but I believe I answered another question similar to this if you scroll through the comments with a better break down. Keep in mind it’s Canadian pricing and it was Cvid pricing as well.

The dimentions are 8x12 so we could use three sheets of plywood for the floor and not cut them :-)

Thank you! And are the walls 8ft and the other 7ft?

@@connerty_meadows_farm thanks! And what is the kind of vinyl you used?

@@ryanw6920 just regular vinyl flooring, the least expensive i could find

@@connerty_meadows_farm thank you

Was there something more you wanted to add? Seems your comment was cut off. If I can help you please let me know.

Lol no electricity or running water though 😉

Thanks so much. We've made many coops over the 40+ years and each coop and move has made us learn more. The elevation of the coop is a must (my cats can get in under it) but the wire is a game changer. I agree with the corners being eaten at though, we have had that in the past as well. We increased our cat poplulation and havent needed to do that here though.

WOW Yes it's brilliant. We are making a new coop sometime in the next 2 weeks. So this is a fantastic tip to see before we build. Thank you!!

You are very welcome! Best of luck building.

Thank you. We add hardware cloth to the windows, vents and the floor. Those are our only really vulnerable spots as the cats and dogs patrol the rest. Good for you guys though protecting your flock!

Thank you, I will pass that along we always want to be safe!

This design will easily upscale! We went with the size we did because we didn't have to cut so much plywood that way. If you make is a size that easily fits full pieces it will go together super fast. Good luck and let me know how it goes I would love to see it.

@@connerty_meadows_farm that's great idea using full sheets to cut down your wood cutting! I will keep you posted have a great day.

@@tamaracross9 always trying to find ways to keep it easy :-)

Thank you. We try to do everything together. Having the kids involved and having them have a say helps to be sure they enjoy the farm work they have to do.

In the past we screwed all our coops together but as you know it is very time consuming to do it that way and we really needed to be more efficient with our time so chose to use the gun for these one (and we don't generally get hurricanes here) but a lot of the build still used screws (the corners, the hurricane clips, all the plywood)

Thank you

They will be fine. I live in Canada. We get negative 40 deg C and my chickens are always fine. Chickens need a draft free place to live with good ventilation

Use the regular floor adhesive that is sold for that type of flooring. Its underneath dvd doesn’t affect the chickens at all. ☺️

We are farmers not carpenters. 🤷‍♀️ we do our best. Thanks for the safety recommendations

I have many different kind of chickens. So long as you have a good coop there’s no specific variety that is needed. I have Rhode Island reds, Americanas, Easter Eggers, azure blues, silkies, Millie fleurs, Cochins, and I’m sure I’m missing a few varieties in there 😂

The "plans" are the video...lol We didnt have any written plans just a whole bunch of years of making different coops :-) The dimentions are 8x12 so we could use three sheets of plywood for the floor and not cut them :-)

Thank you for watching. We have since painted all the coops in a nice green with white trim. (maybe I should do an update video ;-) ) There are windows in it now, I purchased them from a garage sale (I think I mention it in the video but didnt show them) they were out of an old barn. I do know of folks who do insulate but we don't insulate for a number of resason. One, mice/rats and other creepy crawlies like insulation and they will chew through pretty near everything to get to it. Two, insulating will mean regardless of how well vented the coop is there will be condensation build up which results in many health issues, chickens actually can raise the temperature in a coop about 5 degrees or more just with their own body heat (I use to have a thermoemter in our old coops at our old farm just for the fun of learning and mid winter while it was minus 25 deg C outside it was always a least 5 deg warmer in the coop, more at night when the little chicken door was closed.) Three, if by some horrible chance I got mites in our coop they are imposible to eradicate from insulation. It is much easier to clean down a coop that I can reach every nook and crany of.

The coops were painted/stained the next weekend. Green with white trim. I just wanted to get the video up 😊

thank you! Didnt figure anyone wanted to watch three plus days of working..lol Its always nice to see a completed project

We don’t build for others. We just make for ourself. We can’t keep up with our own projects let alone take on more. So sorry. Good luck

Thank you! I like my girls to be comfy as happy girls mean eggs. If you have any questions feel free to ask

I had many a coop that we used cat carriers for which is why in the planning and building of these coops I made sure to include the brooders into them. I have silkies and silkie crosses, those girls would hatch air or an elephant if they could! The brooders are a necessity. I usually leave mine in the brooder for at least a week to adjust to each other and to get the chicks strong enough to run away. I make sure we are home and working outside on the first day I let them out just so I can keep an eye on them. Some times the chickens go under the coops, a big stick helps to chase them out....lol I will be adding hardware cloth and rocks to prevent them from doing that this comming summer, everything is built in stages and according to finances. The windows dont get closed until we see below zero deg C. And the side window by the door does get opened on nice sunny days even in the winter time We made sure the over hang was long enough that we dont need to close them all spring, summer and fall. Its not until the cooler weather hits that they get closed. I like to promote good air circulation. The over hang prevents the water from going in and what little that may go in (havent seen any yet) would get soaked up with their bedding which is a mix of peat moss, wood pellets and shavings.

@@connerty_meadows_farm thank you for your response. I do understand the finances! Most everything I do is done with recycled pieces. My coop is made from discarded pallets and sheet metal. Only purchase was the plywood floor screws and hinges.

Thomas called it his man cave for awhile. Until the chickens moved in at any rate! 😂

Thank you! I love my coops! I also love reusing things that would be trashed otherwise! And even doing all the things we could to cut corners and save money it still cost us a couple thousand to build it. Building supplies during CVid were insane! (Not that they are much better now either)

The back higher wall is 78 inches tall so that hubby could get in to collect eggs and not hit his head. The shorter front wall with the windows is 66 inches tall.

@@connerty_meadows_farm Thank you for your reply! 💛

Thanks for looking out for our safety. Not to worry though It’s all supported properly double 2x4’s above and below each of the windows and doors but it might be hard to tell in the video. Our construction friends check in the be sure we are doing things right. Elevated brooders are a life saver! Don’t have to bend down to clean them! But that said we do brood in the bottom to (but I have the kids clean those ones 🤭)

@@connerty_meadows_farm yeah I think my kid would have an issue with cleaning my coop. Since she’s 26 years old and married with their own house. 😂

lol guess your stuck on your own! 🤭

I agree. We always try to find deals where we can and plan ahead too.

thank you for that reminder, appreciate it very much.

We store all our grain in the barn locked up so other animals cant smell it and get tempeted to break in and eat the food and my chickens. We dont heat our coops, the chickens climatize really well. In fact in the winter the coops are always 5-10 deg C warmer then outside just by body heat and deep litter bedding. I dont like electric in my coops due to fire hazards but that's my personal preferance.

@@connerty_meadows_farm Our barn was 100 yards from our coop

Our barn is quite the hike away as well but its good exercise with a 5 gallon pail :-)

Each place we have lived screws them in in different locations. Some places have used the ridges so in that area we followed the rules for there. Here they use the valleys so we do that here. It’s very strange that each place seems to have its own ideas but in our mind so long as the roof stays on it doesn’t matter to much. We are going on 3 years here with no issues. Over 7 years at our old farm with no issues. At the end of the day, it’s still just a chicken coop. Funny how things are so different from area to area.

Thank you! We have built a number of coops in different homes to prefect this one. Its wonderful having a great place for the chickens to live.

You are very welcome! Glad to be of help. :-) Can't wait to hear how your build goes.

I’m glad it’s helpful. You will love having chickens

The coop is built safe yes, the over hang prevents any water from getting into the vent but allows the air to flow through.

Aww thanks for following along. Appreciate it!

I lived in Northern Alberta for 7 years. Still no insulation needed. Just no drafts. We still get some cold spells here just not like when we lived there. Our windows get closed in the winter time so while they can go out during the day if they want through until little chicken door they do get locked up at night. You just need ventilation near the top to allow the hot air to escape so it doesn’t build up and forum condensation. Condensation is what causes frost bite on their combs. So no breeze but ventilation. Chickens are pretty hardy animals. Think about it this way. Even in the winter time in northern Alberta there are birds outside somehow they survive. It’s because their body temperature runs hotter than ours. Also build your coop to the number of birds you have. That way they can maintain their heat better and deep litter method in the winter time. We use a litter mix of peat moss, wood shavings and wood pellets. We also gather up leaves in the fall and occasionally throw some leaves on their coop for them to pick through. Oh and insulation just means somewhere for mice, rats, squirrels and chipmunks to hide as well as impossible to treat the coop if you get mites. You would litterly have to burn the coop down to get rid of mites as they would hide in the insulation. Hope that helps

I have the window faced in the direction that I do because of the overhang side and the sun. You can put the window where ever you would like. ☺️. I eventually plan to fill in the overhang side to give an outdoor closed in space and putting a window looking into a building part doesn’t make any sense. I wanted them to have sun and a breeze, that’s the only reason we have it set up as we do. Good luck on your build!

Thank you! We will build a coop for you if you put up fences for us ;-) lol

I only water outside year round never inside or it makes more condensation. We use rubber water buckets under the over hang and I bring out warm water twice a day in the winter time. The rubber buckets make it easy to throw them over and stomp out the ice. There are no gaps just the vents and of course the windows. A draft is like air passing through all the time. The vents have little flaps that face downwards so while there is air being exchanged it is not “whistling” through

Yes the screws that are used are roofing screws and they do have the rubber grommets. They are standard to get and use for the tin/steel roofing. Good luck with your build

Thanks! Yeah I can do a lot on the farm, and I do but it is much nicer when there’s more muscle around and I can do some of the easier tasks.

Thank you. The dimensions are in the description :-). Floor space is 8x12

Thank you! 😊

oh yeah building this coop was 3-5 times more expensive then the other identical coop, and that is even with me thrifting things! Its crazy

I’m glad you enjoyed the video. In the winter time I use a rubber bucket and take warm water out twice a day. The beauty with the rubber buckets it you can just flip them upside down and stomp the ice out.

Its breezy in the summer time with the windows open but in the winter colder weather the windows are all closed up. Chickens need good ventilation but no draft so that means there has to still be air exchanged (thus the vents) but not drafty. And yes it works just fine for negative temps. Here in Canada it gets very cold! We can easily get negative 30 deg C and colder

Roosts can go wherever works best. There is no “rule”. For us they work best there. And of course it’s uninsulated. See comments below as to why it is.

I wanted one coop for only small breeds. Silkies, Millie Fleurs, bantam Cochins and then the second coop and run for the layers. That way my big roosters don’t hurt my tiny birds in their exuberance. And I can separate by breeds as well. I don’t want electric because there is to much chance if fire and we loose electricity a lot out in the country. I don’t want them getting use to heat and then loose it and get sick it die. Also the coops are a long ways away from the house (our electrical supplier)

Thanks for watching.

There wouldn’t be much point adding screen to the mesh as the man door stays open in the day time during the summer and so does the little chicken door.

I dont have a set cost for it as some of it was built precovid prices, some of it was purchased second hand (windows and some of the tin roofing), some was cut down on our property (cedar poles for the lean to) and some was from left over projects. If I had to guess a couple thousand dollars with all the flooring etc as well.

You could if you wanted more insulation or noise reduction but in all the years we have been building coops we have never done it. We make sure there are lots of windows so its not hot and we have never had an issue. I personally dont think you need to spend more money on it, but we are pretty frugal as well.

Good luck and enjoy the chickens!

Thank you! We’ve made a “few” coops over the years during our various moves. If you saw the first one we made 🙈🙈🙈🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️. Let’s just say we’ve learned a lot over the years and these coops are the result of that learning.

Our pleasure!

Thanks for coming along!

I’ve put the answer in the comments for others ☺️ just have a peek through

It’s kinda cheating but it was the fastest and easiest way to get it done and it worked so it’s a win in my books 😁

Can’t wait to see!!!! I’m trying to convert an old play tower into a coop! Anyone!!! Any help would be greatly appreciated!!! “ I need beginner advice “!!!

I am so glad the video was helpful. We dont do outside egg collection for a number of reasons, but it all comes down to personal preferance. one is that it is cold in Canada and the eggs stay a tad bit warmer in the winter time on the inside so we dont get as many eggcycles. Also more nooks and cranies to clean out is not my idea of a good time. It also would make the build a bit more complicated and take more money and materials we had the milk crates from our old farm and old coops and the other nest boxes from our old farm and coops as well so some of it was just time, money and connivence. Animals can also get into the egg area easier and it is hard to get a perfect seal in there and we didnt want to be messing around with it. So short answer, it was easier not to...lol I have many birds, that is why we have so many coops...lol One coop and run is for my bantams (silkies, millie flours, bantam americanas, bantam cochins and mixes of all of them) they would get injured by a big rooster trying to breed them. I also get a lot of broodies in that coop that raise their young there almost all bantams are great moms so it is like a "nursery coop" as well. The smaller coop is for the ducks and the guineas. ducks are messy and gross and guineas are a bit crazy so they go well together. The small coop was brought with us from our old farm as well. The other coop, the one in the build, is mostly for our laying hens but sometimes the ducks and guines go into there as well. sometimes I get broodies in that coop as well so it all works to have extra broody pens. As for suggestions build bigger and more then you think you need. Chicken math is a real thing...lol

Lol I did that the other night with a goat video! It was not my goats making noise, just the video.

@@connerty_meadows_farm haha yup I almost ran outside

thanks :-). lol

Thank you

They are all painted up in a nice green with white trim. I just wanted to get the video up. It took me a number of days to paint all three coops.

Thanks! We love helping people learn new things

Hello Neighbour!! Good luck with the build if you have any questions be sure to ask

Thanks! I personally agree, fast and efficient is best, but the actually construction folks might not agree with us 😉🫣

Thanks! Happy chickens means eggs 😊

The chickens will love it!

Thats awesome! I am sure your chickens will be happy in your build. Thanks for watching

The “nest boxes” where they lay their eggs are what the milk crates are for.

Sorry I dont have a specific list of supplies. Lots of 2x4's, plywood, treated wood, windows, hardware cloth, tin, hurricane clips, vents, screws, nails, staple gun, vinyl for the floor, hinges, latches, cement footings, cedar posts, I am sure I am missing a bunch of stuff. We made the coop so that we didnt have to cut to many pieces of plywood and we could use full pieces as much as possible.

Thank you! I love it too!

Thanks for watching I hope it was helpful

yes they do! We spend time for the first couple weeks "training" them to the right coops and then they usually go into their own coops. Once in awhile you have one in the wrong coop but since we do a night time lock up its easy to check on them and move them around as needed. I have two coops in one run and one coop in another run. In the one with two coops (one being the one we built in this video) we have the duck and guinea coop and then the one we built together is the laying hen one.

The hardware cloth is something we learned years ago after having rodents chew through our flooring! We learn each place we move to! Hubby loves the nail gun. Before these coops we always screwed them together and while it worked it was so time consuming. This is so much faster! I have two girls. Both prefer hanging out outside on the farm, much like me when I was younger. My youngest says she wants to be “a bug scientist” when she grows up. So be it!! We got her bee hives to expand her passions

@@connerty_meadows_farm Haha! You're so sweet to respond. I was so happy to see you, your husband and children work on that project. You made me sentimental..my one child, like me, wanted to be a marine biologist but I'm afraid my serious paranoias drove her away also..so weird when a living person is just like you. What a blessing and I see that in your family...I wish you peace and happiness and I'm sure your husband knows he's blessed because he is.

Thank you for your kind words

coop building is always a learning experience. By the time we built this coop we had 6 other coop builds under our belts, we knew what worked, what we liked, and how to keep them safe and were able to incorporate all of it into one coop :-) Just treat each new coop as a learning experience...lol

@@connerty_meadows_farm yes! keep it simple and safe! my first coop 25 yrs ago was an aluminum shed with a wee door cut out so they could come and go, two shelves with straw, and a fenceline for their run. Never lost a chicken,] and gained two. They got their feed, their water and boom. Simple. Easy. The shed was small but big enough for 12 Rhode Island Reds. Now we have meat chickens, heavy feeders ... once again emoji eye roll since my husband is naming them. He says, sure let's breed them. "okay city boy, now we need more coops, ya gonna build another nuclear bomb-proof coop?" oy. I guess I'm just a redneck and ya work with what ya got.

@@ClaireOSullivanAuthor sometimes simple is best and fastest to get the job done and move on to the next thing on the list...and the list never seems to end either..lol I remember our first coop we built...it makes be laugh looking back at it now but it got the job done. I am sure the next home owners apprecated it none the less.

Good luck and enjoy!!

Thank you. No physical plans, we made the video so folks can stop and count and rewind as needed.

The first coop we keep our bantam birds in so I usually can put a few more I that coop than the full sized birds. With the suggested space each chicken "needs" the coops can hold easily up to 48 birds, though for my personal preference I would never put that many birds into there.

@@connerty_meadows_farm much appreciated... also I have probaby watched 50 coup build videos and find yours one of the best...great work

Thanks so much I hope it helps you our in your build

I don't have an actual cost over all for it. The flooring was done (treated wood, cement footers, wire, plywood, vinyl) pre covid prices. The rest of the lumber was purchased mid covid and some of the roofing. Some of the roofing was off of marketplace, the windows were from a garage sale, the outside poles were cut down from our property, the milk crates we brought with us from our old farm. So there are a lot of price variables in there. If I had to guess a couple thousand Canadian.

1/2 inch plywood on the outside then we painted it, and 3/4 inch for the flooring

@@connerty_meadows_farm thank you!

Thank you

Thanks for watching!

Thank you so much!!

Thanks! The chickens enjoy it

Thank you so much 🙂

I would like this information too. To understand the scale of the building I would love to know the dimensions of the floor.

I see the reply below.

The coop floor is 8X12 that way we didn't need to cut any plywood for the floor.

The floor is 8X12 because we didn't want to cut any plywood making the building of the coop faster and easier

perfect :-)