Chicken Coop Build Part 2 - The Build Begins

It was a freezing cold day in November because we're crazy people and can't start projects in the spring like normal people. I had finally caved in to The Husband and agreed to get chickens and I think he was impatient and/or afraid that I might change my mind...

Since it was snowing off and on, we started building in the garage.

What would become the platform for the main coop.

Then it was time to move it out to the yard.

Heave!

With a little help from our friends...

Its a good thing they love us even when we're crazy
and it's 15 degrees out...

And it has arrived!

Once we had the floor platform done, it was time to frame the walls.

It was unseasonably warm at ~50 degrees

Good opportunity to learn some carpentry skills.

We're equal opportunity around here...

Time to move!

Ok, we have wall frames, now what?

It's an old fashioned barn (coop) raising!

When you're The Daughter, any time is the right time for a song!

Being very good wall frame holder-uppers...

The kids 'helping'...

Fasten the walls down.

Adding the framing for the attached run.

Run framing done. Roof framing going up.

Its starting to resemble something...

The weather couldn't hold off forever, and the roof needed to go on.

Preparing for roofing. You can't tell from the photo,
but the wind was CRAZY this day.

It wasn't actually warm that day, he's just crazy...

Time for siding!

Starting cutting the siding.

Getting there...

And you thought you'd never use geometry and trigonometry again!

Cut outs for the nest box and windows.

Siding up!

The run all wired in.

All that was left was clean-up!

 In the next installment, the bells and whistles!

Chicken Coop Build Part 1 - The Design

Once the decision was made to start keeping chickens, one of the first things that we had to tackle was the coop. We started looking around online, at our local feed store, and pet stores. One of the very first things we had to decide was size. This goes back to the Know Your Codes post. Most cities, and many counties, have regulations regarding the minimum coop space per chicken. In Salt Lake City, you need 2 square feet per chicken if they will be allowed outside during the day, and 6 square feet per chicken if they won't. To start off we planned to have 8 chickens, and they would be allowed outside, so we needed a minimum of 16 square feet. However, I know how The Husband gets with animals, so I pushed to have enough square footage to be able to have the maximum 15 chickens allowed by the city because I had a sneaking suspicion that we would get there eventually. At the maximum 15 chickens, we were going to need a minimum of 30 square feet. 

Adorable and available at most feed stores, but WAY too small...

Typically, you have four options when obtaining a chicken coop: buy one new from a store or online, buy one used (usually in your local classifieds or Craigslist), build one, or have someone build one for you. We couldn't find a chicken coop big enough for our eventual 15 chickens in any stores or online. Most of them would fit no more than 3-4 chickens by the city's standard, though we did find one that would have fit 8. We also couldn't find anything used that was big enough but not way too big - like a shed that we could convert, for example.

That left either building a coop, or having one built for us. Well, if we're anything, we're DIY'ers, so build one, it was.

From that point, I asked The Husband for input. He said something along the lines of, "Design what you want and we'll make it happen. No chandeliers though." Party pooper.

So I started looking for inspiration online and collecting things on Pinterest. To see the whole thing, look at my Fancy Chicken Coops board here. The main inspirations for me came down to these three (one of which is based off another one):

Chez Poulet by Heather Bullard at heatherbullard.com

Gorgeous coop from The Art of Doing Stuff based loosely on Chez Poulet

Titled 'My Mid Life Crisis Coop' and found at http://www.backyardchickens.com/a/my-mid-life-crisis-coop

Gorgeous coops one and all! I wanted something like these that integrated a fully enclosed coop with attached fully enclosed run. Given that we needed at least 30 square feet of coop space, we decided to make our lives easy and do everything in 4 ft x 8 ft sections (32 square feet). So, I drew it up on the whiteboard in our kitchen and on graph paper. I apparently didn't take any pictures of that part though. :(

In the end, the enclosure was designed to be 8 ft x 8 ft total. Half of that would have the coop which would be elevated 2 feet off the ground to allow the chickens more room to roam around outside. We opted for external nest boxes and access doors on both ends. We started looking in our local classifieds for some materials that we hoped to get for cheaper than retail thanks to other people's remodeling leftovers. We wound up getting all of our roofing shingles for free (!) because someone was cleaning out her 80-year-old mother's basement and those were left overs from two roofs ago...We also got the majority of our hardware from our local Habitat for Humanity ReStore. The remainder of the materials we picked up at Home Depot with the use of our endlessly patient friend's van.

Roofing shingles from the '70s! They were still perfectly good though.

Piles and piles of plywood, siding, 2x4's, 4x4's, and 1x2's.

 In the next installment, the the build begins...

Know Your Codes

"Really? You're allowed to have chickens?"

I can't even tell you how many times we've gotten that reaction when we say that we keep chickens. But, whether you can keep chickens, or other animals, is entirely up to the municipal codes in your area. Sometimes, it varies greatly even between cities that blend right into each other. For example, in Salt Lake County the rules about keeping chickens vary widely and sometimes incomprehensibly.

Credit: Wikimedia Commons

In Salt Lake City, we are allowed to keep up to 15 chickens (no roosters) so long as we have a coop that provides at least 2sqft per bird and the coop is located at least 25 ft from any structure inhabited by people. If we have at least 50 ft from any inhabited structure, we can have up to 25 chickens. 

On the other hand, in unincorporated Salt Lake County, how many chickens you can have depends upon your zoning and can only be a maximum either 3, 5, or 8 birds in total. 

In West Valley City, chickens are classified as "household pets" and the city allows for a total of 4 pets - so 1 dog, 3 chickens or 2 cats, 1 rabbit, 1 chicken, and so on.

Holladay has determined that the number of various animals depends upon your lot size. If your lot is under 10,000 sqft, no 'livestock' animals are allowed, between 10,000 sqft and 1/2 acre you can have up to 3 varieties of livestock animals with a maximum of  "10 rabbits, 25 chickens, 25 pheasants; 5 ducks, 5 turkeys, 5 geese; or 10 pigeons". 

The moral of the story here is that municipal codes vary GREATLY. We recently considered a move to the Portland, OR area where you are allowed a certain number of pigs and goats in the city (sheep too, if I remember correctly), whereas, here in Salt Lake City, we are not allowed to have anything with hooves inside city limits.

So, how do you find out the codes in your area? Ask! You may be able to find the answer online, but don't trust message boards or blogs - even this one! Codes are subject to change at any time. So, instead, go to your city's website and then to the department of Animal Services or Animal Control. Or you could even just Google "[your city] Animal Services". If the answer can't be found online, call your local Animal Control office and ask if keeping chickens is allowed and what the guidelines are. In some cities permits are required, so make sure you have the appropriate permit before you bring home your girls!

Also of note, be sure you know what the code is for selling your products. In Salt Lake City, for example, we are very lucky to have very agriculture-friendly codes. We are allowed to sell our eggs, feathers, chickens, garden produce, honey, and much more. In unincorporated Salt Lake County, on the other hand, it is expressly forbidden to sell eggs or anything else relating to your chickens - they are to be kept for personal use only!

What are the codes like in your area? I'd love to know how different areas compare!

Hello World!

Welcome to our blog!

We are a family of four making our way from city life to farm life, which we will document here. So, as our first post, we've outlined the state of our tiny farm as it stands now, where we plan to go in the immediate future, and where we hope to end up

Where we are now:

1/4 acre rented property in Salt Lake City, Utah. We currently garden about 1/16 of an acre as well as keeping chickens. Up to this point we have mostly sold eggs to our friends and neighbors. We have just started keeping French Angora rabbits with our first one that we brought home this summer.

Where we're going in the immediate future:

Rabbits:

We are trying to work out how to pick up two more rabbits in Arizona next month, and are looking at one in Colorado. If we were to have all four of these, we would have the basis for a good beginning breeding program. At that point we would start breeding and making our adorable little fluff-balls available for sale! We would also hope to start selling the angora fiber.

Fiber:

We also recently acquired quite a bit of raw wool which we are working on getting into the various stages of preparation so that we can start to sell that too. We hope to sell it as raw washed wool, carded wool, combed wool, and spun into various yarns. This wool also happens to be rather dark colored, so we're also going to experiment with over-dying it and see how that goes.

Chickens:

We have currently maxed out our permit for the number of chickens we can keep, so our next step is to start thinning our flock so that we can add more egg colors! We are also hoping to set up several recurring orders - that is people who will have a regular order of a dozen eggs per week or every other week.

Business:

Currently we are both working full-time (and frequently overtime) regular jobs and working our mini (micro...nano...) farm on the side. We'd like to get to where one of us can either drop to part-time at our regular job, or even better, quit altogether!

The end goals:

Location:

Our ultimate goal is to move back to the Pacific Northwest where The Husband is originally from and the vast majority of his family lives. Utah is a beautiful place, but Washington will always be home. Once there, we'd like to start with a minimum 5 acres with the possibility to grow later.

Animals:

At this point, we see ourselves as developing into a fiber farm. We'd like to expand our angoras, as well as adding sheep and/or alpacas. In addition to that, we would also continue to keep chickens, and also add animals for meat and milk for our own family.

Diversification:

We hope to be able to offer classes and workshops covering nearly everything we do - spinning, fiber prep, knitting, chicken keeping, rabbit care, gardening, canning, and anything else that we can think of! If we have the space, we'd also like to be able to host events and weddings and possibly add a farm-to-table restaurant!



So there you go - where we are, where we're headed, and where we want to end up. Again, welcome to our blog, we look forward to seeing you around!