Comments on: Convert your doghouse to a chicken coop

By: Rob

Rob — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 05:51:23 +0000

Hi Mary,
Our chickens are capable of flying over our fence (about 4 ft high) but generally they don’t. This may be in part because it is a picket fence. Chickens like to perch atop a fence rather than fly over it in one pass. Perching is not so easy on a picket fence). I believe it is also simply because our chickens have enough space, shelter, food and water where they are. If yours is a homeless chicken, that may not be the case. It is common practice to clip the flight feathers off one wing periodically (they grow back) with a pair of scissors. This will throw the bird off balance in flight. I tried it but found it unnecessary since my hens tend not to fly over the fence anyway. When they do, they don’t get into much trouble and they always fly back before dark.

By: Lisa

Lisa — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 14:55:05 +0000

Hi there! Really enjoyed your story!!!!!!!! had a good laugh.

my first chicken house was the dog house left at this rental.I also constructed a run out of recycled wire and posts. The worst of it all was getting inside the thing to clean it out! And im not handy enough to make a door. For nests I have seen square plastic ‘bowls’, the type people use to wash their dishes when they are camping.

I came across your story while looking for something economical to buy that is more user friendly. I am encouraged to find a friend to help me convert the doghouse and save myself a couple of hundred $!
THANKS

By: Mary

Mary — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 13:24:53 +0000

We live in the suburbs and have a hen that has been around for about 3 weeks now and visits between our yard and two other neighbor yards. It rained today and I felt sorry for it and thought about the dog house idea and found your blog. I see that your fence is not very high – every time we get near the hen it flies up to the top of our 8 foot fence. If we did decide to get another – how do you get them not to fly away?

By: Samantha Elliott

Samantha Elliott — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 15:29:37 +0000

hi my friend is giving their old doghouse to me and i was going to use is as a chicken coop, but i have a question, can you get chicken wire at home depo?

By: BilliB

BilliB — Thu, 13 May 2010 17:10:00 +0000

Please excuse my City Boy ignorance. I thought you needed a Rooster to interact with a chicken in order to get egg production. Apparently a chicken will lay eggs without a Rooster. I’m guessing the laid eggs are just unfertilized. The cool thing is you have fresh eggs for breakfast and your not up at dawn because there is no Rooster. I love eating eggs, so I would love a few chickens. The problem is, I live in a city. Oh well.

By: Mark Riley

Mark Riley — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 10:17:06 +0000

Hi
I did the same with a doghouse I bought as a kit. I used to live in East Sooke on Vancouver Island but now live in the UK.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/olivebranch/tags/chickenshed/
Some pics.

By: Ashley McCrnaey

Ashley McCrnaey — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 05:36:22 +0000

try using a retractable rod or a 98 cent curtain rod and simply screw it into the side walls for a perch….cheap fix

By: Rob

Rob — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 21:58:05 +0000

Hi Jessica,
My chickens spend hardly any time in the dog… er.. hen house, other than for laying or sleeping. They do tend to perch on the edges of their nesting boxes occasionally. I set up some “perch-like” structures in their yard, but they don’t use them. My advice is not to go to any great effort until your chickens let you know what they like. Build something makeshift and see if your chickens use it. If they do, then build something more permanent. If they don’t, then you won’t have wasted much effort. Good luck.

By: Jessica

Jessica — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 18:28:23 +0000

I don’t see a perch, do you have one. I have a dog house I wish to convert and am trying to figure out how to put in a perch. You thoughts would be helpful.

By: jappy

jappy — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 17:28:07 +0000

hi Rob,
nice coop.
had my dog kennel into a chicken coop but for one hen it was way to big.
Only advantage to this system,i didnt have to clean up to often.
Once a month was enough.
One day i drop my chewing gum on the ground and couldn’t find it so i chewing a few to find mine…………….
see ya
have a nice day.
lollllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll
jappy

By: Nicholas Huppe

Nicholas Huppe — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 22:28:54 +0000

I am about to convert my dog house into a coop. I am lucky enough to also have a dog pen which the dog house/ coop will be inside. I do still have my dogs. We now live on 5140 acres so the dogs have plenty of space. I am so excited to start on the new project. Thanks for all your helpful info. Nik

By: Hi Rob!

Hi Rob! — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 04:38:02 +0000

My 11 y.o. son and I recently decided to raise some chickens here in AZ. We have a dog house very similar to yours and we were wondering how to convert it to a coop. Your information has been invaluable! Thanks for sharing! My son wants to get started right away in converting our dog house. Unfortunately, it’s 110 degrees in Phoenix right now, so it will have to wait a little while until the temp falls to 100 or so. Thank you for sharing! Jan and Chris

By: Rob

Rob — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 03:51:08 +0000

Hi Ian,
I updated the article to answer your question and included a picture of the eggs.

By: Bruce

Bruce — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 13:43:33 +0000

Rob, that is so cool! I love the dog-house conversion. I was surprised to see that it is elevated off the ground! I guess I know nothing about hen house and I assumed that they would just use Gus’ old enclosure like a dog would…

… what do you know. I guess a chicken is not like a dog. All I know is that dogs don’t lay eggs.

By: Ian

Ian — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 21:27:13 +0000

Hi Rob,

Good job on the coop! How many eggs do the chickens lay per week?

Ian

By: Rob Steves

Rob Steves — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 21:54:59 +0000

Hi Alisha, my doghouse was about 4ft long by 2.5 ft wide. I’m no expert by any means, but in the past couple weeks since I got the chickens, I’ve noticed they spend very little time in the hen house. Essentially they only go into it at night to sleep or during the day to lay eggs in the nesting boxes. So I don’t think the henhouse itself needs to be very large as long as there is plenty of space for the chickens to free range. I’ve seen recommendations starting at only 2-3 square feet per bird, but I think you’ll find the most space you give them, the less cleaning up you’ll have to do.

In my dog house, there was a lip at the top of the walls. I built a sort of hook on the nesting boxes to hang over this lip. If the walls didn’t have a lip at the top, I would have simply drilled a couple holes in the back of each nesting box so they could be hung on a couple nails banged into the dog house wall.

Good luck with your chickens.

By: Alisha

Alisha — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 20:47:30 +0000

Hi I have a question about your coop design. I have been trying to get a doghouse off craigslist to do this same thing. Just today someone contacted me with one, but I don’t know if it is going to be too big. What are the dimensions of your house? You did a great job with the conversion. I also wondered how you made your nesting boxes detachable. Thank you for sharing this as it has helped alot already.