The "EGG PLANT"

Hello, my name is Coko Brown.

I live with my husband in Wynola, California on 2.5 acres in the back country of San Diego County. We call our place, Black Swan Ranch. We have 4 Miniature Silky Fainting Goats and a German Wirehaired Pointer named Ellie Mae. A few years back I had a flock of beautiful Silkies and I really wanted to have chickens again. This time I wanted egg layers and lots of colorful eggs. So I researched breeds and ended up with a really nice mixed flock.

The Egg Plant.​

I started with an old shed that was being used mainly to throw stuff in that we didn’t know what else to do with. It contained a lot of building materials that I ultimately used to build this coop. After removing all contents of the shed and laying it all out, I checked the condition of the interior walls, ceiling, and doors. The only weakness was in the front doors and door frame. I removed the old doors and built a new door frame. I also cut windows in the back wall for light and ventilation.



I had acquired some great doors from a friend. Some were old vintage screened doors that I would use for the interior of the coop and a couple of exterior doors that had dual-pane glass windows. I rebuilt the front door frame and hung the first door with glass. These doors are perfect as they let tons of light into the coop. I cut a door in the side of the shed for the chickens to have access to their run (yard). It is on a wire that I access from the interior of the shed but outside the coop making opening and closing the chickens' door super easy.



I bought a 5 gal. bucket of light blue paint that I found at Home Depot in their oops paint collection. It was semi-gloss interior latex enamel and fit the bill
perfectly for painting the interior of the shed. After completing the painting I used old wood I had found in the shed that had wallpaper adhered to the panels. This became the lower walls for the coop as it is a plasticized wallpaper and easy to clean.

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I put linoleum down on the floor in the coop area. I split the shed in half. I then built the roosting area. I designed a roosting system that would have a linoleum-covered dropping board under the roosting bars that would make cleaning a breeze. I do have to go into the coop to do this but most of the poop is on the dropping boards, not the floor. This will undoubtedly change in the winter when the chicks and dude stay inside more, for that, I have coop boots at the ready.

I made the roosts out of 1”x1” redwood boards and screwed two together making it the right size for our birds' feet. I built a ramp up to the roosts. It takes me 15 minutes in the morning to clean off the dropping boards, and water and feed. I moved my compost bins to a supervised free-range yard next to the coop to compost the droppings.

Once a week I use a diluted disinfectant to clean off the boards and roosts. The open floor plan makes the bi-annual coop cleaning a snap. A snow shovel removes the wood shavings in a matter of minutes and the linoleum is super easy to wipe down.



Due to chicken math, I had to add to my roosting system as I made the original roosts for 8 birds and I ended up with 13. The two systems are combined seamlessly and the chickens seem very happy and have plenty of room. I put in hooks to hang the food and water from the roosting area so that it is protected under the dropping boards and not on the floor keeping everything clean and fresh. The food and water are easily accessible from the door.



I put up 2x4s from floor to ceiling so I could attach the screened doors which would form the walls of the coop. I placed the doors in such a way to be able to access nesting boxes, food, and water without actually entering the coop. This is a great feature as there are no poopy shoes this way. First I hung the single door in the back to access windows, food, and water. The next 2x4 was installed in order to hang the double screen door where I will access the nesting boxes.

I love these old vintage screen doors. I was sure to wire brush the inside to get all the peeling paint off so the chickens wouldn't be tempted to pick at the old paint. The last 2x4 and a screen door were added to finish the wall. This screen door is the access to the coop for cleaning.



The front corner of the coop was made by using a large framed screen. This gives the coop lots of fresh air. Winds can be blocked by closing one of the exterior doors and the chickens love to sit there in the colder mornings to soak up the sun. The chicken door was framed. I made the window improvements by removing the wood and replacing it with Plexi. This way the sun can come at all times.

These Plexi panels can be lowered to allow for ventilation or completely removed for lots of fresh air. This design includes ample room for storage and easy access to food, wood chips, and other supplies.

The Bawk Yard.​

This is their daytime hang-out spot. It is approximately 1300 sq. ft. and has mature manzanita, wild grapes, and a small oak tree. This provides a great deal of shade for hot days. There is another area in the yard that gets a lot of sun on those colder days. I was given a good amount of 5 ft. chain link and 5 ft. heavy-duty plastic snow fencing. This is what we used for the yard fencing.

Repurposed well pipes were dug in the ground about 4 ft. deep. The snow fence was installed on top of the chain-link making the fencing about 10 ft. in height. We do have predators here and want to be sure the chickens are safe. The trees make it difficult for hawks to attack. I installed an old door for access to the yard and fashioned it with a manzanita handle.



Now it was time for some exterior painting. I found the perfect red barn color in the Home Depot's oops selection along with some white for accents. If you don’t know about this paint section at the depot, it is where people special order a color and then return it for one reason or another. The paint is very cheap, $19.00 for a 5-gallon bucket and about $9 for 1 gallon.

You can get premium paints for practically nothing. The paint I found for this project was top-of-the-line Bear brand and very good quality. The colors were exactly what I was looking for. Just goes to show you, that one man’s "oops" is another's "yee-haw!". I installed some bricks on the side of the barn (it's no longer a shed now that it is barn red). These will help with pesky squirrels and prevent them from digging under the coop. We added more well pipes along the outside of the fence to help deter digging into the yard.



The yard is a great place to hang out. I have installed perches for my chickens to jump and climb around on and they seem to use them a lot. My husband and I finish our long busy days in the Bawk Yard and enjoy spending time with the gang. It was then time to adorn the coop with some signage. So I went into my
studio and made a couple. I have plans to do more but for now, this will do. They were varnished and installed.






Baby Blue Brooder
I brought my day-old chicks home in February of this year after a long wait due to the New Castle Virus ban in California. I made a brooder for them out of an old entertainment cabinet I got at a Salvation Army For $5. I removed the back, shelves, and front doors. I cut doors in the top and hinged them. Hardware cloth and thin plastic sheets were attached to front doors and permanently screwed on. The plastic kept the shavings inside the brooder. A door was cut through the middle and served as a nighttime barrier to keep the young chicks close to heat, food, and water.

A new ventilated back was put on. I used the "Rent A Coop" brooder heater and it worked great. My husband called them pizza huts. The chicks outgrew the brooder pretty quickly and after about 3 weeks we put the pizza hut and the chicks into the coop. We did get another pizza hut as we wanted to be sure they could all get heat. We are lucky that there is electricity just outside the coop. These types of brooder heat sources are very safe and we didn't have to worry about the fire while using them. When they went to the coop it was still pretty cold with a couple of little snow storms and lots of rain. The chicks feathered out fast and were very comfortable.

The Baby Blue Brooder can now be used to isolate a bird if necessary or if I decide to let a hen brood some chicks. I ended up with an accidental Roo. His name s Salvador Dali and he is one of my White Face Black Spanish, a very friendly and super sweet guy. I have a hen too and since they are endangered I thought I might see if I can hatch some. I don't know if I'll have a broody hen though as I tried to choose breeds with less broody tendencies after the time I had with my broody Silkies. Time will tell. I really enjoyed those baby chick days.




The Nesting Boxes
A friend gave me a big wood box that we used in the goat yard for a while. Jumpin Jack Flash really liked the box and it was not uncommon to find Jack In The Box. However, he outgrew it very quickly and the other kids didn't seem so keen on it. It was just waiting to become nesting boxes. The first thing I did was to split it in half horizontally and add rails to set the floor of the upper boxes on.



Then I made a floor and ledge to keep the shaving inside. I created a center divide and screwed it all into place. I made the center divide and ledges for the lower
boxes.
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Rectangles were cut into the back for egg gathering and ventilation holes were drilled in the top and sides.



The boxes are filled with wood shavings and topped with herbs grown in my gardens. I use rosemary, mint, lavender, and sage in my hens' boxes. These herbs help to keep the pests away, they make the hens and the coop smell great and it is well known that lavender has calming properties. I will make a ladder for them to get to the upper boxes but my girls are still about 3 weeks away from needing their nesting boxes in the coop.



That's about it for this coop project for now. It has been a fun project and this coop really functions perfectly. The only thing I might have changed was to have extended the coop into the back of the barn to allow for that darn chicken math, but that is an easy adjustment to make if I feel it is necessary later on. Check out the before and after pics. This flock of chickens has improved our property and the quality of our lives and they haven't even started laying yet!

Meet the Flock​

Thanks for reading my article and I hope you get something out of it or just simply enjoyed our story.