A Ryan-Built coop Upgrade for Safety, Space, and a Few More Chickens

After a rough year of losing far too many chickens to predators, Ryan decided enough was enough. It was time to build something bigger, safer, and apparently nice enough to qualify as luxury poultry housing.

What started as plans for a new chicken shed has quickly turned into what Ryan proudly calls the “Taj Mahal of chicken coops.”

Brigid has renamed it the “Baj Bahal,” though, and honestly, her version may be the one that sticks.

At 16×20, this is definitely not your average backyard chicken coop. It is practically a chicken mansion. Ryan has been working hard on it, and Brigid has been right beside him with her own teeny tape measure, carefully checking his work and providing plenty of construction supervision.

Whether her measurements are accurate is still up for debate, but her confidence is not.

Our current coop has served us well, but it has also taught us a few lessons. One of the biggest upgrades in the new coop will be nesting boxes that can be accessed from the outside. Right now, collecting eggs means going all the way inside, usually while trying not to step in anything unpleasant or get mobbed by curious chickens.

With the new setup, we will be able to open the nesting boxes from outside, grab the eggs, and hopefully walk away with clean shoes.

The Baj Bahal will also include a large outdoor run, a built-in brooder for raising chicks, a small front porch, and an automatic solar chicken door. At this point, the chickens may have more amenities than we do.

Most importantly, the entire building is being designed with safety in mind. After the losses we experienced this year, Ryan has put a lot of thought into making the new coop as predator-proof as possible, including adding hardware cloth skirting around the bottom so nothing can even dig underneath it.

It has been fun watching everything come together and seeing how much care Ryan is putting into every detail. Projects around here always seem to turn into family projects, even when one of the helpers is two feet tall, carrying a miniature tape measure, and calling the building the Baj Bahal.

By the time it is finished, the chickens will have more room, better protection, and probably a nicer home than anyone ever expected a chicken to live in.

Now we just have one big decision left: what color should we paint it?

We want the Baj Bahal to feel like it belongs with the rest of our property. Our house and barn both have that beige-yellow siding with a reddish-brown roof, so we are trying to decide whether we go with something classic, something bold, or something that ties in best with everything else.

Right now, we are considering a few different options, and we would love some help deciding. Do we go with classic white, sage green, barn red, warm tan, rustic brown, or something else entirely?

Take a look at the color options and let us know which one gets your vote.