In part 5 of our “Getting started with Chickens” series, I want to introduce the Phone Booth Coop. No, there is no need for quarters, superman outfits, or phonebooks on cables (those of you born after 1990 probably can’t appreciate any of those three references). The Phone Booth Coop is a structure that I designed and built specifically to house our first 12 chickens.

I refer to it as the Phone Booth Coop simply due to its size. When I designed it, I wanted to minimize material costs – not because of some lofty desire to be efficient but due to being cheap and thinking I was going to accidentally kill off these 12 unfortunate birds. The coop is 4’x4′ and 4 feet tall with a shingled roof. Some key features of the design include:img_2835

  • Pop door with hook latch (keep the good guy in and the bad guys out)
  • Human door (let the good guy in to clean the coop)
  • 3 nesting boxes with outside lid (good guy can get eggs without going through the human door)
  • Removable eave panels for light (can be removed when wanting a summer breeze – you just hummed it, didn’t you?)
  • Skid base for easy movement
  • Halogen light for heat source and egg production

I really like this coop. I currently don’t use it as having 90 chickens would make it a bit crowded. It was one of those projects I took my time to build and really paid attention to the details. I painted the outside and inside so it would look nice and be easy to clean up.

img_2836I have had this coop setup in various configurations with small runs, free range housing, and housing for new chicks that come out of the brooder but aren’t old enough to mingle with the big girls. At this moment, the coop sits unused by the barn. The piano hinge on the pop door has rusted and broken and the wasps have made many nests in it, but with a little TLC it could be back in action in no time.

I have plans this spring to cull my flock and find my non-producing hens. The easiest way I can think to do this is to setup the phone booth coop with a small run and rotate the hens through it in small groups (2 or 3 at a time). If I have them sequestered in there for a week, I can get an idea of who is earning their keep and who is a freeloader.

img_2837If you have or are planning to have 12 or less chickens and need a good coop design, look at copying my phone booth coop. I think you will appreciate the simplicity of construction and the practicality of the design.