Backyard Chickens' Guide to Coops and Tractors: Planning, Building, and Real-Life Advice

I just received this book and I have to say that I wish this had been published two years ago when I built my coop. I scoured the internet for basic chicken coop plans and came up empty. The one's I found were either for large flocks or were simply impractical. This book highlights 16 basic backyard coops which can be built by the beginner to expert. It's full of color pictures of each coop's construction as well as a measured drawings and supply lists. I highly recommend this book for people looking to build their first coop.

This book is very nice with very detailed illustrations and even better, color pictures of the building progress of each coop. The coops are all kind of small but many of the ideas in them can be used for larger coops. In my opinion (and maybe this is because I'm getting old) the print is too small to read comfortably and would be easier to see on a white or barely off-white background instead of the wood print that it's on. So I admit I have not read much of the text because it gave me a headache to try (and I do a lot of reading-but apparently with bigger print and lighter backgrounds). If it had improved readability I would have given it 5 stars, even though we only saw one coop that would have been big enough for our 12 chickens.

I have gone through this book at least 6 times. Every design has a great write up and good tips on construction and housing chickens. Each design has a great 3D and plan views, plus bill of materials nicely labeled. Even updates from the owners on what they would do differently the next time. This is a great book! I took the best of each design and used Google Sketchup (free version) to make my own composite design. Easy as pie. I also recommend viewing the website backyardchickens dot com. Real people writing about real life on the farm.

This is a wonderful book if you are interested in getting chickens and want ideas for the kind of coop you want. It gives you step by step instructions of how to make the coops and are all ideas from people with chickens. The company is not advertising at all during the whole book. I am 11 years old and thinking of getting chickens myself and this book has helped me SO much.

This is a great book for those who are building their own coop and plan to do so in a conventional manner. Many choices of size and shape with construction details and bill of materials are given. In my case, the purpose of this purchase was to generate some ideas for my own coop that I need to build, and that it did, though I'm not sure there was any unique idea that could not be found on the Internet. The chicken tractor I am building is using PVC pipe and fittings for the framework so as to be very light yet strong, and there was no example in this book that could help me with PVC and the unique structural characteristics that PVC brings. My design is incorporating a solar powered motor to move the tractor slowly throughout the day, along with a solar powered door to open at dawn and close at dusk. I am also incorporating a feeder and waterer that can be serviced from outside the coop. My ideas are a little "outside the box" I know, but for me as a retired engineer, that is part of my fun. This book offered little in "outside the box" thinking yet still was able to generate some ideas for my coop.

I bought five or six books about building chicken coops and this one was by far the best. It has 16 or so detailed plans of building different style chicken coops and lists all supplies needed for each job and pretty much most of what you will need for tools. Makes the building much easier!

This is an overall nice book. My issue is that the book includes an extensive "cuts list" but doesn't actually give you a "purchase wood/supplies" list making it very difficult to get what you need in one trip out. But it does provide a nice set of chicken coops. I really wish that there were more chicken tractor designs presented. Nearly all of the ones in the book are for stationary coops. I wish also that there was more space devoted to protecting chickens from predators (there is a bit, but the author assumes you know some basic things that many readers might not know).

My wife and I wanted to have chickens, so we ordered books to get educated from amazon. This book holds fantastic plans and we used one and are so satisfied with the results. We have had our coop and 6 chickens for about 6 month and our so entertained and the nieghbors love them too. If you are interested in chickens than go for it because it is so much fun. We love em! The chickens will turn your compost, give you eggs, and entertainment for the whole community!