We have built two houses now for the chickens and ducks, finding a plan we liked before we started proved harder than we expected so we built the first by making it up as we went along. Though they came out pretty well in the end.

So, I thought, why not write out our plans (as best as we can remember them) and I did, and here they are (Chicken and Duck House.pdf).

News (April 2008) - we have a new flock of mixed chickens (Dominique, Buff Orpington, Americana, Black Austrolorp, White Silkies, Black Frizzle Cochin, ad more) and so a new chicken house. The new design was intended to be portable so we could move it around the yard and so we started with an A-frame design  from Judy Pangman's Chicken Coops. The result is this:

The main frame is untreated but primered and painted 2"x4", there are roosts made from 1"x2" on the left and the platform for the upper part is made from thin plywood. The sides are 1/4" plywood painted and then any gaps sealed with window caulk. The hinged roof (not shown) uses the same plastic roofing shown in the picture but fixed to a frame of 3"x1" and hinged at the top. The bottom opens to allow the chickens to roam, it's basically 1/2" plastic plumbing pipe with poultry netting fixed onto it.

This influx of new chickens also required a brooder to keep them in, once again a master work of 1/4" plywood and 1"x2" pine :-) 

The basic design is 2 8'x4' sheets of ply, cut one in half to get a 4'x4' base and a 4'x4' top. The second sheet you cut into 4 equal 2'x4' sections to make the four sides. on the base make an edge all the way around using the 1"x2" (batten) and place dowels to into this to seat the sides. Each side has a similar frame made on the inside from battens and holes drilled so that they sit on the dowels. To hold the four sides together I chose to use some trunk catches, this allows the whole assembly to come apart for storage. The top is not hinged, so it just slides on and off, I cut out the center (about 9" in from the edge) and covered with 1" poultry wire. You'll notice in the picture the lamps could either sit on the wire or we rigged a system to allow them to stand a little away from it on warm days. You can also see one strip of polystyrene - we had some cold frosty nights so we covered the gaps in the top with these at night to keep the warmth in.