Interested in housing hens in your backyard and having fresh eggs for breakfast?  Did you know the hens will eat your kitchen and garden scraps?   The University of Colorado at Boulder will host a design contest for the ultimate urban hen house during Spring 2009.  Coops will host 4-6 hens and be designed as easy-to-build kits for homeowners.  

Our hope is to make those designs publicly available and ultimately in a kit format.  Stay tuned for more details.

buildingfinished

North Boulder Neighborhood Egg Cooperative (start to finish)

shellwalls

CU Student's build the first "kit"

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Shawnee Garden's Coop - nestled into the trees


While you wait for local kits, there are two basic designs I like, after much searching on the web, aside from the design Urban Hens will be using at its community sites...    www.winecountrycoops.com  - good model to use with a high wire-fenced hen yard around it or http://www.backyardchickens.com/coopdesigns.html  the small coop design here is a good one.    Either use it as a tractor if your yard is secure from neighborhood  dogs, etc...  or permanently install it in your yard.