Spring is around the corner and it seems that chicken fever is upon us! Increasingly, people are deciding to keep a few laying hens on hand for fresh eggs, garden amending or even just as pets. As cities change and adapt their code to allow the keeping of hens (in most urban areas roosters are still a big no), the question comes down to what type of housing to construct for our fine feathered friends. A quick google search turns up thousands of creative ideas for coops; below are a few fun ones I’ve recently encountered as well as our own coop design.

The Breed Retreat designed by Frederik Roijé is an architectural hen house. See more at Design Milk.

This was a great find sent to me by a Facebook friend. A modern chicken dwelling made of recycled cedar and metal (or fiberglass) roof panels from Portland-based architecture firm Wright Design Office. See more at Architizer.

Moskow Linn Architects led the charge on this design with five architectural students; the coop earned the moniker “Chicken Chapel”. See more at DWELL.

For our coop, we were lucky to connect with a custom home builder who decided to try his hand at chicken coop building. Three years later and it's been a great success!

Even in the Colorado snow it keeps the ladies protected and warm.

Chicken houses have been on my mind as we are currently brooding 31 lovely laying hens to supplement our flock and help start several families on the joyous journey of chicken rearing. Are you a chicken keeper? Let us know if you have a coop design you’d like to share!

— Amy DePierre