Straw Bale Coop

When you live off the grid you are required to have chickens. It is a rule.

I wanted the coop to be super insulated, and with a small footprint so I would not have to provide a heating source. That is what I told C, but really I just have been itching to build something out of straw. I read a number of books on the subject and then ignored almost all advice, as all good almost architects should do. I only found two books that gave enough information and details to actually be able to build a structure. I highly recommend them if you are planning to undertake such an adventure.

We cut a platform from a deck that had collapsed the year before we bought the house. The previous owner had left it in the woods.

Then we stacked the bales. Sounds easy right. It wasn't. Despite getting all our bales from the same place there was a length difference ranging up to about 6 inches. After about two hours and one un-baled bale, we ended up stacking the last two bales end to end. As you can see from the photo, they didn't compress the same and we had to do a little blocking to get the roof level. It still looks off in the photo but it is just the angle.

LOOK CHICKENS!!!
I almost did an entire post about a chicken coop with out a single picture of our chickens. They watched (Read: were in the way) the entire time their new house was being constructed.