This is the first of a series of articles I plan to write about building a chicken coop.  I need to build a new chicken coop here at the yardstead, so I have a bit of research to do anyway.  We currently have an open coop with 3 walls and the roof enclosed, but open in the front.  I built it from scrap lumber and leftover pieces of metal roofing, in compliance with our Reuse/Recycle policy here at the yardstead.  It has worked just fine to shelter our chickens for the last 5 or 6 years .  The open coop sits at one end  of the chicken yard which is enclosed with poultry netting(which most people around the yardstead call 'chicken wire').  It has 4 built in nesting boxes and a hanging feeder.  I plan to move it and retrofit it for our ducks to use as a nesting shelter.
One of the first things you will need to know when planning to build a chicken coop is how many chickens you plan to house.  Here at the yardstead we plan to keep about a dozen laying hens.  We have Araucanas, Buff Orpingtons, Leghorns, Rhode Island Reds, and Silver laced Wyandottes, which are all heavy breeds.  According to The Chicken Health Handbook by Gail Damerow, heavy breeds require ........

Each year about 22 million ducks are raised in the United States. These ducks are usually produced under confinement on specialized duck farms in a few commercial duck production areas of the U.S for meat production. There are still a lot of small farms and a few hobby owners that raise ducks for family use or to sell locally. With ducks it seems there is no such thing as either a meat bird or a laying bird...as there is with chickens. The commercial duck industry produces mostly the Pekin breed. Pekins reach market weight early and are fairly good egg producers, but they are poor setters and seldom raise a brood.

 Our new baby chicks have arrived! We ordered 100 baby chicks from Privett Hatchery in New Mexico. They were shipped on a Monday and arrived the following Wednesday. Our order arrived in two days and all 100 were alive and chirping when I opened the box. We are not keeping all 100, we split the order with a couple friends in order to meet the minimum order requirements.
The minimum order for chickens from Privett is 25 which fills one corner of the shipping box seen here. With 25 baby chicks packed into the corner they generate enough heat to keep each other warm during shipping. When we checked around for someone to split the order with, three other families wanted to order, so we ended up with a full box of 100 baby chicks. I could hear the chicks chirping in the background when the post office called to tell me.....

 The eggs shown here are all from free-range chickens here at the Yardstead.  You can see they are all different colors including green, blue, pink, beige, brown and white.  They vary in size a bit as well.  They all look the same on the inside though, and taste the same, which is far better than mass produced eggs from large poultry farms.  They have more flavor and many studies have shown they are more nutritious. 
The first thing most people notice when they crack open one of our fresh chicken eggs is the thickness of the shells.  Because these chickens eat a more varied diet than "sweat shop" chickens, they get more nutrients such as calcium (good for shells) in their diet.  The fresh egg yolks also look different.   They are more orange than yellow and appear thicker. 
I was going to crack a store bought egg and one of our's side by side on a plate to illlustrate the difference, but I couldn't bring myself to buy eggs at the store.   It is interesting  to see them together.  I will post a picture for comparison later in the forum.  I'll just borrow a store bought egg from a neighbor.  
One of our goals here at the Yardstead is to produce as much of our own food as possible.  By growing our own groceries we have much more control over what we put into our bodies.  We feed our chickens mostly garden waste, grass clippings, food scraps and occasionally scratch feed to supplement when things are slow in the garden.