Uploaded November 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
What elements does an ultimate backyard-scale permaculture chicken coop have?
Can you provide for the chickens needs and provide enrichment for a wonderful quality of life?
These are questions explored by professor Grace Solkinson on the Permaculture Design and Resilient Ecosystem Diploma at Pacific Rim College where she built a chicken coop with the students as part of the Natural Building and Design with Animals courses.
- four forage runs alternate to give nature connection and fresh food
- covered drylot protects chickens from elements
- surrounded by gardens that can feed the chickens
- soldier fly larva, meal worms and worm bin protein source
- coop made with hemp-cob cord wood, light straw clay, cob and wattle and daub to give the students a variety of experience with natural building techniques
- sand floor makes for easy cleaning
- poop shelves below perches to keep coop floor cleaner
- large feeder and waterer filled once a week
- solar panel serves light, fan and automated chicken door
- egg collection from outside the coop
- enrichment activities include steps, platform, swing and climbing tree
How can you use permaculture to design a chicken coop that cares for the chickens needs and enriches their life?
Learn more homesteading skills from Grace Solkinson in Pemaculture magazine issue 118 where she shares a recipe for 'Eastern European Fermented Plums' and issue 123 where she shares recipes for 'Yuzu Koshō and Preserved Lemon'. Subscribers have free access to all back issues online, or you can order a printed back issue.
What elements does an ultimate backyard-scale permaculture chicken coop have?
Can you provide for the chickens needs and provide enrichment for a wonderful quality of life?
These are questions explored by professor Grace Solkinson on the Permaculture Design and Resilient Ecosystem Diploma at Pacific Rim College where she built a chicken coop with the students as part of the Natural Building and Design with Animals courses.
- four forage runs alternate to give nature connection and fresh food
- covered drylot protects chickens from elements
- surrounded by gardens that can feed the chickens
- soldier fly larva, meal worms and worm bin protein source
- coop made with hemp-cob cord wood, light straw clay, cob and wattle and daub to give the students a variety of experience with natural building techniques
- sand floor makes for easy cleaning
- poop shelves below perches to keep coop floor cleaner
- large feeder and waterer filled once a week
- solar panel serves light, fan and automated chicken door
- egg collection from outside the coop
- enrichment activities include steps, platform, swing and climbing tree
How can you use permaculture to design a chicken coop that cares for the chickens needs and enriches their life?
Learn more homesteading skills from Grace Solkinson in Pemaculture magazine issue 118 where she shares a recipe for 'Eastern European Fermented Plums' and issue 123 where she shares recipes for 'Yuzu Koshō and Preserved Lemon'. Subscribers have free access to all back issues online, or you can order a printed back issue.
