Enjoy Hours of Fun & Get FREE Eggs Out of the Deal. Raise Your Backyard Chickens in a Handbuilt Catawba ConvertiCoop Chicken Ark from My Simple Plans.

I intentionally left the door open on my Catawba Brougham ConvertiCoop the other day. I wanted to see what would happen.

Chasing Chickens

My three daughters came down from the rabbit cages into an area we call "the glade". It's a patch of grass surrounded by trees which usually stays well shaded during the summer months. That's where we keep the mobile chicken coop when the temperatures get above 90 degrees. "Daddy!" they chimed, "You let the chickens out. Can we chase them back into the coop?"

I can't imagine anything more entertaining than watching your kids run around at full steam... birds running, feathers flying, trying to chase chickens back into a coop. They might as well be trying to herd cats. Eventually the kids did learn how to gently coerce the birds back into their ConvertiCoop.

I could have told the kids a little later that evening the birds would have gone back into the chicken ark naturally to roost. But what fun would that have been?

The decision to get chickens was an easy one to make. They're inexpensive, relatively self-sustainable, and really fun to watch. My question was:

How can I keep chickens in the city?

People think chickens are smelly, messy, and loud beasts. This could not be further from the truth. Because I live in a town with livestock ordinances, I had to find a way to convince my neighbors that chickens weren't such a bad thing. That's why I designed the Catawba ConvertiCoop "Brougham Edition" to be the Cadillac of chicken coop plans.

Owning a Catawba Brougham ConvertiCoop addresses two of the three major objections your neighbors will have against chickens. Because it is highly mobile, the smell and mess are a non-issue. The chickens will not stay in one location long enough to foul the area. A firm "NO ROOSTERS" policy will eliminate the third objection.

The chicken coop as art.

The British have taken chickens arks as they call them, to an art form. But with the US dollar weak against the Euro, who can afford to pay nearly $1,000.00 for a place to keep their chickens? The Catawba Brougham ConvertiCoop chicken coop can be built for significantly less money, and still maintain the look of a piece of fine cabinetry built with relatively few woodworking tools.

It's possible that you may have already seen one of those amazing European chicken arks and thought, "I wonder how I could build a portable chicken coop that looks that nice?" My booklet will show you how.

A plan so simple, my wife could do it.

Really... My wife is an amazing woman. She home schools our three daughters, keeps a neat and tidy house, and ensures that everyone has clean clothes. She's a good cook and can follow a recipe to the letter. But she's no carpenter or cabinet maker. Neither am I. What she can do well is follow instructions. You don't have to own a "New Yankee Workshop" to build a Catawba Brougham ConvertiCoop that will stop pedestrians and passers-by in their tracks.

Just be prepared to answer a lot of questions about your chickens and where you got your coop. People will be amazed that you built it yourself.

• Step 1: Price out wood and fixtures at your local home improvement center using my Catawba Brougham ConvertiCoop materials checklist

  Save money by price shopping at least two stores against each other. Both Lowe's and Home Depot offer a Price Match + 10% Off Guarantee. My booklet outlines how to do this successfully.

• Step 2: Cut your wood using my easy to follow directions.

  I've done all the math for you! I've included a cutlist and an illustration showing how many pieces of your new Catawba ConvertiCoop you should be able to liberate from a piece of dimensional lumber.
  
  

• Step 3: Assemble your Catawba ConvertiCoop using engaging illustrations and directions.

  If you can put together a model kit, you can build a Catawba ConvertiCoop using simple powertools. Unlike other How-To packages, my building illustrations are rendered in a 3D modeling program so the lighting is always right. The most complex tool in the instruction booklet is a router, and you don't even really need that. You won't need an 18" rabbited rotary dado planer/sander/grinder... no matter how much Norm Abrams or Bob Villa tries to convince you otherwise.

• Step 4: Relax and enjoy your chickens

Imagine having these spunky little charismatic creatures in your backyard. Sometimes they look like little dinosaurs as they streak across the yard. And people love em. My house is right beside the city park and pool. Mothers and children come into our backyard all the time to see the garden, the rabbits, and especially the chickens. All the time I'm asked, "Where did you get your chicken coop? It's amazing." They're always surprised when I tell them I how easy it was to build it myself using regular tools and dimensional lumber from a home improvement warehouse.

Mitzi and I get asked about our homestead so much that we've put together a 3 fold brochure that details what we're doing and how we did it. I've had over 20 people ask me to build a Catawba Brougham ConvertiCoop for them. Even more want to know if they can come out with a tape measure and measure my chicken ark so they can build their own. Folks, these are not people I know. These are people, on the street, walking past my house as I'm watering the tomato plants.

If you buy my plans, you won't need to come to Wake Forest with a tape measure. It's all in the booklet for you.

And to be honest, I have ulterior motives in selling these plans.

I imagine a Catawba ConvertiCoop in every backyard... Actually, it's more simple than that. I was stationed in Germany during the early 1990s with the 2nd Armored Division. As a young single soldier, fresh from the war in Iraq, I had the opportunity of a lifetime. Flush with cash... (eminent danger pay + combat duty pay + nothing in Saudi Arabia to spend it on = affluence to a 20 year old) I traveled all over Europe. I fell in love with continental European architecture. I went to Rothenburg o.d. Tauber, Rotterdam, Berchtesgaden, Amsterdam, Hamburg, Cologne, Berlin, Paris, Salzburg, Bremen, and lots of other places. I saw buildings that were hundreds of years old, which looked cool, but of which I knew NOTHING... Ignorance is not always bliss.

Now that I'm older, with a fine arts degree and a better appreciation of Romanesque, Medieval, Gothic and Renaissance art and architecture, I would love to be able to take Mitzi and the girls to Europe to show them the beautiful things I saw. But this time KNOWING what we were seeing. As home school parents, we really look forward to offering our kids these types of educational experiences. Proceeds from the sale of these plans will go towards the "Let's Take the Kids to Experience Europe the Right Way" fund.

UPDATE - Well the serendipitous hand of God has worked again. After a spot ran about our chickens on one of the local news channels, we had a visitor to Magnolia Corner. Karen Edwards stopped in to tell us about her animal rescue farm in Youngsville. Karen holds down two jobs to support her disabled veteran husband and a growing number of abandoned farm animals including over 100 chickens, plenty of geese, ducks, pigs, and 2 horses. Mitzi and I have decided to donate 10% of the gross sales of these plans to her farm to assist in helping pay for the ever-increasing costs of animal feed. For more information, read "Glenn the Rooster Finds a New Home" - Dave

Here's what you get.

I've decided to make my Catawba Brougham ConvertiCoop plans available in a variety of formats for only $19.99 (plus shipping if applicable).

• eBook - This is a 100% digital version of my Brougham plan set. It comes as a ZIP file that you download onto your computer. Instant gratification! You can print the plans to your printer.

• CD-ROM - Same as the eBook format, except on a CD-ROM. Good for people with dial-up service.
• Print - Looking for something a little more high-end for your bookshelf or shop? Get the print version of the Catawba Brougham ConvertiCoop plans! My plans are professionally printed on 50lb white opaque paper with wire bound full color covers printed on 10lb glossy cover stock with full bleeds.

100% Satisfaction Guarantee

If you are not satisfied with your plans, let me know and I'll refund your purchase price with no questions asked. Well, that's not entirely true. I'll ask you what I could do to make the packet better so that others don't have the same experience you did. And hey, even if you enjoy the booklet and the notoriety that comes from having a beautiful chicken coop, I'd STILL like to hear from you with suggestions. Send me an email to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

I got a call from my dad last night.

"Bubba," he said. (He calls me Bubba when he's feeling chummy.) "Bubba, I read your 3 fold brochure that you wrote about your urban homestead. I have to tell you that I think it is well written and entertaining."

"Well thanks dad. I try to write like I speak." I replied.

"Son, have you considered that maybe there are people out there who would want to know what steps you had to take in order to get your chickens permitted?"Actually, I hadn't considered it at all, until then. So if you ever see my dad, feel free to thank him for inspiring the idea for a...

FREE DOWNLOAD eBook entitled, "Keeping The Letter of the Law." or...

How Two City Slickers Got Chickens Inside the Town Limits

In this dirtcheap Adobe PDF document, I outline the steps that Mitzi and I had to take in order to get everyone to agree that chickens were a cool thing. Included are suggestions for:

• Checking your local municipality's codes and regulations regarding livestock

• Using Google Maps and Google Earth to ensure you don't do one lick of work more than you have to

• Relating to your neighbors and understanding their questions and objections to your urban poultry

• Creating marketing materials to leave with them

• Creating the necessary forms and sign offs

• Dealing with local level bureaucrats, and why they do what they do

GET INSTANT ACCESS TO THE NEARLY FREE "Keeping The Letter of the Law" EBOOK NOW
by scrolling to the top or bottom of the screen!

There's More!

After purchasing a set of Catawba Brougham ConvertiCoop plans, I'm going to throw in an additional piece of information FREE OF CHARGE. Knowledge is power. I'm going to GIVE you the 3D file that I used to create the illustrations in the book.

Of course, without a program to view the file, it's worthless. That's why I'm going to include Sketchup Viewer as well in your packet. In Sketchup Viewer, you can review all the steps required to built a Brougham coop just by clicking on the tabs at the top of the screen. You can also fly around the coop and zoom in on parts that you really want to see... all in Real Time on your computer.