Coop Gallery
Although backyard chickens are currently not permitted in urban areas of the City of Thunder Bay, some residents have moved forward with constructing coops on urban properties. While the Thunder Bay and Area Food Strategy does not endorse the keeping of illegal backyard chickens, this gallery of existing coops is intended to serve as an educational tool to demonstrate how backyard chickens are already being successfully integrated into local communities and neighbourhoods. Enjoy!
This mobile coop requires minimal cleaning. There’s chicken wire on the bottom so the droppings go on the ground. The nest boxes are cleaned once a week.
The three-season coop houses four highline brown laying hens.
Chickens are good for the soil. The coop moves as a "chicken tractor," so they eat the grass and take out the bugs.
Because of chickens, this coop owner now has a relationship with her neighbours. She's known as the “lady with chickens.”
Friends with children come to feed the chickens. "They're a community builder," says the owner.
This coop utilizes an existing shed on the owners' backyard property.
These owners have ten hens, five of which belong to a beekeeper who shares honey in exchange for eggs.
Wire mesh fully encloses the pen.
The coop is cleaned once a week, with refuse transferred to a three-year composter.
A compost for manure and spent bedding.
Food is stored in five-gallon sealed buckets in the coop or in the basement. The pine shavings are kept in clean garbage bins.
This "she-roop" is a combination of a shed and a chicken coop.
A friend gifted these heritage hens to the owners.
Neighbours who saw the coop under construction were curious at first. "People would stop by to look at them. Everyone thought it was really cool."
