I have always loved chickens. This might be partly due to the fact that my dad grew up on a farm and then introduced me to chickens from a young age.

One day when I was nine or ten years old my dad came home with a hen, and put me in charge of taking care of her. Slowly we added a few more chickens, then some ducks and finally some turkeys to the collection.

The experience of taking care of poultry was a good one for me. It taught me a lot about responsibility and the rewards of hard work. There was always something very rewarding about collecting fresh eggs.

It also taught me about the circle of life. I loved watching chickens hatch and grow. I hated watching a chicken die of disease despite my best efforts to care for it.

My family traveled and moved a lot when I was a kid, and having chickens always made me feel more settled, as if we were in that home to stay. Ironically, the one place we were not allowed to keep chickens was in a tiny Saskatchewan town with a population of less than 50 people and surrounded by farms. It seems that small-town bylaws can be stricter than those in cities.

As an adult I have also raised chickens when my living situation has permitted it. The cage shown here is one I made from scrap wood, small and portable enough to move around.

I’ve drawn up the design I used on SketchUp. The covered area includes a nesting box at the top with a small door, while the main door is on the bottom. I’m sure there are lots of improvements that could be made, but the overall design is handy for a small and portable warm-weather chicken coop.