2025 Ultimate Chicken Coop Tour + New Upgrades | Integrated Chicken Coop and Veggie Garden

This is the 2025 updated tour of my 160 square metre chicken run, 'Chicken City', pointing out the features that work for me, the upgrades I've made and suggestions for you (even you’ve got or are planning a much smaller set up!) My chickens never ever leave this ‘compound’ - I feel it is big enough and diverse enough to keep them happy, while also protecting them from foxes, dogs, eagles etc (all of which there are plenty in my area!). I really love what I’ve created, and it’s my hope that by sharing it with you you can take tips and inspiration for your own happy chicken set up! 

Welcome to the complete tour of Chicken City—my integrated chicken coop, veggie garden, fruit orchard, berry room, and compost system, all under one predator-proof roof. This is the full summer tour that shows you every room, every plant, every system, and introduces you to all 25 chickens (plus goats and a pony!) that make this ecosystem work.

The Central Courtyard

The heart of Chicken City is the central courtyard where chickens have constant access. It's planted with feijoas, figs, citrus, passion fruit creating shade and enrichment. I've replaced shade cloth with actual fruit-producing trees—why have shade cloth when you could have feijoas? The compost bays here are full of worms, providing easy protein for the chickens. I just dig down, grab some worms, and let the girls go crazy.

The Chicken House

Inside, I've switched from straw to compressed pine pellets (sold as horse bedding or cat litter). They absorb moisture brilliantly and I only change the bedding every 9 months. The roosting bars are angled so chickens can't poop on each other, and there's a permanent sick bay cage for when someone needs isolation.

The Berry Room 

This room houses my sensitive chickens (including Little Rosie the surprise rooster) plus loganberries, tayberries, blackberries, and boysenberries growing along the walls. Yesterday we harvested kilos of berries with 4 people picking for over an hour. The chickens fertilize daily, weed constantly, and the mesh roof means no wild birds steal my harvest.

The Annual Veggie Rooms

These massive rooms grow zucchinis, tomatoes, cucumbers, capsicums, beans, broccoli, lettuce, and so much more. In summer, chickens are locked out. At season's end, I let them in to demolish spent plants, turn the soil, weed, and fertilize—preparing perfectly for the next planting. I'm growing strawberries in self-watering pots and on vertical walls, potatoes in the ground, nasturtiums as living mulch, and experimenting with varieties you'd never find in supermarkets.

The Raspberry Room

What started as "annual veggie room #2" got completely taken over by raspberries—and I'm not complaining. Raspberries spread like crazy, but the abundance is incredible. There's also a blackberry I planted in a boggy corner that has exploded with fruit.

The Fruit Room

This is where chickens spend most of their time year-round. Plums, cherries, apples (including espaliered varieties), citrus, a grape vine, herbs like spearmint and thyme, comfrey for composting, and wormwood for natural deworming. The chickens weed under every tree, eat fallen fruit (preventing fruit fly), and constantly fertilize. These trees vastly outperform my other fruit trees that don't have chicken help.

The Supporting Cast

Remy the goat, his little sister, and Big Tony the pony graze the paddock surrounding Chicken City, managing weeds (especially invasive blackberries) and providing manure for composting.

To get more details on my 'Chicken City', including rough plans click here

Get more videos on the Chicken City specifics

This is what 11 years of integration looks like. If you're dreaming of a system like this, I promise it's possible—and so worth it. 

Find out more about my chickens and my edible garden ecosystem on my Instagram page! This is where I post the most regular updates on my Chicken City system.