All Cooped Up: A business born out of boredom

Like pretty much everyone else in the world this past spring, when COVID hit, Milton’s Jarrod Adams was looking for a way to pass the time. His source of relief? Spending hours in the garage building chicken coops.

Adams works in the telecommunication installation industry and he’s used to traveling a lot – he’s worked in 47 states. That all changed when air travel ground to a halt.

“After a month of working on the computer, I started getting bored. I started doing this to get outside,” said Adams.

Now, nearly a year later, Adams’ business, All Cooped Up, is taking off. Anymore, he said, standing next to the coop he built for his wife Jessica and her 70 chickens, there’s a waiting list, and he’s begun taking custom orders.

When people couldn’t find toilet paper, they started thinking about other things they didn’t want to be without, he said.

“A lot of people have gotten chickens,” he said.

Adams is not formally trained in construction, but he said he grew up poor in Ohio, so he knows his way around tools because he built everything. He helped build his family’s 30-by-40-foot A-frame house when he was a teenager.

The coops are made with treated fence pickets, joined using a shiplap method, and each is topped with a metal roof. The shiplap accounts for board shrinkage, and he doesn’t like dealing with roofing shingles, he said. 

He finishes off each piece with an All Cooped Up brand and a light touch from the blowtorch to give it that rustic feel.

“This is my favorite toy,” said Adams, holding up the torch by its handle.

Adams said some of his customers have other animals, like goats, and a hinged roof allows chicken feed dispensers to be placed in the middle of a coop. Otherwise, he said, the goats will just stick their heads into the coop to eat the feed, and the owners will go through a lot of money.

In addition to chicken coops, Adams makes a few goat-related items, too – a disbudding box and a stand that allows for milking.

Adams sketches designs out to make sure proportions are correct and so he knows how much wood to buy, but he said he doesn’t work from blueprints.

“I’ve been asked about blueprints, but it’s all up here,” he said, pointing to his head. “I can make something from a picture, but prints don’t exist.”

For more information on All Cooped Up, 12574 Coastal Highway, Milton, call Adams at 302-382-6658 or direct message the business’ Facebook page.