Chicken Coop Plans for Your Backyard - Building chicken coops is a fun family activity! Learn how to build chicken coops that are sturdy and durable.
Get inspiring pictures and ideas for dream chicken houses. Your chicken coop is one of the most important parts of raising hens for meat or eggs, so its important to have one that will give them what they need to thrive. You may want to look at these Chicken Tractor Plans as chicken tractors can come in very handy when you are Raising Free Range Chickens.
Courtesy of Lalouque
Regardless if your chicken coop plans are homespun or fancy, your chicken coop will make a cozy nest for your chickens and eggs of many colors for your family. Take these examples and your own ingenuity and before you know it you will have your own nostalgic chicken coop plans ready to build, a reminder of our nostalgic past.
You will need to pay attention to these key points when you start to Build a Chicken House.
1. Chicken Coop Designs:
Many people are now keeping chickens, even those in the city. It is important that your backyard chicken coop design is very attractive if you have neighbors who will see it. We want everyone to love chickens and so your coop must be nice looking and easy for you to keep clean, especially in an urban or suburban area.
Even if you are on an isolated farm, do take the trouble to make a really cute and nostalgic hen house. It will be around for so many years it is worth your time to make it attractive.
Sketch out a few designs on paper before settling on one. Don't forget the landscaping around it too. If you have neighbors they will think highly of you instead of complaining!
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2. Elements to Consider:
Chicken coops need to be easy to clean, easy for you to access and function according to these birds habits.
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Floors can be dirt with fresh bedding, or better yet, concrete with a slope toward the door so you can just hose it out and have it dry easily.
Doors should swing out, not in, and windows should be either heavy mesh grate, or sliding windows so the chickens cannot roost on the windowsill. Speaking of roosting, your chickens are not happy unless they can get up off the floor, especially at night. Place roosting bars of varying heights inside. If you regularly need to introduce half grown pullets into your adult flock, having one 12 inches up and the other 24-36 inches high will keep everyone happy.
3. Security and Protection:
This is a big part of having successful chicken coop plans. Chickens are fodder for so many critters you would be very wise indeed to build protection according to the area you live, the weather conditions and the type of chicken predators in your area.
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You must bury heavy gauge chicken wire, or better yet even some stronger wire grade (close mesh) paneling into the ground at an angle inward, and two feet down.
Check your farm co-op or hardware supply. Just look around and always think Alcatraz rather than oh well, nothing will get them if I just use a little cheap chicken wire.
Something will. I have seen an otherwise friendly Golden Retriever use her nose to pile drive through dog grade chain link enclosure in pursuit of a chicken. Dig a ditch around the area that will be the outdoor run and bury the heavy wire 6" down minimum. Use the heavy wire around the whole coop 6 feet up and then start the chicken wire up and over the top.
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4. Light and Ventilation:
Chickens need to have non drafty air circulation at all times, but especially in the hot summers, and also to have insulation in the coop walls to keep out humidity in the wet weather. Chickens can withstand cold as long as they are dry.
Chickens do best with both a natural and electrical light source. Be sure to build your coop south facing if possible to give them as many hours per day of sunlight. If eggs are important you should install a light bulb at ceiling height. This serves both to keep them warm in the coop, but also to encourage egg production. Put it on a 14 hour timer during the maximum night hours and you will get more eggs.
5. Food and Water:
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Chickens are messy eaters because of their natural scratching instincts. In the country you can feed using buckets, scatter method or use a commercial feeder the height of the chickens if you want to avoid a messy hen house.
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Water needs to be present at all times as the hens must have a clean supply to produce and lay those golden eggs. It is nice to have an automatic waterer, but you can fill a bucket daily as well. Happy Coop Building!
