Building a chicken coop – re-use, buy or build?
Getting the right chicken coop is essential for your chicken's health, well being and safety. First you need to decide on the size (in order to accomodate the size of your flock). Then you need to determine the amount of laying boxes (depending on the amount of laying hens you have).
And finally, you'll need to ensure that your coop is fully secure from predators of the night, such as dogs, wolves and ferrets who can all dig, claw and chew their way past more than most people think.
When getting a chicken coop, you basically have three different options. You can either re-use, buy or build your own.
Re-using a chicken coop
There are many prebuilt structures you can consider instead of buying or building your own. An old dog house is a great example. However, you will still need to make adjustments, drill new holes, add more space and attach laying boxes in most cases.
Buying a chicken coop
Buying a chicken coop is a great option for saving a bit of time, and perfect for those who wouldn't know a hammer from a ham sandwich. There are plenty of prebuilt chicken coops available in a variety of sizes and features to meet your needs. The biggest drawback of buying a chicken coop is that you'll often be paying a lot of money that you really don't need to be, where the manufacturer puts their markup on the retail price, and uses materials that are really unneccesary. Buying a coop is usually left for the urban farmer with a small flock less rural areas.
Building your own chicken coop
The majority of chicken farmers will tend to want more flexability for their chickens. This means the ability to increase or decrease the coop size, add a run or widen the indside coop floor space for the winter periods.
That's why building your own chicken coop makes a lot more sense. Furthermore, it can be very economical and pretty straight forward with the right plans. You don't need fancy tools or a degree in carpentry in order to build a secure, spacious and modern looking chicken coop either.
Whichever method you choose, make sure that your chicken coop is both spacious and secure. Remember that wooden floors can easily rot, so consider building on a concrete base too.
Finally, don't forget to accomodate for laying hens adequately, with enough laying boxes and space for them to roost (and let's not forget, produce those delicious fresh eggs every morning without fail!).
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How to build the right features for your chicken coop
Chicken coops are extremely varied, with no real limit on the design, complexity and features some people will consider. Everything from a simple wooden hut with chicken wire fencing, through to elaborate dens with high security and fancy egg dispensers.
Either way, there's no need to spend a lot of money and frustration building the perfect chicken coop. Once you know how many chickens you're planning to farm, you'll have a good idea of the space required.
From there, you can go ahead and pick out the key features of the coop that will be suitable for your situation.
So, what features are right for you, your land and ultimately your chickens?
For suburban areas, security needs to be heavy. Not just because of predators, but because of escaping chickens too. You may also consider the look and design of the coop too, to better fit in with the surroundings.
Rural chicken farmers would likely be more concerned with space, practicality and again, security. Remember – dogs, wolves and other creatures of the night can dig fast, and be under that fence in just a few hours or less.
To make the coop secure, make sure you cover the top of the coop, even if it is a high fence. Furthermore, try to avoid traditional chicken wire as the holes are large enough for smaller predators to climb through and get a free lunch.
Also, make sure you bury the chicken wire fencing deep under the ground where the coop is situated. Try to do 12 inches into the ground to prevent those midnight diggers from massacring your flock.
Finally, make sure you are prepared for the eggs! Laying hens, which are very common for most domestic chicken owners and farmers, need adequate space when laying. You'll need around 4-5 boxes per hen.
You will also need to give laying hens space to roost, because that's what they like to do most! Roosting space should be around 6-10 inches per bird, and around 2 feet off the ground (the same applies for nest boxes). Finally, make sure the nes boxes are around 1 square foot in diameter to give each hen the space they need to cohabit.
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How to build the right size right chicken coop for your needs
When it comes to chicken coops, options are plentiful. Whether you decide to make something from scrap material for a small enclosed space, or buy a more expensive prebuilt coop for a large field, there's a few things you'll need to consider before getting started with your chicken coop.
First of all, you will need to consider the key features of the coop. These are the size, protection from predators, roosting poles, ventilation, and nest boxes.
Will your chickens be living full time in the coop, or have access to an outside run or wide open fields? Will you need a moveable coop that you can relocate easily whether moving home or making use of fresh ground?
Once you know the answers to this, you can decide on the square footage, based on the number of chickens you have or are planning to buy. It's always better to go for a larger coop, so that you have the option for your chickens to breed or buy in more at a later stage. However, prebuilt chicken coops are often more expensive and quite often, you'll be paying too much for materials.
The general rule is that chickens which have access to an outdoor run should have 2-3 square feet per bird inside the coop, and approx 4 square feet per bird in the run.
If your birds are going to be couped up all winter, you'll need more space inside the coop, at around 5-10 square feet per chicken. More space will also help prevent pecking and fighting problems too.
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Why You Want To Raise Chickens
Of all the animals that people can raise as pets, chickens are unique in the sense that they produce something edible compared to other pets like dogs, horses, cats and fish. In fact, raising chickens for pets pay off in the long run as they are a source of fresh meat and eggs unlike what you normally buy in the supermarket.
And considering the craze about organic food, with your own backyard chickens it is very easy to produce your own organic eggs and poultry meat – all you have to do is feed your chickens organic chicken feed. Organically fed chicken that roam freely, eat grass are proven to lay eggs that have higher levels of Omega-3 fatty acids and Vitamin E while having lower cholesterol content!
Chickens Have Personalities Too
It may come as a surprise but each chicken has their own distinctive and endearing personality traits. Aside from this, chickens are very pleasing to look at because their plumages have an assortment of colors and patterns; they also come in all shapes and sizes. You will certainly be tempted to spoil them, pick them up and hug them to show them off to your friends and give them their individual names as you get familiarized with their characteristics.
Chicken Raising Contributes to Environmental Care
Chickens naturally love to range freely. By letting them range freely, you get two very tangible benefits in return – they would gladly eat any garden pest they encounter and help you with your grass cutting chores as they love to eat grass as well. As an added bonus, they’ll turn all they have eaten in the form of organic fertilizer! All you have to do is sit down on the porch and watch them as they happily go about their daily routine.
Most people are not aware that chickens can eat almost anything people can, even leftover foods. Although you may reconsider feeding them onions and garlic as they would make their eggs taste funny.
Chickens are the best producers of black gold soil their waste is a naturally nitrogen-rich. Chickens also thrive on leaves, weeds and grass clippings – they actually help people get rid of their garden/farm refuse instead of simply getting rid of them.
Chickens are Low-Maintenance Pets
Of all animals that can be taken cared of as pets, chickens are the ones that need almost no maintenance compared to others. All you have to do is make sure their food and water containers are freshly filled and replenished on a daily basis. And once they start laying eggs, then you have to gather the eggs daily as well. Cleaning their coops daily or every other day is good enough and their beddings have to be changed once every 3 or 4 weeks depending on weather conditions.
Some Other Update Chicken Coop News:
- Chicken Coop Building Guidelines
- Chicken Coop Building Guidelines – Additional Building Guidelines
- Chicken Breeds
- Chicken Breeds – More Chicken Breeds
- Building A Chicken Coop
- Download The Chicken Coop Building Plans
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Although rearing chickens are relatively low-maintenance, they do require time for daily care and maintenance. Building a chicken coop for your chickens is really just the start of your chicken breeding and rearing process.
Adorable little baby chicks covered with fluffy feather needs special care.
You must be prepared to fork out some time and space for taking care of the precious chickens.
You have to sure that you provide adequate chicken coop provisions by properly building the chicken coop according to the chicken coop plans.In addition, you have to know that there are different approaches to caring for your chickens when they are young chicks just hatch out of the shells, when they are grown chickens or older chickens.
Below are some information pertaining to caring for your chickens:
- Caring For Your Chicken
- Caring For Baby Chicks
- Caring For Grown Chickens
- Caring For Chickens One Year And Beyond
Other Chicken Coop Resources:
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Update 1 : Chicken Breeds – There are actually hundreds of domesticated chicken breeds all over the world some of which have distinct physical and behavioral characteristics due to cross-breeding and geographical factors. For example, some of the chicken breeds includes:
- Egg Producing Chicken Breeds
- Chickens for Meat Production
- Dual-Purpose Chickens
- Chickens for Game, Exhibition and Show
Click here for more information on chicken breeds for your chicken coop
Update 2 : Chicken Predators
Below are some of the most common chicken predators to watch out for. Proper constructing of your chicken coop will ensure that your chickens will be safe from these hungry predators. Do they appear around your surroundings?
- Coyote
- Fisher Cat
- Fox
- Hawk
- Raccoon
- Skunk
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Maintaining Your Chicken Coop
What are the things you should pay attention to once your chicken coop is up and running? What maintenance should you concentrate on for your chicken coop to ensure that your chicken house remains in tip-top condition?
These could be endless but here are some tips your can consider:
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What Are The Important Chicken Coop Accessories You Need?
After constructing and deciding upon your chicken house plans, you may be wondering what other chicken house accessories you can add to enhance the coop and hen eggs production.
There are basics accessories to consider such as Chicken feeders, Nesting Boxes, Chicken Waterier and Chicken Perchers. For more information, check out the chicken coop accessories page below.
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Chicken Coop Plans – How To Build A Chicken Coop?
Building your own Chicken Coop can be a rewarding and fun experience which involves bonding with your buddies and family members. You could build a whole new and affordable chicken coop with minimum spending, using only scrap materials and everyday items.
Things such as wood, scrap lumber, PVC pipes and wire meshes are the usual materials required. If you already have an old unused shed lying around, that is already half the work done! All you need is a carefully constructed and workable Chicken Coop Plans to get you started.
Sounds like a daunting task? Fear not, actually building a chicken coop can be much easier than you think. The important thing is coming up with the design and deciding on what are the factors and special requirements your chicken coop needed.
- Do you need a portable chicken house? A medium sized chicken coop or a large 2-storey chicken coop?
- Do you need a fancy coop or just a practical coop? what about the landscaping and protection details?
- Do you have dangerous predators around which could harm your chickens?
- What accessories do you need and what are the specific maintenance required?
- And More…
These are the usual questions on every dudding chicken coop owner and builder.
The Chicken Coop Plans details in a step-by-step manner how you can build a chicken house from scratch! You can download the chicken coop plans here…
For more information, you can view the following excellent articles on how to build a chicken coop:
- Chicken House Plans
- Chicken Coop Designs
- Chicken Coop Kits
- Chicken Coop Structure
- Protecting Your Chickens
- Chicken Coop Location
- Chicken Coop News
More articles will be added along the way. Stay tuned for more.
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Chicken Coop Protection For Your Chickens
Every surroundings are unique and have their own predators lurking arounds. Where there are preys around such as chickens, you can bet the predators are allready to pounce on them!
Whether they are cunning foxes, wild dogs, hungry coyotes or many other hungry predators, you must protect your chickens from harm. Thats where the design and structural integrity of your chicken house come into play.
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