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chicken coop design

Chicken House Plans

There’s an old saying that goes about people . . . “don’t plan to fail; they fail to plan.” (I believe that was Harvey MacKay). Same holds true for your Chicken House Plans. You want to have plans so that your baby chicks wil grow in a healthy, safe environment. There are as many reasons families want to raise chickens as there are people. For our family, we received a “present” of 12 baby chicks for Easter Sunday. I first thought, “oh no, what am I going to do with all these chickens???” On the other hand, I also remembered that saying “if life hands you lemons, make lemonade.” (no more quotes . Now I wasn’t thinking of eating the chickens, but with the cost of fresh eggs going up, then the most reasonable thing to do was at least build a chicken house for the little chickadees. I thought about how fun it would be — a nice family project to build a chicken house, and we would at least have some fresh eggs. It was a one-time investment that if done correctly, it could pay off for years just in fresh eggs alone. So when you are looking for the best Chicken House Plans, consider these following steps in your plan. The first thing you need to plan is where you will locate your new chicken house. From there you can determine exactly what your size limitations are. On e thing to keep in mind is a simple 4 foot by 8 foot box-type structure. This makes it easy on the materials sides because most plywood and other materials come in 4 x 8 foot sheets. Second, you want to frame out a play area for the chicken house. This can be done by attaching by nails or screws the bottom of four pieces together. (I recommend using screws and an electric screwdriver. This makes it easy to take apart if you ever want to move your chicken house: simply unscrew and move the wood parts!) When this is finished, you can secure two corner sections, consisting of two parts that make up each corner. When this frame is done, you can enclose the play area with chicken wire. Once the basic chicken house frame is complete, you can begin with the actual house. You would probably want to consider if you are installing some sort of chicken house door, and if so, where the location would be. It’s been our experience that if you put the door closer to the nesting area rather than in the front, it works a little bit better for your other tasks down the road. How you attach the door is going to be determined by what kind of door you would like. We had a door that opened toward the back of the nesting area that had a long piano hinge across the top, and the door opened by pulling the door up (toward the sky). You can use an old broom handle or other pole to hold the door open so you can get to the eggs in the nesting area. The next step is generally installing the roof. Plywood (which comes in 4 x 8 foot sheets) is perfect for this, but you can check with your local lumbar supplier to see if your location requires a different type of building material. When the roof is done, you can go forward with the nesting part of the chicken house. Here, the size is going to depend on the number of chickens you want to raise. A basic 4 foot by 8 foot chicken house is probably enough room to raise 10 chickens. We built our nesting area by making two 4 foot sections attached to the bottom of the frame as support for our nesting box. With the support in place, you can build a basic nesting box out of plywood to place on this support system. The nesting area usually goes near a back wall away frorm the front entrance (and near that door location for eeasy acces to the eggs. In the front of your chicken house you want to cut an opening, much like the size of a small pet door, so that the chickens can access the chicken house play area. When you’re finished with your chicken house, make sure you sand all the rough edeges and corners smooth and safely cut or bend all chicken wire out of the way from harm. You also want to double check that no sharp edges of the chicken wire protrude and are either removed or bent in such a way that they will not harm the chickens. Ventilation and lighting are critical to your chicken’s health and welfare. You may want to have open sides that can be closed with hinged doors made of plywood. That way you can open the doors in the daytime hours for light and ventilation, and they can be closed in the evening or when you need to protect the chickens from bad weather. On the floor of your coop you have several options. Many use sawdust, but others who have access to hay use straw. Some people even used sand as a bottom for their chicken coop. Check with your local feed store or veterinarian to see what is the best material for the weather conditions in your area. With a solid chicken house, you will provide your chickens with a healthy, safe living arrangment where they can grow and propser. Our family enjoyed watching the chickens grow, and they took pride in the eggs that were collected for our breakfast table. Enjoy your flock of chickens, and make sure you consider these steps in your Chicken House Plans

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