How To Make Your Own Chicken Coop

Thursday, November 14, 2013

Get the Best Chicken Coop Plans Available

If you have got a little bit of land or even a little bit of room in your backyard, then you might want to consider raising chickens. Of course, whether in a farm/rural setting or in an urban setting once you decide you want to raise chickens then you have to think about how you are going to keep/house them. How you house your chickens will depend on how many you decide to have. What you need to have to shelter your chickens is a chicken coop and luckily, they come in many different sizes to accommodate your chicken population you just need to buy or build the right one.

Most people who keep chickens will usually build their own chicken coops. Of course, farmers and ranchers have been building their own coops for generations, but this is not necessarily true for others who just want to have their own chickens. If you are one of those who have little or no experience with keeping chickens, but want to build your own chicken coop, it is easy to find chicken coop plans that will teach you how to build a chicken house. All you need to do once you find your chicken coop plans is make sure that your plans will make a coop large enough for your chickens.


Some places that you might want to look for chicken coop plans are in do-it-yourself books. Another good place to look for chicken coop plans is at a local feed or stock store if you are lucky enough to have one in your community. Of course, you can also go to the library where they are sure to have some books that contain plans for building chicken coops.

But is that the Best Solution?

Frankly no…the best place to search for chicken coop plans is online. From all of our research and going through several different products we have found this guide to be the best.



How to Build a Chicken Ark

A chicken coop also known as a chicken ark is a building or structure where someone keeps chickens. The interior of a coop (or ark) usually has nest boxes for the egg laying. These chicken arks will also have perches, which are what the birds use to sleep on. Keep in mind that not all coops and arks have these features.

There can also be an attached chicken run that leads into the actual coop or ark. Most of these chicken coops and arks have straw or wood chips on the floor for easier cleanup and maintenance of the facility. One important feature is some form of ventilation, which can help air out the coops or arks from any odors.

These chicken coops and arks are becoming more and more popular. With that popularity a lot of people are looking for help in how to build a chicken house or where to buy the best coop or ark.



Truths Of Building A Chicken Coop

If you have never built a chicken coop before then there are a lot of things that you have yet to realize about the process. While building a chicken coop can be a fun process it can also be quite annoying if you don’t realize some of the truths that surround it. Sadly, there is a lot of garbage here on the internet and rarely ever do you find someone that tells you the truth when it comes to things like chicken coop plans or how much time you can expect to invest to build a proper coop. I hope to break this sad trend with this article. Below you will find some of the truths I have learned when building a chicken coop.

Chicken Coop Truths

Truth 1- One thing I learned fast (as a beginner) was that any time someone says that free plans are better than paid plans is flat out wrong. I am not going to sit here and tell you that it is impossible to build a chicken coop out of free plans but you have to be pretty well versed in woodworking to make sense of some of the free plans out there. This was something I hope to correct with my own free chicken coop plans which will take you step by step through the coop building process.

Truth 2- Chicken coop size is everything. Now, this brings up an interesting question. How do you determine a good size for a chicken coop? As a general rule of thumb try to aim for 2-3 square feet per bird in the coop and 4 square feet per bird in the run. But I would recommend that the bigger you build your coop the better. Sometimes statistics and “recommendations” won’t give you exactly what you want.

Truth 3- No matter what you do when you build a chicken coop make sure you are accounting for what YOU are going to have to do to when you complete the coop. For example, you are going to have to clean the coop every once in a while. So, keep this in mind when you are building the coop. Make sure you have easy access to the places you need to clean.

Well, there you have it. Those are some of the things I have learned when dealing with chicken coops. No matter what anyone tells you, you will be investing some heavy time building the coop your very first time but I promise it gets easier after that.