Chicken coops plans

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A backyard chicken coop is a poultry building or housing structure where chickens are raised. Cheap and easy to build, you won’t need to look into home loans for this structure. The inside of a chicken coop typically includes such coop features such as chicken nest boxes (for those raising chickens for eggs)); chicken feeders and waterers; and chicken roosts where the birds can perch to rest or sleep in the evening. Many backyard chicken hobbyists also construct coops with additional features such as windows and connected wire chicken runs so that their birds may gain access to sunshine and fresh air. Regardless of the type of chicken coop you plan to construct, it is important to take the needs of your birds into consideration when building chicken coops.

A chicken run can be as simple as wire stretched over a wooden frame!

Chicken hobbyists building chicken coops often have different pictures in their heads when thinking about chicken coop plans and housing designs. Some individuals may have a picturesque idea of a country-style miniature chicken house, complete with a white picket-fenced chicken run. Other individuals may possess a more utilitarian chicken coop plan idea consisting of a simple wire chicken cage propped up on wood beams for the chicken manure fertilizer to fall through.

Whatever your creative inclination, the chicken coop that you build for your flock does not need to be elaborate. A poultry coop can be as simple or fancy as you wish. If you’re a handy man, or simply skilled with a few construction tools, you can easily build a simple box-shaped coop without buying any of the many different “simple chicken coop plans” available online. However, you must integrate a few basic chicken coop requirements no matter what type of chicken coop you choose to build. Such requirements should also be kept in mind when evaluating ready-made coop options.

Chicken Coop Size Requirements:

Plan your chicken coop dimensions carefully. It is critically essential to ensure that your flock has suitable space. A variety of health problems may arise if chickens are not given enough floor space in their chicken coop. These include cannibalism, low egg lay rates and feather-picking. The more floor space you provide to the birds, the better. Chickens with enough space often perform more positively than their small-cage counterparts.

That being said, not everyone has the acreage to give their birds unlimited roaming space. Give your chickens adequate room by allowing a minimum of two to three square feet per bird, or more for larger chicken breeds. Also, the space requirements in a chicken coop will vary as your flock matures. Understandably, baby chickens need far less space than larger, mature meat birds. Review the coop space requirement chart below to calculate how big your chicken coop should be:

Minimum Space Requirements for PoultryType of Poultry BirdSq Ft / Inside CoopSq Ft / Outside in a RunBantam Chickens
Layer Hens
Large Chickens
Quail
Pheasants
Ducks
Geese
1
1.5-2
2
1
5
3
6
4
8
10
4
25
15
18

Planning Your Chicken Coop’s Ventilation:

Your chicken coop MUST be well ventilated! “Fresh air is good; drafts are fatal,” writes chicken expert Judy Pangman, in her book Chicken Coops: 45 Building Plans for Housing Your Flock. “Adequate ventilation is important.” Just as humans don’t like stuffy houses, chickens don’t like stuffy coops! If you don’t give your chickens enough ventilation, fumes can build up to a toxic level. Vents, placed on the south or east-facing walls of your chicken coop, can help to create proper airflow while also protecting the chickens from cold drafts. Alternatively, drill large holes on the north and south sides of the coop where the roof meets the walls. To keep out wild, disease-carrying bird visitors, cover these holes with mesh screens.

Coop ventilation goes hand-in-hand with coop insulation. Proper building insulation will help keep your chickens dry and warm in the winter, as well as cool in the summer. To keep the flock comfortable during these cold nights (and during the hot summer days), invest in propercoop insulation. 1.5 inches of Styrofoam sheets between the walls and ceiling provides excellent structural insulation. To reflect heat during the summer, some individuals choose to also use aluminum roofing and white paint. Additionally, cool the chicken coop by planting tallvegetation and/or trees around its exterior. If you do this, be careful not to let the plantsblock any ventilation holes and windows that you may have made. To provideextra insulation during the winter, you may also wish to try stacking hay balesagainst the north walls of the barn. Such rudimentary insultation is cheap, and when winter is over you can use the hay as litter.

In the second section of this poultry article, we discuss chicken coop flooring; how to protect your chicken coop from pests and vermin; planning nests, chicken roosts, feeders and waterers; and other chicken coop building basics. Read Part 2!

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