Chicken coops plans

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Building Chicken Coops – How Much Space Do Chickens Need?

Many beginning chicken raisers think they need lots of room to raise chickens. However, it doesn’t take much backyard space to produce your own eggs or meat. When you think about building chicken coops their size will depend on how many birds you’ll be raising, the type of bird, and the housing system you choose. Since the average backyard grower will usually keep less than a dozen hens the amount of space required will be minimal.

There are two types of housing that you can provide for your flock and each requires a different amount of backyard space. Using the cage system, which is generally what commercial producers use, requires less space than floor housing. However, most backyard growers who only want to raise a few birds should not attempt the cage system.

To explain it in simple terms the cage system is really just a bunch of small cages all lined up horizontally and on top of each other with each cage containing one bird or sometimes two. This system requires the least amount of space, but if you plan on keeping your chickens longer than one laying season you will most likely encounter more health disorders using this system.

Most home chicken raisers will want to give their flock a little extra room and therefore will be using floor housing. Floor housing allows the flock access to all parts of the chicken coop; the nests, feeder area, watering area, and even the outdoor area where they can hunt and peck for some of their own food. Raising a few pullets in your own backyard is a lot more satisfying when you allow the birds a little extra elbow room.

Various age groups and breeds have different space requirements. Bantam chickens (miniature birds) will typically require less space. You may think that the large meat breeds would require more space than the small egg laying breeds, but that’s not always true. However, no matter what type of birds you’ll be raising, having enough floor space is vital. Too little floor space can lead to cannibalism, poor growth, lowered egg production, and death.

Chicks up to 10 weeks of age will need less than 1 square foot of floor space and thereafter about 1.5 to 2.0 square feet. Layers of brown eggs will generally need more floor space than white egg layers, ranging from 2.0 to 2.5 square feet. White egg layers will require 1.5 to 2.0 square feet. Laying chickens that are meat-type breeders require more area, about 2.5 to 3.0 square feet.

If your purpose for raising chickens is to grow your own organic eggs you will need about 18 to 30 square feet of space for a dozen birds depending on which type of eggs you’ll be growing. That translates into a 5-foot by 6-foot chicken coop to house a dozen brown egg layers. Sure, it will look a little crowded, but it isn’t necessary to provide a lot of room for just a few birds.

Broilers are generally butchered by 8 weeks of age so they never get too large. They generally need only 1 square foot per bird. You would think that raising large roasters would take much more space, but this is not necessarily true. They need about 1 square foot until they are 8 weeks of age, the same as broilers. Up to 12 weeks they will require 2.0 square feet which is about the same as a white egg layer. And from 12 weeks to 20 weeks they will require 2.0 up to 3.0 square feet. This is the same space requirements as a layer of meat-type breeders.

Raising your own meat and eggs doesn’t require a lot of space. Sure, you can give them more if you want, but it’s not necessary. However, there is one thing to keep in mind. The more space you give them, the less likelihood of cannibalism and disease.

Before starting to build the coop, you need to make sure the land you want to build on is level and landscaped properly. You have two options here, you can either landscape an area of land that you really want to build the chicken coop on or you can look for a piece of land that will already work well to build on without having to landscape at all.

The latter option is going to be cheaper than the former, but again this will come down to your personal preference. By doing this first though, you’ll build a chicken coop that lasts for a longer period of time since it’ll have a more sturdy foundation that you built it upon.

Also, having the coop within a close distance (eye’s range is even better) will help you keep a closer eye on your chickens and ensure they are safe.

Having The Right Base Structure

You want to make sure you have the right structural base. You’ll need the right types of materials and choosing to forgo and opt for very cheap building materials here could come back to haunt you in the long run. There are still definitely cheap options that you can certainly consider and that will work well, but there still are limits. Knowing which cost-effective materials stand the test of time will help.

What’s The Right Size?

The biggest mistake you can make is trying to cram too many chickens into your coop. Because each chicken requires so much area to feel comfortable and lay eggs properly, you’ll really want to make sure you’re choosing your size wisely.

Chickens need space to move around for exercise, and should not be cramped too close together. Plan for 4 square feet per chicken inside the coop and on the roosting area. Also plan for 10 square feet per chicken in an outdoor run. If you have less space, limit your chickens. They will produce more eggs and you will see the benefits.

This maybe one of the most important things to consider when starting your project.

Choosing Your Building Materials

Lots of people think you need to buy expensive materials to successfully build a chicken coop, however this is not the case at all. Chicken coops can be made from a variety of different materials including such things as an old shed, scrap lumber, PVC pipes, 50 gallon barrels, or other recycled materials you may have around the house already.

Usually wood is the most common material used to build the chicken coop however it’s also the priciest, so you’ll have to weight the pros versus the cons. If you want your chicken coop to last for years and years to come, it may be a good idea to invest in a wooden coop to ensure that it does withstand various climate changes.

Keep in mind with this though that wood varieties will also vary in price and that will influence your decision, so looking at the different types of wood is also important.

If you are thinking about just building a smaller coop, you might even be able to get away with using recycled timber instead. Asking around for scrap pieces of wood can also be one way to locate some materials to use, but bear in mind if you’re going to go this route there is a higher chance you’ll have to pull some nails and may wind up with a chicken coop that isn’t exactly matching. If you’re really looking for the absolute most cost effective method though, then it’s likely something that you will want to think about and consider.

Many times you can save over half the price of the coop just by looking carefully for building materials that will meet your needs effectively.

So, before you rush out to buy whatever you think you need for building supplies, give some careful consideration to this first. It’s important that you have a firm understanding about building materials for your chicken house before you even get going. In some cases it can get hard to start with a certain type of material and then switch over halfway through, even between the different types of woods, therefore getting it all figured out before you begin will be your best bet.

A lot of people who house chickens in their yards have paid quite an amount for a ready-made chicken coops and runs from farm stores or paid someone to build it for them, simply because they don’t know how to go about building their own. Assuming it’s too difficult to build it themselves little do they realise that they couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact it’s actually quite easy (and sometimes a lot of fun) building chicken coops, when you know how!

I can hear you from here saying to yourself that you don’t know how to build a chicken coop… well, not yet, you don’t, but with some helpful advice you will be pleasantly surprised at just how easy and fun it can be. No one starts out knowing how to build a coop to house their flock of chickens, they learn how to build a coop first and then they do the building. So if you’re willing to put in some work to build your own coop, then first you need to pick up a guide that will guide you through the whole process of building chicken coops. It’ll also tell you exactly what materials you need.

A good guide will explain everything about building chicken coops, so it’s actually fairly easy if you’re capable of following simple instructions, so I don’t have to go into too much detail about building chicken coops – a good guide to chicken coops will take care of that. But I am going to tell you a few thing to keep in mind when building your own chicken coop.

When building a chicken coop you need to keep in mind the safety, well being and health of your chickens. Ideally, you want to build the coop on the flattest part of your backyard for reasons that are fairly obvious. You also want to keep in mind predators that may go after your chickens. So that dogs and foxes can’t get in under the wire of your chicken house it is important to bury it at least 15 inches under the ground.

Making sure that your chicken coop is fully insulated ensures that the quality of like for your chickens will be improved. If it’s not, the weather will cause your coop to leak which can lead to mold that can harm a chickens health and bring with it unwanted disease. Make sure you have an open area for your chickens and a closed area that is fully insulated.

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Allow adequate space within the structure for feeders and waterers.

Position equipment for ease of cleaning, egg gathering, and general upkeep.

Consider anticipated high/low temperatures, potential snow load, other environmental conditions, and local ordinances before beginning to build.

Contact your local county agent or Extension poultry specialist for specific recommendations in your area.

Take into consideration all the above said points while making your Chicken House Design and you and your chickens will be blessed.

There are lots of individuals that would love to make their own chicken coops, but think they lack adequate expertise. But, the poultry house construction process isn’t as difficult as most individuals suppose. A good hen house can be constructed in just one weekend even if you’re a complete rookie; the sole requirement being a first rate poultry house construction manual. Not only is it a great deal easier than you might imagine, but constructing your own chicken coop will save you plenty of cash too. The key to success is making certain that none of the fundamental actions in the constructing process are eliminated. Here are the five basic steps for successful poultry house construction.

Find the Right Site

Making your hen houses in locations with superior water drainage is maybe the single most vital decisions. Inadequate water drainage will result in mucky areas that will promote filthiness and sickness. You ought to also make certain there is enough extra space for expansion if you should ever choose to keep an increased number of birds in the future. Making a poultry house so that it faces south is additionally a sensible idea. This will allow more sunlight into the chicken shed which will help keep it clean and dry. Furthermore, you should construct your hen house in an area where there is available electricity for extra lighting if needed.

Keeping Chickens – Decide What Number of Chickens You Wish to Raise

Chickens need a minimum amount of space for best health and egg production. Supplying them with too little space will cause them to produce fewer eggs and possibly result in cannibalism which can lead to them pecking each other to the point of death. Ideally, you’ll give them a minimum of 5 sq. feet per hen, but offering them additional space is a sensible idea. The more crowded they are the higher chance you’ll have of experiencing unnecessary troubles. Once you come to a decision on the quantity of birds needed, get a good poultry house design that will accommodate that number.

Obtain High Quality Building Materials

Once you have cleaned out your imminent chicken shed location of any brush and made it as level as possible it is time to shop for your materials. Pick out a high-quality chicken coop design from a poultry house construction manual and simply get the materials listed. Well-designed chicken sheds will last for a lot of years, but using inferior materials will decrease their life expectancy and end up costing you additional cash in the long run. Obtain prime quality materials so that you won’t have to restore or rebuild something within the near future.

Windows Are a Necessary Addition

Keeping chickens successfully demands a clean and dry domicile. Building chicken coops on land with superior water drainage is a vital factor, but making certain there is first-rate air circulation is another. Windows enable additional air to flow through the chicken coop which will help it stay cleaner and drier, but they additionally give additional sunlight. Pullets need a minimum of 14 hours of lighting on a daily basis to produce eggs daily. During certain seasons when there is insufficient sunlight you can simply put in a low wattage bulb if you’re close to an electrical outlet. This will keep your birds producing eggs all year long.

Defend Your Birds from Predatory Animals

Your Hens should be completely enclosed in their home for complete safety. Chicken wire ought to be utilized to make certain there aren’t any openings larger than 1-inch by 2-inches where wild animals or neighborhood pets can get in. Some creatures will do their best to dig beneath the wire so it is vital to submerge the wire a minimum of several inches below the ground. If the openings within the chicken wire are too massive it additionally might allow wild birds to get in the chicken shed. Wild birds will spread diseases and need to be kept out.

Utilizing these pointers and beginning with a smart set of poultry house construction plans will help guarantee that you have success in your brand new endeavor. In addition to these procedures it’s also a sensible idea to plan ahead. This is where a decent poultry manual will be valuable because it will offer you concepts that you might not have thought of.

Make a list of all the options you want in a chicken enclosure and then find a poultry house construction plan that will give you what you would like. To make cleanup an easy job you will want to employ wire flooring. You might additionally wish to install an automatic watering procedure, an automatic egg gathering system, or alternative features. Plan ahead and do things right the first time. Planning ahead will save you cash and time as well as decreasing your costs over the long run. There isn’t anything more aggravating than recognizing you should have done a thing or two completely different the first time through.

The moment Georgie, Olivine and Sarerin see Ingela Wanerstrand in her bedroom window in the morning, they rush to the door of their coop and cluck, anxious for their daily serving of fresh salad greens.

Since the New Year, the chickens have been laying about an egg a day each. They have taken over pest control in the yard, snapping up slugs and worms and bickering over dandelion greens.

Wanerstrand loves coming home at the end of the day, letting the chickens out and spending time with her “girls.”

“I’m totally in love with my chickens,” she said.

Like more and more folks, Wanerstrand originally wanted chickens for the environmentally friendly purpose of raising food in the city, decreasing the amount of fuel required for eggs by raising chickens instead of buying eggs trucked to a grocery store.

The eggs are the bonus now.

“The thing about people who raise chickens is they love talking about them,” said Angelina Shell, program coordinator for Seattle Tilth’s city chickens program. “It’s like people who talk about their cats; they do that about their chickens, too. They’re definitely entertaining creatures.”

Seattle has allowed chickens and roosters for years, and some chicken programs around the country have been modeled on Seattle’s program, Shell said. The city does not require a permit to have chickens, so it’s unknown exactly how many people have them, but Shell estimated at least 1,000 coops.

“Someone told me chickens are sexy right now,” Shell said. “It’s definitely growing. Our chicken classes always fill up quickly. This is the most interest I’ve seen in a long time.”

Raising miniature goats in the city is also becoming popular, Shell said, though far fewer families raise goats than chickens. Most goat-owners keep them for milk and pets, she said. Seattle Tilth recently offered its first goat-raising class. The next chicken class (on building chicken coops) is May 31 and a chicken-raising class is in June (see www.seattletilth.org).

The city of Seattle allows residents to raise domestic fowl (typically three per household, which can include chickens, turkeys, quail, peacocks and so on), miniature goats (three per household; must be registered with the city) and even potbelly pigs (one per household; must be registered). Bigger lots may have more.

It’s the season

Spring is the time to buy chicks, available at most feed stores, or you can order them online. They typically take five to nine months to produce eggs, depending on type.

Hayes Feed & Country Store in Burien has a waiting list for chicks, according to owner Susanne Hayes, something she hasn’t seen before due to the recent popularity of “city farmers raising chickens.”

“They’re mostly city people buying chickens for their eggs because they like to know what they’re eating,” she said. “They’ll come in and spend hundreds of dollars for bedding and feed. They love their chickens like pets, like a cat or dog.”

She said city residents come in to buy feed and materials for their goats and sheep, too, but chickens are by far the most popular.

Chicken care and community

Chickens are relatively straightforward to care for, and their main requirements are food, water and shelter that includes a place to walk around and a place to lay eggs, Shell said. They lay eggs for the first couple of years of their lives.

Coops can be as complex or as simple as you want, though owners must guard against predators including raccoons, dogs, foxes and hawks. Coops require minimal maintenance, with some owners cleaning as little as once or twice a year.

Chickens also create community, Shell said. Neighborhood kids love to feed and watch them, and with some hens laying an egg a day, there’s plenty to share.

Wanerstrand set up a bench in front of her coop for neighbors to watch “Chicken TV.” She has her own chair inside the coop where she can sit with them while they scratch for bugs. She coos when she holds them and laughs at them when they fight over choice bits from the garden.

Coops 101

Wanerstrand feared the chickens might be smelly or difficult, but they are neither. A landscape designer, Wanerstrand built a sustainable coop (including a green roof planted with ground cover and rain barrels) designed so it is easy to maintain. She cleans the coop once a month and composts manure with wood chips for mulch. Other basic duties include keeping their water fresh and their feeder full.

The real obstacle has been keeping them safe from predators. She lost her first batch of chicks to an unknown predator that yanked off chicken wire and snatched her three chickens from their coop.

Her flock is now guarded by a beefed-up security system involving mesh hardware cloth, wood screws, spring-loaded hooks and buried chicken wire.

Today, her berries are flourishing from the chicken mulch, her perennials are slug-free and she’s constantly giving away eggs.

“It’s just way easier than I thought it would be.”

Nicole Tsong: 206-464-2150 or ntsong@seattletimes.com

The thunder had nearly stopped rumbling and puddles dotted the ground, but Lisa Colton and her 5-year-old son, Eli, nonetheless grabbed their shoes and a container of strawberries as they wandered outside.

Colton slowly walked down steep, pergola-covered steps, grabbing some garden spring greens on the way, before stopping into a backyard patch where eight new residents had recently moved in.

“Chickens need to be fed,” Colton said.

The Coltons, along with three other families, have built and are sharing a chicken coop so they can collectively care for the animals and eventually reap the daily reward of fresh, home-grown eggs. But neither the Coltons nor their neighbors live on a farm. They are residents of Charlottesville’s dense North Downtown neighborhood, and the two-level coop is located on a flat yard space surrounded by flowers and gardens on the Coltons’ property.

“We’re all interested in interesting experiences for our kids and local food,” Colton said.

With no city ordinance barring their presence, keeping chickens seems to be growing in popularity in Charlottesville and all over the country, as more people desire to have local food.

In the past few months, an informal city network has even formed — dubbed the Charlottesville League of Urban Chicken Keepers, or CLUCK — so that residents can connect with others who are doing the same thing and are equally enthusiastic about backyard poultry. The network has a blog, 95 people in its Facebook group and 52 members in its Google group.

One national Web site, http://www.backyardchickens.com, boasted having 20,000 chicken-owning members in January, roughly 10 years after the site was created.

“People are really starting to come back to the idea that you can support yourself,” said Guinevere Higgins, who started CLUCK. Higgins said the ad hoc group started after she and her boyfriend were building their own coop last fall, and she thought, “Wouldn’t it be cool if we were comparing notes?”

Starting from scratch

The plan for the Coltons’ coop only started on the back of a napkin, and it received some attention from their neighbors and the city government in February, when the proposal was taken to the city’s Board of Architectural Review to get its design approved. The chickens arrived late last month.

“This is definitely a first for me,” Joe Hoskins, a woodworker, said one day in late April as he worked to build the coop. The structure, complete with roosting, feeding and nesting areas, took about a month of on-and-off work to finish, and Hoskins led the coop’s construction.

“I probably shouldn’t be building chicken coops,” Hoskins joked as he built one last month, two weeks before he had a big display show.

The parents involved in the North Downtown project all said that no individual family could have kept and taken care of the chickens alone, which is why they decided to do it together.

The four families have set up a schedule to rotate who feeds and cleans up after the birds, though on many an afternoon the Coltons’ yard is filled with children and their parents scurrying after their chickens, trying to sweep them up and pet them.

“Dare I leave them running around?” Colton said.

Urban chicken awareness

Higgins said that as it becomes trendier to keep chickens, she worries that there are people who get into the idea without knowing what to expect. With that in mind, she hopes that CLUCK can become a teaching tool to help urbanites with their poultry preparations.

Colton said she thought their chickens were reasonably adjusting to their new urban environment, especially after spending nights staring at nearby streetlamps.

Belmont resident Luke Cole, who built a mobile coop and was hoping he would get his three chickens this weekend, said chickens are pretty easy to take care of — and aren’t noisy or smell unless gathered in the hundreds.

“They’re way low maintenance,” said Cole, whose Belmont coop is his second. “They’re sweet and odorless, and not loud.”

Kathryn Russell, who owns Majesty Farm in North Garden in Albemarle County, said urban chicken keeping was also a popular idea in the early 20th century, before the rise of the suburb in American society. The advantages of keeping chickens in cities, she said, are numerous.

“The more people can see where their food comes from, the better off we all are,” she said.

Never too many eggs

Colton said the families would also teach their children — nine between all of them — about the origins of their food. But that does not mean the eight adults aren’t excited as well as they wait for as many hens, which are colored with gold, red and black feathers, to start laying eggs next month.

The families have even named some of their feathered fowl — Minerva Louise, Henny Penny and Georgina.

Gillian Grimm, whose family is sharing the coop, said she could not wait until she would be able to bake with the eggs. Once they start, the hens will each lay one egg a day for most of the year.

“There will never be too many eggs,” Grimm said.

Colton said the first thing she would probably make are eggs over easy because of her love of yolks, and Hoskins said he would first make a soft-boiled egg where the yolk was still runny and eat it with a small spoon, just like his grandfather used to do.

“Everybody’s pretty excited about it,” Colton said.

Nowadays, pursuit of health has become an unshakable faith. Healthy diet is certainly a key part in a healthy life style, which means you need to eat the right food. So it is not a surprise if you want to keep away from buying eggs full of antibiotics and to build your own chicken coop.

Have a flock in your backyard, try a little villeggiatura and enjoy green and safe eggs everyday, isn’t it sounds lovely? Before starting the project, it is important to make a plan first. Here are the things you need to take into your consideration: budget, location, size, light, ventilation and predator. Let’s talk about these one by one.

Budget, this is the key factor of your whole plan. How much can you spend on the chicken coop may decide whether your plan can be accomplished eventually. After all, this is building a chicken coop is meant to color your life, not to influence it. What’s more, there is another part in the budget, time. How many hours can you spend on building the coop, maintaining and cleanning it every week ? These two answers are things you should find out at the very beginning.

Location and size, I want to talk about these two points together, since they are deeply connected. Chickens need spaces to make a comfortable and happy lives, thus, they can lay eggs regularly. Find out a place level and won’t have flooding in rainy days in your backyard, and measure it. Most likely it will be the place to build your coop. Generally, each chicken needs 4-5 quare feet inside the coop for optimal health, egg production and individual space. With the size of the space and the flock you want to have, you can decide to build a small coop or a large one.

Chicken is the kind of animal which is very loyal and dependent on sun. The sunrise makes, the sunset but the rest. Make sure your chickens get enough sunshine to keep them healthy. Several windows facing the sun will solve the problem perfectly.

Ventilation becomes especially important if your coop is in a damp place or just in summer. After rain, good ventilation will helps to dry the coop in a short time. And in summer, cool wind is really nice for the chickens. Still, window is the best way to have good ventilation.

The last but definitley not the least, predator. Predators can attack your chickens from sky, ground and under ground. To protect your chickens from top, fences in firm material will work. So as to predators coming from ground. If your enemies come from under ground, your fences should be there too, at least a feet down.

These are just some simple tips for building your own chicken coop, if you really want to build a good one in the most easy and saving way, I strongly recommend the ebook “Building a chicken coop”. In the book you will find more than you need in starting your chicken-raise career. If you are not satisfied with the book, which I really doubt about, a 60-days 100% money back guarantee will save your complaint. Grab A Copy Click here