Carole M Hopkins asked:

If you would like to know to build a chicken pen, you may be pleased to learn that this is a relatively simple procedure but one of the critical things, as with many things in life, is having a plan. When looking at plans for your chicken coop, it’s important to realize the “must-have” items that should be included, regardless of the size of your chicken house.  If your chickens are likely to be stored inside the house most of the time, size becomes a primary consideration. Chickens need enough room to move around comfortably, to perch, and sleep as well as lay eggs. Any good chicken house plan should clearly indicate the appropriate design that is suitable for the number of hens intended to be housed.

In general, you must allow the indoor area of 3-5 square fee up to 15 square feet, depending on a the size of your flock, the number of hens you have, etc. Optimally, you should be flexible enough to allow your chickens free range for at least part of the time, but most importantly they must be able to sleep comfortably and safely.

Another important element of your chicken pen is cleanliness — keeping your chicken house facility clean is vitally important to the health of the chickens. It is no use at all to have a coop full of chickens that looks nice if you can not keep it properly clean.  This is vital for a couple of reasons. First, the chickens are susceptible to disease, which can lead to feather loss and extreme discomfort for the hens. Your chicken coop must be easy to clean, especially if some folks full-time or part-time livelihood depends on it. You must remove the dust from the interior of the chicken house. Cleaning should be done regularly, and spray occasionally the interior with a disinfectant. (See the book we used for the disinfectants we used.)

Another essential element is the access for the chicken house. When considering your chicken house plans, you should incorporate a dual access system in the nesting area. A great location for the nesting with dual access would be near the rear of the chicken house. This makes it easier to keep that area clean, and it allows better access for collecting your fresh eggs. This area can be particularly dirty, so the dual access is the better plan.

Protection against predators is another essential consideration for your chicken house. Your chickens must be protected from natural predators, even if you are in the city raising chickens. There are many animals that would prey on your flock if not adequately protected. Those in city areas may not be worried about attacks by foxes or raccoons, but you still have to worry about domestic cats and dogs too! Look for chicken house plans that have any means to prevent the predators from reaching your hens.

When you are ready to build your chicken house, you must have some solid building plans that take these essential items and more into consideration. Your plans will include ideas on location, ventilation, building materials, and much, much more.   How about illumination and Ventilation?  You should consider the “lighting” if you are  keeping chickens for the production of eggs.  During the winter months, the production of eggs naturally decreases as the hen’s hormones are controlled by the mere numbers or hours of daylight.  It is possible to incorporate artificial lighting in your chicken house to allow for better egg production in those winter months, so make sure your plans include for that option.

When it comes to ventilation, you need ample, adequate holes on the sides of you chicken house. This provides adequate circulation and minimizes and in some cases prevents the accumulation  of moisture. 

As a responsible pet and chicken owner, you should be  looking for these ideas and more to incorporate into your own design, and I strongly recommend a book of Bill Keene, an all-inclusive book detailing numerous chicken house plans.  Their designs are so simple, and you’ll be able to build your own chicken house with easy , step-by-step instructions.  Since we have built hour chicken house, I have highly recommended this book to customers for DIY construction and they all have been delighted by the simplicity and quality of designs. To get more information, click on the link below. You could download the book and read it tonight and start building your chicken house tomorrow!

Get Your Chicken House Plans – Click Here

how to build a chicken house

Bill Keene asked:

If you’re considering raising chickens and doing it profitably, then the cost of building your chicken house should concern you.   You’re already going to be spending money on the purchase of chickens, chicken feed and other operating materials, so in order to get into the profitability mode quicker, you need to reduce your construction costs for abuilding your chicken coop.  The lower the costs, without affecting the health and safety of your chickens, the better. Here are some quick tips for how you can build a cheap chicken coop.

First, start by having a complete materials list before you start any construction.  Go ahead and “shop” for your materials, which actually is the first part of your planning.  Withouth a complete materials list, which will include the many types of options you would want to incorporate in your chicken house, you are setting yourself up for higher costs, over budget and a less prfofitable enterprise. When you research and shop in advance with a complete materials list, you will have a much better idea of your actual costs. Here’s an extra tip, when shopping for materials, asks your sales person if any of the items you’re looking for are going on sale in an upcoming ad.  Many sales people will gladly let you know if the item is going on sale on the next ad, next week, etc.

Another benefit to having a solid plan with an accurate materials list is that you will have little or no waste at all of building materials.  Many folks buy way too much materials and have all sorts of lumbar left over after the chicken house is finished.  This is wasted money and wasted profits.

Another tip – don’t buy tools that you’re only going to use once.  First, see if any of your friends, family or neighbors might have the tool that you can borrow.  If not, check with your local tool rental company.  There’s no sense ni purchasing that $500 table saw that you’re only going to use for this project if you can borrow your neighbor, Ralph’s saw.  There are no particular special tools needed to build your own chicken house, so ask around and keep the cost of your chicken coop down.

Finally, consider recycling of some of the old materials that you may already have around your home, garage or farm.  For example, many folks use different materials for the floor of their chicken house, such as soil, sand or sawdust.  These may be readily available around your house, or offered free elsewhere.  Does your local lumbar yard cut larger peices of wood for its customers?  Find out what they do with their sawdust — you may be able to collect it for free for use in your chicken house.   Look around your home, garage, etc., and see what you have that could be put to good use in your new chicken house.

Finally, how many chickens are you thinking of raising?  If you’re only raising chickens to have a nice supply of fresh eggs for your family’s breakfast table, then you could get away with only two or three chickens.  Right off the bat – you’ve cut the costs of your chicken coop because you won’t need to build a large coop to house your chickens when a much smaller chicken house will do fine.

Keep these tips in mind when you’re planning to build your chicken coop and you’ll come out way ahead in the pocket book, even in profits.  If  you don’t have a complete set of designs with accurate materials list, I strongly recommend the book that you can get here:

Get Your Chicken House Plans – Click Here

how to build a chicken house

Carole M Hopkins asked:

If you are considering building a chicken pen yourself, it is important to understand that the design of the barrel of chicken is important for several reasons. Not only is it important to have a barrel that seems good in your garden (bearing in mind you may have to look at it everyday!)

But there are other important elements to consider debatable. First, an important element of any design of the barrel is the size of chicken. The first consideration is that it is sufficiently large enough for the expected number of chickens. As a general rule, you should allow 3-5 square feet of space per chicken in the house of the ranking / sleeping and about 15 square feet in the area of operation.

Obviously, if chickens are allowed to run around, then a little outdoor space for the operation could be a little less. Furthermore, the design of the chicken coop you choose to look aesthetically satisfied, they should not be authoritative for the size of the garden.

When building a chicken cooop, the materials you use are important for several reasons. If possible, you may want to use a wooden match or complement other furniture or the garden, particularly if you pour existence. Furthermore, “extras” such as coupling and hinges should be chosen not only for appearance but for its strength as the lengths to which the predators are going to try to get hold of chickens can be dramatic. Foxes have been known to gnaw through the wire mesh so Reassure the heavy use of the gauge only. The cleaning is an important feature in design of the chicken coop. When building a chicken pen, you must ensure that the area of importance, like the nesting area, is particularly easy to reach, preferably in the form of doors that are on the outside of the pen and not just via an internal operation. Some chicken coops have handles on the top to move the coops around the garden and it will not only provide a cleaning easier (as the “mess” is literally behind, ready to be separated into the garden, but it also gives chickens the chance of roaming on a fresh patch of earth or grass.

Make sure there is enough space for a nest for 4-5 chickens. Often, instructions are included in the design of the chicken coop, but not need over-complicate things hens are quite happy to run around in a sturdy cardboard box with old which has the advantage of easy replacement with a new one when needed. Or, you may consider using a plastic tray of cat litter . They are very cheap to buy and are easily cleaned and disinfected. As a responsible retailer and the cover of the same chicken chicken, looking for ideas to incorporate into my own designs and that lead me to a book of a chicken-loving companion. Their designs were so simple that they were almost as easy to build for my own casks self-assembly were together! since then I have recommended your book to many clients who watched them building a chicken pen, and all have been delighted for simplicity and quality designs.

Furthermore, it has been shown to build your own deck can save over 50% of the cost of a pen flatpacked comparable and even those with very little experience in DIY can follow the simple plans chicken pen without difficulty. To take a look at the various options that are available, please visit the designs of one of the best chicken coop designs book.

Get Your Chicken House Plans – Click Here

building chicken coops

Carole M Hopkins asked:


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small chicken coops

Carole M Hopkins asked:


If you are considering building a chicken house yourself, there are many factors you should consider before you start. While a home DIY chicken can be a great alternative to buying an expensive version up, get it wrong can prove costly in terms of missing equipment, lost time and possibly unhealthy and unhappy hens. Done properly however, a pen DIY excellent economic sense and can be solved in a fraction of the cost of pre-built. Although the cover is not constructive as simple as hammering a coupling of wood and wire board may still provide some amazingly simple – and – the intent of the plans tested in the chicken pen. You need to consider what materials you use, if the insulation is required, what ventilation is needed, where you locate the nest design and placement of perches and protection from extreme weather and predators. The appropriateness of materials it is important to build a chicken house DIY. With regard to the wood used must be strong enough to withstand the harshest weather and whether pre-treatment, you must ensure that the protective timber is animal-friendly. NinguÌ? No link that you use should not be of flexible, thin as it can bite through easily by foxes and other predators, in fact you should seek a variety of heavy gauge. When you are building a chicken house, the location of it is very important. You need to be near enough to the house so that the collection of food and the egg is not a task too, but just far enough away that the smell and flies in summer is not inevitable entering their house constantly. In addition, you may want to make sure you take the sun for part of the day because it will help remove any moisture caused by cleaning and through inclement weather. Ventilation is an important consideration and you will find that most of the barrels are pre-built circular holes drilled in the rear end of the sleep / in the ranking are often indenting for security. Ventilation is important not only to keep the air circulating the hot summer months, but it is important to prevent an accumulation of harmful gases from the hen 'waste s. With regard nest, you need a rough nest for every 4-5 hens (don 't incurs the mistake I did when the first chicken when I tried to carefully custody crush 6 nest in the barrel, one for each chicken!). This should be something that is easily cleaned. A good solution for those who make a home DIY chicken is to use a sturdy cardboard box old, and you can change it every week or so. Another good alternative is to use a plastic tray of cat litter that can be cleaned every week and last toilet for years. Because hens perch naturally love is essential to provide a simple pole roosting in the sleeping / hierarchy. Also, you might like to consider putting a branch in the great outdoors of the pen to be perched on. As a responsible retailer and the cover of the same chicken chicken, looking for ideas to incorporate into my own designs and that lead me to a book by Bill Keene, chicken-loving companion! Their designs were so simple that they were almost as easy to build for my own casks self-assembly were together! Since then I have recommended your book to many clients seeking the chicken pen is planned and all have been delighted by the simplicity and quality of designs. Furthermore, it has been shown to build your own deck can save over 50% of the cost of a pen flatpacked comparable and even those with very little DIY experience can follow the instructions in the book easily. To take a look at the various options that are available, please visit the plans of the chicken house DIY.
Get Your Chicken House Plans – Click Here


build chicken coops