Chicken Coop Building Plans

One of the important choices you’ll have to make early on is choosing from various chicken coop building plans, the one that’s right for you. Let’s take a look at the vital features your hen house needs along with the optimum layout and design.

Besides deciding on whether your chicken coop needs to be fixed or mobile, there are other essential elements  that you need to have inside the coop for comfort and convenience of  your flock.

They are:

• water site
• electricity
• automatic food dispenser
• shield against the wind
• feeds storage container
• weather proof building materials
• location
• nesting boxes
• roosting poles

Let’s take a look at each one.

Chickens drink lots of water. So you should plan the way to water in such a way that the hens can easily get access. Also keep a constant access to water so it’s available for whole day. This is critical as it helps in the production of egg.

Electricity is also important to keep the chickens warm at night so that they lay high quality and large number of eggs. It’s especially critical in the winter time when the temperature drops and the egg production usually drops. By keeping your hens warm you can expect them to lay more eggs then typically this time of year.

An automatic food dispenser is necessary if you are too busy and do not have time to feed the hens or if you’re away for a week or so. Food dispenser help to feed chicken whenever needed.

Make sure the window in the coop is set up in such a way that you can easily open and close it depending on the changing weather, to protect your chickens from wind and rain, and at the same time have plenty of sun when it’s nice out. If you expose the hens to the wind then there’s a chance that they might not eggs the very next day. On the other hand sunlight is important to keep the hens warm.

The feed storage container should be near the chicken coop so that you can easily feed them whenever needed.

Another vital aspect when looking at chicken coop building plans will be the material used in building the coop so that the result will be successful. To create a good chicken coop you should buy the kind of wood that’s treated so that it will become water repellent. But if you get wood that hasn’t been treated, then get a water sealant and do it yourself.

Insulate the walls of the coop with padding which is keeps the hens warm and comfortable in the frosty weather conditions, as well as safe guards them from sickness which can be common in winters.

As you’re picking out your layout, look at the size to make sure it’s suitable for the number of birds in your flock. You should allow approximately 4 sq. feet per chicken. And account for the fact that you might have more in the future.

But here’s an important and often overlooked part of choosing the size. Make sure that the size you choose fits good in the best location for the coop. Placing the coop in the right location is critical for a few reasons:

• Optimum sun to keep your hens in natural light which they need
• A large enough area outside of the coop to make a chicken run, for your birds to run around outside
• An area not to close to woods to keep the predatory animals away. (this is of utmost importance) You might even consider having the coop closer to your home so you keep an eye on it and look out for any danger from wild life

The next thing you need to consider is to have plenty of space inside for the nesting boxes. You should have about 4 to 5 chickens per nesting box. And have them raised off the ground and preferably in the darkest corners of the coop.

Roosting poles – is yet another feature of the chicken house that your flock needs. Birds need to roost, that’s where they rest and sleep, and you need to have them higher off the ground, as chickens like to sit up high.

So as you go through the numerous chicken coop building plans, keep these vital points in mind to choose the one that’s right for you.

If you’d like to get an in depth step by step guide for building chicken coops and various chicken coop building plans I recommend you check out this site:

My Favorite Chicken Coop Building Guide