Plans For A Chicken Coop - 6 Basic Tips

When you select the plans for making a chicken coop, you should pay attention to a number of details, since the design and general look are less important. While having a chicken coop that looks nice can’t hurt, from the point of view of a business, there are other things you should think about when you pick a plan.

1. The space. In order for a chicken to be happy and healthy he needs a minimum space amount to live in. Every chicken you own should have 4 sq feet of space on the floor. A simple calculation will tell you that you need 80 sq feet if you have 20 chickens. Skimping on the space shouldn’t be an option. Actually, if you can, allocate even more space than the minimum. When the chicken coop is too small for the number of chickens kept inside, their life quality goes down and some of the side effects can be cannibalism or feather picking. Since you don’t want that to happen, try to avoid overcrowding.
2. Lighting. In order for the egg laying to be stimulated, you should have lighting in the chicken coop. That’s especially true if you want the eggs to be laid all year long. The best situation is when you have one light at every 40 ft. If the chicken coop you’re building is small, one light should be enough, placed above the feeding/watering area. When it’s cold outside, the light also acts as a heat source.
3. Perches. Chickens like to perch since it’s natural to them, so they should have appropriate perches. If they don’t have them, they will use feeders or nesting boxes to perch. The end result would be droppings in those areas and that’s something you don’t want. All you have to do is get some broom handles and use those for perches. In order for them to have enough room, make sure each chicken has 8 inches for perching space. Below the perches you should place trays, so the chicken coop remains clean.



4. The ventilation. You might not know this, but chickens do sweat. You should have ventilation in the chicken coop, so they are cool during the summer and their perspiration can evaporate and go outside the chicken coop. The ventilation in chicken coops should be either small windows or wall vents, as long as it’s not too drafty inside. Try to reach a balance there. The vents of the chicken coop shouldn’t be placed on a part that faces the wind. That part is usually either the south or east. This way, the air that is rich in fresh oxygen will get in the hen house, letting moisture and stale air get out. While chickens can face the cold well, they don’t do as well in a wet environment.
5. Boxes for nesting. If your chickens are kept to make eggs, make sure the coop has a maximum of 5 or 6 chickens per nesting box. In order for the chickens to feel safe inside, the boxes should be dark and comfortable. They should also have wood or straw shavings inside, with a minimum of 4 inches of depth for the boxes. If the depth is not good, they might pick and fight each other. If you want the eggs to remain clean, you should clean the boxes regularly. If you can, teach the hens to sleep in other places, not in a nesting box, so they don’t leave droppings behind. As long as they have sufficient space to perch, hens will not sleep in a nesting box.
6. Their protection. In order for the chickens to remain safe from any kind of predators (hawks, coyotes, raccoons, foxes or rats), make sure the structure is strong enough. To test it, try to push it. If you can do it, it’s not strong enough. That’s my own test to find out if the coop is well built. If I can’t push it over, I’m satisfied. Make sure that foxes and rats can’t get inside the chicken coop to get any of your chickens. The fencing should go until it hits the ground and if you can, also place wire fencing inside the ground, at a depth of 1 ft. If you do that, even if foxes try to dig, they will just reach the wire fencing. The mesh also shouldn’t let raccoons get through with their arms. ½ inch wire mesh that is square should be sufficient for your chicken coop fencing. Besides keeping any predators at bay, it also looks good.

If you keep these six elements in mind when you are selecting or creating your own chicken coop plans then you should succeed in keeping healthy and happy chickens that have the potential to lay 300 eggs each per year.

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