Building your own
chicken coop is a fairly simple
job, which almost anyone can tackle. The one thing
you need to get, right at the start, is a good
design for your hen house. A quickly put together
amateur construction job is just not a good idea.
Your hens need proper protection from both the
weather and predators. If they are warm and
comfortable in the poultry house they will lay more
eggs for you. Needless to say you want a strong
chicken shed to keep out predators. If a raccoon or
a dog get into the chicken coop it can be a real
disaster with all or most of the chickens dead as a
result.
Commercially designed plans which allow proper
space and the right conditions for your hens are
available, and are the only way to go if you want to
do the job properly. You can of course buy a ready
built chicken coop, if you can afford the high cost.
To most people this just does not make sense. The
cost of several hundred to perhaps a thousand
dollars, is too much to pay for a small supply of
fresh eggs. If you build the hen house yourself
however you only pay for the plans and materials
which is a relatively modest outlay.
Choose the size of chicken coop you will need,
according to the size of your flock. A good rough
estimate is four square feet of space, inside the
coop, for each bird. A similar amount of space, or a
bit more, in the chicken wire enclosed run outside
the coop will also be needed. A flock of eight
chickens in a backyard would require a total of
sixty four square feet of coop and run space.
This is a space eight feet by eight feet in size,
which is not that big. You can add more space to the
run area if you want to give the chickens more
pecking room. We would suggest buying a set of plans
with complete illustrated building instructions. In
some cases a video is included which some people
find helpful. Some of the plans include a number of
bonus items which are a great additional value.
