How To Build a Chicken Coop: Your Step By Step Guide To Making a Chicken Coop

61 DIY Chicken Coop Plans & Ideas That Are Easy to Build (100% Free)

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Your chicken coop should not only be chicken-friendly but human-friendly as well. A post shared by Tisha tcking71 on Apr 3, at 8: A post shared by Laura mamablyth on Apr 3, at Follow the step-by-step procedure based on the plan you made. Measure twice, cut once. Start with the foundation first moving up. Finally, build the doors, windows, and roofing last.

Chicken sleep just as much as any other animal and sometimes more. They love to sleep on a perch or a roosting bar, so you should try and install a horizontal bar across the chicken house where they can crouch and fall asleep. Chickens require nesting boxes where they will be able to lay their eggs. These nests should have some warm insulation such as straw. It is suggested that you have one nesting box per three hens.

You have plenty of freedom when it comes to how you design your coop, but many people keep their feeders off the ground. This can help prevent spillages and accidents. You can also use wood shavings or chips. Remember to reduce the insulation of the wall of your coop in summer. Install a simple window at least, but remember to also protect it with chicken wire or mesh. Chickens have quite a lot of predators such as foxes, birds of prey, and raccoons. Make sure you protect your chickens by using a wire mesh around the outside, building with sturdy materials and remembering to padlock the door if you have one!

Chickens also hate being too hot or too cold.

Make sure the coop is waterproof to prevent them from getting cold during the wet season. Also, ensure that your run has a shaded area where your birds can get out of the sun and cool off! Make sure to build a hatch or door near the nesting boxes so you have access to the eggs without climbing into a small chicken coop. Cut the 5 panels required using the sizes specified above. After you have finished countersinking the side panels, you can screw them to the coop.

Once the side panels are fitted, you are going to fit the floor panel into your coop. Now the floor has been inserted, screw the floor panel into the frame of the coop.

How to Build a Chicken Coop (The Complete Step by Step Guide)

Proceed to countersink and then screw the floor into the frame. Cut the panels from your Oriented Strand Boards, using the cut table above, and proceed to countersink and then screw. Once the coop has been panelled it is time to cut all of the openings into the panels; such as the coop door, nesting box and cleaning access:. Now you have a finished coop, but, without the detail.

The final touches are the most important ones!

Take a horizontal door batten and on each end apply PVC glue. Next, take a vertical door batten and screw through the side of the vertical door batten into the horizontal door batten. Repeat this process for both sides of the door. Once you have built the doors, they will need hanging.

To hang the doors, you need to fit the hinges to the doors and then to the frame of the coop. You will want to take the right-side panel where you previously cut a door opening. Grab it, add a couple of hinges and you have a small access door for your coop. When I was building the coop, I wanted to make the roost as natural as possible, so I decided to make the roosting bar from a tree branch. I then screwed this into my coop. Finally, for the coop ramp.

I then added a base block and four steps. Congratulations, your chicken coop is getting very close to being finished. Now you need to strip the coop down and paint the panels in the color of your choice. You can choose any color you like, just make sure the paint is suitable for outside use. I went with a multi-surface weather shield which guaranteed 6 years of weather protection.

Now you have finished felting one side of the roof panel, you need to take the second piece of roofing felt and repeat this process to felt the right roof panel. Once the second piece of felt is nailed in place, you will notice that the ridge of the roof is still not covered in felt. You need to take your third piece of roofing felt and place this over the middle of the roof. However, I decided to add roof shingles to make it look nicer. Use wire cutters to cut the piece of mesh from the roll and U-nails to fix it to your coop.

You now have a finished home for your hens! We get asked many questions about chicken coops and building them, here are some of the most frequent that will help you before you start your project. This depends upon the type of breed you plan to keep, however, for beginners, a good guide is to use three square feet per hen inside the coop. The rule of thumb is a minimum of three square feet per hen inside the coop and 25 square feet outside of the coop.

So for each hen, plan to have roughly 30 square feet. Inside a chicken coop there are multiple living areas; a perch, entrance and a nesting box. The perch is a roosting area inside the coop where your hens will sleep and shelter from the elements. Go for better quality ones that are zinc-coated for extra resistance against rust. Pine shavings or pine chips are our preferred choices since they make great bedding due to their superior absorbent qualities. Whichever material you choose to use, be generous and lay down at least 4 inches of bedding.

How To Build A Chicken Coop In 2018: A Step-by-step Checklist

This is because the bedding will flatten a little over time. These boxes are where your hen goes to lay her eggs. A warm and comfortable nest encourages a hen to lay her eggs inside as opposed to outside on the ground where the eggs are susceptible to predators and trampling by other chickens. Nests should be placed inside the coop backed-up against a door or flap for easy access when collecting eggs.

The more nests you can fit in the coop, the better, as you would want to encourage your hens to lay as many eggs as they possibly can without having to fight over space. It might not be known to many but chickens sleep best when they are perched high off the ground. A chicken will usually seek out the highest point in the coop to sleep as they deem it the safest place far from the reach of predators. A roosting bar should therefore be installed in the upper sections of your coop so that your chickens can sleep soundly at night.

By roosting on a perch, chickens also avoid mites, lice and bacteria found mostly on the ground or floor of the coop.

61 Free Chicken Coop Plans:

Chickens poop in their sleep, so the roosting bar should not be placed above the feeders, waterers and nesting boxes. Remember to also place the bar where it will be easy to shovel the droppings out of the coop.

Step 2: Build the Frame

This will save you from the overpowering smell that you will have to endure if you have to enter or lean into the coop to clean the inside area. An access door allows you to reach in with both hands and do the cleaning from the outside.

Chicken Coop Checklist (Before you Start Building!)

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