Building Your Own Chicken Coop

[happychickies101]

My chicks are still living inside, but we will soon need to build a home for them in our backyard. We would prefer to build a sturdy safe one of our own.

 

[chickencheeper]

First off . I’d recommend looking into coop requirements for the amount of chickens and square footage per chicken. Are you planning on free ranging or having a run? The general rule is 4 square foot inside the coop(per chicken) and 10 square feet of run space(per chicken) also research predator proofing and cleaning accessibility

 

[CapricornFarm]

Size, ventilation, ease of cleaning, head room for yourself all important. I made a thread while i built my latest coop, called Helpful hints for building chicken coops. Check it out.

 

[Chullicken]

My newest coop I thought out a lot more than I did my first one I ever built. I made the roost just 1' off the floor so they don't have to jump on and off so high and hurt their feet. I'm using metal louvers this time around that go with my wind direction and pattern. I messed up the floor so I built another floor on top of that one with insulation on the first one. My theory is the air pocket between the two will create some kind of barrier against cold. I decided to use a side sliding run door instead of the old standard vertical one because sometimes my rooster likes to sleep with his head out side and I was constantly tapping him when I put them to bed at night. All the floor cracks are filled with epoxy, vents are double wired, all the doors have a three mechanism locking system with a snap link fasteners. The entire structure is also raised 2' off the ground. This lessons the cold air in the winter and most vermin can't jump that high and its hard for snakes to reach up to that height.