Chicken House Plans

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Chicken House Plans – Build A Solid Chicken House and It Will Pay for Years In Fresh Eggs

By Dog Lover | May 30, 2009

There’s an old saying that goes about people . . . “don’t plan to fail; they fail to plan.” (I believe that was Harvey MacKay). Same holds true for your Chicken House Plans. You want to make sure you have a plan so that your chickens will be safe, healthy and prosperous. There are as many reasons families want to raise chickens as there are people. In our case, our family received a dozen baby chicks one Sunday for Easter. At first I thought “what the heck am I going to do with chickens???” However, I remembered another great saying “if life hands you lemons, make lemonade.” (no more quotes . Now I wasn’t thinking of eating the chickens, but with the cost of fresh eggs going up, then the most reasonable thing to do was at least build a chicken house for the little chickadees. I was reveling in the thought about how fun it would be — a family project to build a chicken house, and soon we would be enjoying our own organically fresh eggs. This was a single investiment if done right, it will pay in fresh eggs for years. So when you are looking for the best Chicken House Plans, consider these following steps in your plan. The first thing you need to plan is where you will locate your new chicken house. From here, you will have a good idea what size limits you have. On e thing to keep in mind is a simple 4 foot by 8 foot box-type structure. This makes it easy on the materials sides because most plywood and other materials come in 4 x 8 foot sheets. Second, you want to frame out a play area for the chicken house. You can accomplish this with nails or screws at the bottom of the four pieces. (I recommend using screws and an electric screwdriver. This makes it easy to take apart if you ever want to move your chicken house: simply unscrew and move the wood parts!) When this is finished, you can secure two corner sections, consisting of two parts that make up each corner. With the framework finished, the play area can be closed off with chicken wire. Once your chicken house frame is done, you can begin witht the actual house. Most people install a chicken house door, and if so, you need to determine where it will go. For our family, it was better to put the door near the back nesting area, which helps with your egg hunts down the road. Attaching the door will depend on what kind of door you prefer. One idea that we used was a door near the nesting area, which opened upward. You can use an old broom handle or other pole to hold the door open so you can get to the eggs in the nesting area. Next you should install the roof. Plywood (which comes in 4 x 8 foot sheets) is perfect for this, but you can check with your local lumbar supplier to see if your location requires a different type of building material. When the roof is done, you can go forward with the nesting part of the chicken house. Here, the size is going to depend on the number of chickens you want to raise. A 4 x 8 foot basic chicken house is generally good to raise approximately 10 chickens. We built our nesting area by making two 4 foot sections attached to the bottom of the frame as support for our nesting box. When the support structure is in place, you can place your basic nesting box (made from plywood) on top of the supports. The nesting area usually goes near a back wall away frorm the front entrance (and near that door location for eeasy acces to the eggs. in the front, cut a small entrance door, like a small pet door, so your chickens have acces to the play area. When you’re finished with your chicken house, make sure you sand all the rough edeges and corners smooth and safely cut or bend all chicken wire out of the way from harm. Finally, check to make sure that all sharp wooden edges and corners are sanded smooth and any chicken wire is cut or bent so will not hur your flock. Ventilation and lighting are critical to your chicken’s health and welfare. You may want to have open sides that can be closed with hinged doors made of plywood. That way you can open the doors in the daytime hours for light and ventilation, and they can be closed in the evening or when you need to protect the chickens from bad weather. When it comes to chicken house floors, you have some options. Most folks use sawdust, but some farms and others have access to hay or use straw. Some people even used sand as a bottom for their chicken coop. Check in your local area (feed store or your vet) and ask what is best for your location and weather. Having a solid chicken house will provide your chickens with a safe, healthy environment where they can grow and prosper. For us, the kids enjoyed watching the chickens grow, and they loved getting the eggs for our breakfast table. Enjoy your flock of chickens, and make sure you consider these steps in your Chicken House Plans