Here’s a plans for chicken coops article which has been widely distributed. If you haven’t sen it before, I hope you find it useful:
You want some hens? I have to say I think that’s a tremendous notion. So how to begin? First thing on your list – aside from getting those superb fowl of course – is to find plans for chickens coops that meet your ideas. The determining question is, what really are your ideas?
Are you after fowl for fun in a small plot? Do you simply want just a few eggs a day for you and your friends? Or enough for a family? Do you think you might like to get a couple of alternative breeds of birds? Maybe you have ideas of selling what you don’t eat? Perhaps you’re thinking to get some chicken coop plans and turn out finished coops for sale? Not a bad concept that – plenty of individuals have done so successfully.
Lots to consider then. You also have to think about the area of your plot. Chickens are kind of easy to care for and don’t need big demands of space, but there’s a limit to the number you can get in a particular space and still keep them well (and productive). There are all sizes plans for the chicken coops, each of which keeps a certain quantity of your favorite fowl. Then there are stationary ones and there are the movable sort.
Many People get very creative, taking a normal design for a chicken coop and then adding things here and there until they get a copy of a castle or Dutch barn… all types of things. Then there are chicken keepers who don’t bother with chicken coop plans at all and just use an old shed, or even an old sedan. Unusual and entertaining some of them, and no problem so long as underneath the “glamor” there is what your fowl need for good health and security.
The biggest mistake people make is building a chicken coop too small. As far as materials are concerned, there’s not a lot of difference in cost between a small coop and a medium one. If you can afford it, and you have the space, always build bigger than you think you might need. Your hens will be better for it, you’ll get more eggs and you’ll have space to expand because I’ve got to warn you, chicken keeping can get addictive!
There’s no way to show a square footage for each hen – or how many birds you’ll need to feed five people. Some of that has got to be related to how much you eat eggs! Different chicken varieties vary in size and the number of eggs they produce. The US Department of Agriculture states that the average chicken lays 260 eggs in a year, but I never met an average bird yet. Usually a hen lets you have a single egg each day – but will often stop for 24 hours and from time to time for an entire week. That doesn’t indicate there’s anything amiss and, if you’ve got several, you’ll never know which isn’t laying. If you’re like us, a handful of eggs a day, on and on, takes time to get through – so you’ll have plenty to pass around.
Sorry, got a bit off course there. They are all considerations though in deciding the dimensions of coop you need. Money might be a factor, but you are going to be saving a lot by building your own chicken coop so there won’t be an enormous difference unless you build really big. You can always sell over-production to friends to offset outlay. Make your eggs less expensive than the nearby store and those around will always be interested!
Let’s not forget that stationary or portable question? The fixed one is usually going to be a more solid structure. If you build it solidly it will last you longer. Doing that with a portable chicken coop can make it very heavy – which defeats the object. The challenge with a fixed coop is that the chickens will eventually turn the inside into a bare patch of dirt. They will scratch and peck at bugs, grass and weeds until it’s completely barren. That’s not a problem for the birds, but if you want to keep the wear even, a portable coop is the solution. The other thing to think about is predators. If you have big cats, wolves, foxes, wolverine, etc then a portable coop might be too simple for them to get inside. On the other hand, if it’s an urban plot, with just a few fowl, a portable coop can be a very decorative thing to have in your garden.
Plenty to think about, isn’t there. The secret is to take your time because mistakes made in the options, the appearance and the assembly process are always expensive to fix later. Read through a few websites with designs for chicken coops and choose one that looks like it supplies some flexibility. That way you’re only Shelling out for one set of chicken coop plans that can provide you several different sizes or styles. You also want to see if they’ve got material lists so that you can estimate things first (planning should be done to keep costs to a minimum).
You can build a chicken coop. It really doesn’t need a lot of skill, just patience and a few basic tools. Choosing well drawn, professionally created plans for chicken coops can only cost $30 or less and you get all the instructions you need to build a coop for keeping healthy, happy hens – and all the tasty new eggs you could want!