Raising chickens can be relatively inexpensive, making it possible for almost anyone to put fresh organic eggs and meat on the table. And you can save even more money by building your own chicken coops. Good pre-built versions can cost upwards of a thousand dollars or more, so it’s worth the effort to build your own. It is a very rewarding experience to complete a chicken coop and then watch your chickens run around inside. Even if you have no previous experience building chicken coops, you can still do it. You just need a good set of instructions, and there are some nice cheap chicken coop plans available.
Before you cut your first 2 by 4 or nail two boards together, it’s a good idea to come up with a plan. Chickens need a clean, dry nesting area along with some room to roam. They will forage for a portion of their own food if you let them, and this will keep your chickens happy and your feed costs down. When making design decisions, you should think about ways to accommodate the needs of your herd. In this case, you want the chicken coup to have an interior area where their nests can stay clean and dry. You also want an outdoor area where you can enjoy a serving of your food.
We can join these two sections to form a single chicken coop. The outside area will be an enclosed room with chicken wire for the roof and walls, while the inside area will be a small wooden A-frame building where nests, food and water will be located. At this stage there is a final decision that we must make. Where do we build our cooperative? The most important factor here is that chicken coops should always be placed in areas where there is good drainage.
As for materials and supplies, only a few materials are required. Wood, chicken wire, nails and staples are the bulk of the ingredients. After framing both areas, some wood paneling will be nailed to the house and chicken wire will be stapled to the backyard. The only requirement regarding chicken wire is the size of the gaps in the wire mesh. They must be less than 2 square inches. Spaces larger than this may allow entry of small birds or predators. Birds will be eaten by predators in the blink of an eye, while wild birds have a reputation for carrying disease. Also, it is vital that you treat the wood and wire as protection so that they will last for many years instead of quickly rotting or rusting. If you forget to treat the materials, you’ll soon end up with rotten wood and rusty wire. Rotten, rotten wood will end up being home to insect infestations, and wire that has rusted will weaken and break, allowing chickens to escape or predators to get inside.
Flooring in the outdoor area will not be necessary as bare flooring is desired. This is where the birds will be able to move freely. Keep in mind that you’ll need a large door with hinges, so you can get all the way in when you need to. This gate will serve many purposes. Makes it easy to collect eggs, add feed and water, and remove or inspect chicks if necessary. But the best use of the door is that it will make cleaning much faster and easier.
Another thing to consider is whether you want your chicken coops to be stationary, in other words, in a permanent location, or whether you want the added benefit of making them portable. You can make your chicken coop using the same basic steps, whether they are permanent or portable, you just don’t want to make a portable chicken coop so heavy that you can’t move it when needed.
Portable chicken coops will help you in one important way; they will save you money. With permanent structures, once your chickens have eaten all the bugs and plants in your outdoor area, they will have nothing left to eat. With portable chicken coops, all you have to do is periodically move them to new areas where there is a fresh supply of new intact succulents ready to eat. Due to the fact that you will periodically rotate your portable chicken coop to areas with existing plant growth, recently grazed areas will have time to replenish and renew their plant life. Once your chicken coop has come full circle and returned to a previously used area, it will be filled with new wild plants that your birds can peck at once more as the circle of life continues to turn.
