Build a Chicken Coop – Have you Learned How to Do it Correctly?

Some people think they know how to build a chicken coop. There have been cases where I have heard people using old produce crates, simply turning them on their side. Or by rolling down the window in an abandoned car.

It is true. But it is also true that neither of these “solutions” are real chicken coops. And I think that you will agree with that.

But coops are also much more than four walls and a roof, they need to be planned and built properly. Both for the hens living inside of them, and for the egg production which you are surely looking forward to.

For starters, chickens aren’t sardines, they need space to live. A good rule of thumb is to give each chicken at least 3 sq. ft. of space inside of the coop (a little more room is better). Building it smaller, and you will only succeed in making the hens fight for room rather than lay eggs.

As you can see, this limits the number of chicken you can hold, if you have a spot set in stone. Or it makes you rethink the location, if you have the number of chickens picked out you want to raise.

There is far too much information for this topic than can be covered in this article, but we will hit the important ones.

Ventilation is an often overlooked part of building a chicken coop. Sure, we don’t want the hen house to be drafty, but it is important that there is at least some air circulation. This prevents dangerous carbon dioxide and ammonia buildup. Both of these will threaten the health of the chickens living in the coop.

Hygiene is also important, and that means building the coop so it is easy to clean. But there are easy ways to do this. One is to put down a tile floor. This will do two things, first it reduces the wear and tear from hungry beaks pecking on it. And the other thing that it does is making cleaning much easier.

Here is a little trick that you may not have thought of. Tilt the floor slightly so that it points toward the entrance. If you do this, you will be able to spray the tiles off with the hose, and the water will run out the door. This makes the cleaning chore a snap and keeps water from pooling in the coop.

Speaking of water, here is another important tip, build the chicken coop on the highest spot in your yard. This way, if your yard floods, you won’t have angry wet hens on your hands, as you can imagine this is never a pleasant situation.

Are you ready to build a chicken coop? Doing it correctly is the most important thing you can do when raising hens. The rest of it is the easy and fun part.