I love raising chickens, and I'm sure you will too.
You want to make sure you have a plan so that your chickens will be safe, healthy and prosperous. There are a number of reasons that families want to raise chickens, as many as there are people. For our family, we received a "present" of 12 baby chicks for Easter Sunday. At first I thought "what the heck am I going to do with chickens???" On the other hand, I also remembered that saying "if life hands you lemons, make lemonade." (I promise, no more quotes).
I was not thinking of eating the little chicks, but the thought of low-cost eggs sounded like a great idea to me. I thought about how fun it would be -- a nice family project to build a chicken house, and we would at least have some fresh eggs. This was a one-time investment, 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 step is to consider the location or placement of your chicken house. From there you can determine exactly what your size limitations are. One thing to be mindful about is that a basic 4 by 8 foot structure. This makes it easy on the materials sides because most plywood and other materials come in 4 x 8 foot sheets.
Secondly, you want to establish the frame for the chicken house play area. 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!) With this done, then you can attach two corner sections, each consisting of two pieces to make the respective 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 with the actual house. You really should install a chicken house door and determine its placement. For our family, it was better to put the door near the back nesting area, which helps with your egg hunts down the road. How you attach the door is going to be determined by what kind of door you would like. We had a door that opened toward the back of the nesting area that had a long piano hinge across the top, and the door opened by pulling the door up (toward the sky). Our door had a long wooden dowel added to prop in the "up" position so we could easily access inside the chicken house.
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. Once the roof is up you can move forward with the nesting area of your chicken house.
The size of your chicken house will depend on how many chickens you will raise. A 4 x 8 foot basic chicken house is generally good to raise approximately 10 chickens. For our nesting area, we made two support from 4 foot sections attached on both sides of our frame to support the 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 location of this nesting area is in the back wall (away from the small chicken entrance) where our upward opening door is location for easy access to the fresh eggs. in the front, cut a small entrance door, like a small pet door, so your chickens have access to the play area.
When completed, you want to make sure you sand smooth all the edges and corners for the safety of your chickens. You also want to double check that no sharp edges of the chicken wire protrude and are either removed or bent in such a way that they will not harm the chickens.
Ventilation and lighting are critical to your chicken's health and welfare. You will need some kind of sides or windows that can be closed, even with hinged plywood doors.Doing this, the doors can be open during the day and closed at night to protect from predators or bad weather.
On the floor of your coop you have several options. Most folks use sawdust, but some farms and others have access to hay or use straw. Others even use sand at the bottom of their chicken house. Check in your local area (feed store or your vet) and ask what is best for your location and weather.
With a solid chicken house, you will provide your chickens with a healthy, safe living residence 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.
