My dad had recently finished a construction in his garden and he had a lot of wood left over so I took the opportunity to use the leftovers to build the Chicken coop.

I did not have any detailed plans but drew a rough sketch based on a similar design I had seen. Then I started putting it together with a friend of mine. It is a simple split level design, basically a elongated triangle. The nest boxes and perches are in the upper part with the door in the floor. The advantage of this design is that the living area is suspended above the grass. This is particularly useful for us as we have a very limited space allocated for the chicken and this maximizes the room with 2 layers.

The main thing you need to remember when building a chicken coop is that the chickens need something to perch on when they sleep and some nest boxes to lay their eggs. They should have about 6-9 inches of perch per chicken and one nest box per 4 birds. In my design the perch ran down the middle of the upper layer with a nest box at either end. The chickens seemed to like it so that was the important thing.

For us keeping chickens in an urban environment was a great experience. We never had any complaints from the neighbors, in fact quite the opposite. There is one old man who lives a couple of doors down who said he loved hearing the chickens as it reminded him of they days when it was quite normal for a household to have a couple of chickens in the yard. After all, unless you get a cockerel they do not make much noise. Maybe more than a cat, but not as much as a dog.

During the day we normally let the chickens scratch about in the rest of the garden. This is their natural instinct and if you want your chickens to be happy it is important to have an area of grass or soil where they can scratch about for things to eat. It will keep them happy and occupied all day.

The biggest problem in urban areas of England for chicken keepers is the foxes. For a long time we did not have a problem. Due to the location of our house we did not get foxes in the back garden very often. However, once they knew the chickens were there they came back every night. We managed to catch one on video a few times which was nice, beautiful creatures but a real pest. But don’t let this put you off. It is not difficult to make your coop fox proof and if you follow some good plans, protection from predators will be part of the design. It is all part of the adventure.

So if you are thinking about how-to-build-a-chicken-coop get on with it, stop finding excuses. It is not rocket science. You will learn a lot as you do it and have great fun at the same time.

Chicken coop plans http://www.squidoo.com/Build-a-Chicken-Coop-for-Laying-Hens

Build A Chicken Coop – Mistakes To Avoid When Building A Chicken Coop

In everything that you do, if you want to do it right, there should be plans. This would make things easier to execute. When you have already sketched your plans, you would also be able to manage your time well.

Plans for a chicken coop should be made precisely to give the best home to the best chickens in your area. The better the quality of your chickens are, the more chances you have of making it big in the poultry industry.

First, avoid making chicken coops which are too small for the number of chickens that you will house. Count all the number of chickens that you will raise as a start of your poultry farm. Take into consideration that it is advisable for each chicken to occupy 4 sq. ft to give them enough room to move around. A cramped up room for chickens might not let them grow to the best potential that they could have. If you are aiming to raise healthy chickens, then you have to obey this tip.

Second, do not forget to provide access points to your chicken coop. Some builders and owners only have in their minds that chicken coops are built to keep the fowls in, and this is exactly the reason why some coops are built without access to it for easy cleaning, feeding, watering, and harvesting of the eggs.

Third, do not just put up your chicken coop anywhere. The location of the coop should not depend entirely on your whims, wherever you like it. There are many things to consider before you should come up with the final decision of the coop’s location. To avoid water problems, situate the coop in an elevated area to provide natural drainage for water. For the coop not to easily get wet, the roof should be built with a visible elevation too for water not to get deposited inside it and for water to flow directly onto the ground. For the coop’s interior to easily dry up in case it gets wet, the floors should be slanting. A wet-proof coop will help contribute to maintaining healthy chickens. If they stay dry, they will not easily get sick.

Fourth, do not totally enclose the chicken without providing them proper ventilation. The coop’s windows should face right so as to scoop out cold air during warm weather and to keep away cold breeze during cold weather.

Last, do not forget to install protection around the coop. You should keep predators out. It is of n
1000
o use if other chicken-preying predators will be the ones to benefit from your chickens. Make sure that aside from providing the coop itself with durable walls, there should also be barb wires which will be buried 12 inches into the ground to ensure that they will not be lifted off easily, and 4 feet high above the ground just enough to keep predators away.

By: Stan Eric

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

Visit Chicken Coop Plans and download the guide that will show you how to build chicken coops in your backyard! Check out also ChickenTractorPlans.org for more tips on how to build chicken tractors!


  

Technorati Tags: