I have a terrible habit of never buying anything I can make - and I can make a lot of stuff!
Over the years I've made lots of chicken coops (never bought one) and gradually refined the design on every new build, but each time there's always something else I'd change on the next one!
Here's my latest design for laying hens
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| Large coop for 8-10 birds |
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| Front pop hole (still need to build he ramp to get to it) |
I clad the coop in feather edge boarding as it was so much cheaper than shiplap. Also I think this will be easier to clean as with shiplap red mites and other nasties can hide in the tongue and groove where you can't get to them. With the roof I use bitumen sheeting as I've had problems with bugs getting between ply and felt when I've used that (I think this stuff works out cheaper anyway)
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| House raised off the floor |
I now always like to make the coops 18" off the ground. This means rats and mice can't hide under it and also being that high it gives the chickens somewhere to shelter out of the rain.
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| Large door for easy cleaning |
To make cleaning easy I made the whole front open so there's no excuse for a dirty coop!
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| Good ventilation is important (it's not a pill box) |
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| Large nest box with a good slope to discourage chickens jumping on it |
How do you build your chicken houses? And what would you change on yours/mine? Normally I always think I should have built it bigger!
We should be getting the chickens this week so I'll soon see what they think to it.
were keen to get some chooks in the southern hemisphere spring and the husband plans to build a house for them. i'll be showing him this post to give him some pointers, thanks!
ReplyDeleteNo worries. I always think that it's better to build your own if you can, it saves money and you get a sense of satisfaction using it.
DeleteThanks for the inspiration Kev. Mine went through lots of changes too - and it's time for another one! The coop looks great - very rustic.
ReplyDeleteYeah no doubt I'll be building some more in the near future. My mum and dad are still using the first one I built (well their chickens are, not them!)
DeleteWe built our first one, and then I 'chickened out' and went beserk and bought two posh ones. They better last, they'll be patched up and mended to make sure they do, they are our chickens 'forever home' now we're just saving up to buy ours, something similar to yours I hope, around 4-5 acres and a house.
ReplyDeleteFancy getting your chickens a good house before we've got ours!! I'm mad that way...lol!!
Sue xx
I always find when I look at the one you can buy they're built out of cheaper, thinner materials. make sure you treat the wood every year with something and they should last though.
DeleteWe saved for a while to buy this place but I still can believe we managed to buy it. My wife and I worked hard through our twenties and now as I come up to my thirties I can enjoy living the way I always dreamed. I hope you get your dream house and small holding, the hard work is worth it!
I light our fire by rolling 6 sheets of donated newspaper up then topping with about a dozen kindling sticks made from old pallets then a few small really dry pine logs once its all blazing I add hardwood logs and regulate the air intake to ensure maximum heat for minimal log input ...............we do have access to free logs so financial cost is minimal
ReplyDeleteJen Says,
ReplyDeleteYeah, I was looking for in such post to know that how I can able to build a new chicken coop and finally come to learn. I hope that I will able to follow all the instruction you have provided here to make the new chicken coop. Thanks :)
Although, we have been keeping hens and chickens since my grandfather started small scale poultry farm as a side business, but now feel a need to renovate coops and beautify the entire space. Therefore, I spent enough time in having a look at several coop design plans online.
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