Simple Chicken Coop Plans

A properly built chicken coop is essential to raising chickens in your backyard. For most, finding some simple chicken coop plans to follow is the right solution.

A simple chicken coop will provide your chickens with a safe, warm place to not only lay their eggs, but to eat, sleep and be safe from predators.

Click Here for Some Great, Easy to Follow Complete Hen House Plans Suitable for Any Backyard

I don’t recommend buying a ready-made chicken coop.  Going this way can make for a very expensive chicken coop!  Not only will you end up paying hundreds of dollars (and sometimes more) for the completed coop, you will also have to pay expensive delivery charges as well.

Building a chicken coop yourself is really the best way to go. But before you start building, you should consider the following four factors to make sure the plans you select are the best ones for you:

Step 1: The Chickens

How many chickens do you feel you need to supply your family with eggs? What size of chickens are you thinking you’ll buy? Do you want large standard size ones? Or do you want cute little bantams?

What kind of feed (along with table scraps) are you thinking of buying for your chickens? How many nests, feeders and water machines do you feel they will need? These are all very important questions you need to decide on during the planning process.

Step 2: The Terrain

The size of your chicken coop and the terrain it will be place on is important to consider as well. If you want a large flock of chickens, you will need to have plenty of land, but less if your flock will be small.
However, there are some solutions for those with little land. Chicken coops are like houses in that they can come in single story or double story. A double story can be very handy if you are trying to conserve your land!

You will want to decide on the size of run you also need. Or maybe you want a portable chicken coop and run that you can move around! You will also want to build your chicken coop where it can be safe (as much as possible) from snakes, rodents and raccoons. So avoid building it near trees or bushes where these animals can hide and wait.

Also, try to build your chicken coops where your chickens can receive as much sunlight as possible. Your chickens need need and love sunlight. The more sunlight they receive, the more eggs you will get, and the safer they will be as well.

Step 3: Sketch Out Your Design

By sketching  out your design on paper you will visually be able to see how your plans are coming. And you don’t have to be an artist to do this! But be willing to work outside the box. In other words, be creative!

And don’t forget to include the windows in the coop!  Show which way is north, south, east and west. And make sure you draw a top view — not just a side.  And make a sketch of the inside of the coop, with the nests.

Since I am assuming you are building a chicken coop for the first time, I recommend that you start out with a simple chicken coop first.
You can always build a larger chicken coop later, if you want.

Step 4: Gather Your Materials

Try to gather all the materials you will need. This will save a lot of extra trips to the lumber store. You will need:

a.  Lumber

b.  Concrete Cinder Blocks

c.  Chicken Wire or Fencing Wire

d.  Installation Strips’

e.  Nails

f.  Paint

g.  Tools (Hammer & Saw)

It is so important to plan correctly. In fact, it is the only smart way to build — and the best way to keep your expenses down!

For safety’s sake you will want to put wire over the windows, and dig a foot down where the wire goes.  This will make sure that dogs and predators don’t get in your coop to feast on your wonderful chickens!

My daughters and I had a neighbor’s dog do this to our first chicken coop. We were broken hearted! However, when I went over to the neighbor he reported it to his insurance company, and they paid to replace our chickens.

If you follow my four steps, you will be ready to build. I highly recommend Bill Keene’s book. It is the best I have seen on various chicken coops. And he will offer all sorts of tidbits, like what diseases you can prevent in your chickens. He provides some wonderful simple chicken coop plans you can use at a very reasonable cost. So do yourself a favor, and buy his book!

This remarkable (and instantly down loadable) book has step-by-step instructions for building multiple types of hen houses, including portable hen houses, double story chicken coops, and a wide variety of both big and small chicken house plans. Along with the ebook you will get other valuable tips and advice about how to best build a chicken coop and how to care for your chickens.

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