Chicken House Plans - Taking The First Step

Most probably you have already started thinking of building chicken coops but you're not sure what to actually do. While it's not really difficult to build your own chicken coop, you need to be clean on a couple of points. And one of them is having a set of good chicken house plans.

If you ask me, by having the right plans for your chicken house, you can really easily to the project all by yourself. However, by going aimlessly ahead without some structure, it might turn out to be a big flop.

You really need to get it right the first time and this is where a set of good chicken house plans will help.

But let's start with the beginning.

First you need a good check list for the basics that you can use to cross every item on it one by one. Here are the questions I put on my own list when I got started with planning and building my chicken house.

1. How many chicken do I intend to raise? This will strongly impact how big the chicken house will end up being.
2. There are different breeds of chicken, each of them with their own characteristic and laying their own eggs. Which type will I raise?
3. What materials will I need to make the chicken house?
4. How will a chicken house and raising chickens impact my current lifestyle? I will have to devote lots of time to my chickens, including cleaning their shed.
5. How much time will I have to devote to this project even after the hen house is built?
6. Do I have ample of space in my backyard for the size of the poultry coop that I intend to build?
7. Is there anything I need to know regarding official laws and regulations? I'd better head to the city council and check with them.
8. What type of predators roam the area? Depending on their type, I will need to take a different set of precautions for my new coop to properly protect my hen from them offer them a good chicken care.
9. Will I be able to offer my hens proper feeding and ventilation so they are really happy in their hauses?

Once you have gone through your check list, you have a pretty good idea by now of how big your chicken house will be. However you're still far away from the actual construction. The next crucial step is getting yourself a set of good chicken house plans.

Based on the plans above, here are the most common chicken coops by size and the type of hens they are suited for:

• Small chicken coop - If you intend to keep only a few chickens, these houses are for you. Much cheaper to build and maintain and they suit best people with little available space in their backyards.
• Medium coops - These coops can easily take 5-10 chicken. If you know that you will have more than 2-3 chicken later on, build a medium sized one and keep adding chicken to it.
• Large chicken coops - This type of house is best when you really want to devote your time and backyard space to your chicken. They will be happiest here because they will have plenty of space to roam and feed. Chicken, like humans, like to have space around them.
• Portable chicken coop - Many also call them a 'chicken tractor' or 'wooden ark'. They are portable so you can move them around, but have no floor. You can keep in them 2-4 chicken.
• Eglus - One of the more modern types of chicken homes, it is really looking the part. Very compact, has place for 2 chicken. It has a fox and a badger proof chicken run, designer feedholders and a small privacy screen.

With the right chicken house plans you can build any of the above. It's truly your budget and the size of your backyard or patio that is the limiting factor here. The coop plans are usually quite cheap to get and while you can get some free ones on the internet, personally I don't trust them that much. There is a reason why people value more the paid products compared to the free ones. This is because the paid plans and instructions are quality works where more money and effort has been invested in to make them quality.

And since your chicken house will be built once and made to last, would you trust your chicken and their home in the hands of some free plans that might or might not work?

Click here to get your own professionally designed chicken house plans that will allow you to start building your own chicken coop right now!