Is it difficult to build your own chicken coop in your backyard? If you are good with hand tools and able to read a building plans, it is actually quite easy.

Owning your own chickens can have multiple benefits. Fresh eggs and poultry are the more obvious ones, but the ability to know how each was raised is important, also.

Commercial farmers may use chemicals, including hormones in their operations. Producing your own eggs allows you to leave out any chemicals or practices you object to. If you are able to produce more than your family consumes, the animals can also become a source of income.

A proper chicken house in a proper location is important. It is not a good idea to locate the chicken house too close to your own dwelling. Chicken droppings do not have a pleasant odor, and will make the home unpleasant for the residents, and can be an embarrassment when guests are visiting.

Likewise, the chickens will not appreciate the noise and smells that come from a human dwelling. A decent degree of separation benefits both.

The area in which the house is placed should be fairly level. Sloped areas can have considerable runoff in heavy rains, which can be problematic with chickens. The waste from your chickens should never be allowed to reach a creek, river, lake or ocean.

Your neighbors will also not appreciate any of the runoff reaching their property. In addition to problems that can occur downstream, water that enters your chicken house can lead to sickness among the animals. Damp waste products are a prime breeding ground for diseases.

The size and construction of the house are also important. Overcrowding is not good for the animals, but too large a house can be cold and drafty in cooler weather. The house should be sturdy enough not only to protect the chickens from the elements and keep them contained, but must be able to keep out predators.

Hawks, foxes, some dogs and other animals will prey on the chickens if given the chance. If you feel unsure of your plan, consult with a local farmer or agricultural expert in your area.

Chickens are raised all over the country, and someone nearby can answer your question. While building a chicken house might be harder than one would think, it is well worth it when done properly.

The average hen bred for egg production will produce about 100 eggs in a given year. While it might seem like a small flock would make the eggs pile up, they might disappear faster than you would think.

The average American eats about 200 eggs per year. While that number may seem higher than one might expect, remember that many of them are not eaten as eggs, but are ingredients in cakes, muffins, pancakes, mayonnaise, marshmallows, egg rolls, egg noodles, batters for fried foods, and in many other places.

There are no worries if you end up with more than you can eat. A small amount of excess could be shared with neighbors. Many rural families raise a portion of their food, and frequently share any crops that produce more than can be eaten by the grower.

Sharing eggs might result in a neighbor showing up later with a bushel of corn or beans. Larger quantities can even become a source of significant income.

Although many people do purchase chicken shelters that are pre-made, not all varieties of it are well-made, indeed, a great deal are actually dangerous for your chickens due to shoddy construction methods and building material.

Some require a lot of maintenance, which, although even with the best ones some care will have to be taken to ensure it’s safe for your chickens, is a bit excessive as the entire goal of a chicken coop is to keep them safe.

One feature that a lot of low-quality chicken coops have is that they often are difficult to clean out, with lots of nooks and crannies that feathers, sawdust, all kinds of things you’d expect in a coop, could get stuck in.

Others can be just plain tricky to get the chickens out without distressing them, partially because they’re too close to each other in the coop, but also because generally there’s no space between them and everything else, causing some of the effects that you see with factory chickens. Some readymade units have a weaker wire mesh, or even one with larger gaps between wires.

This is terrible, as it means that predators, especially cats, which can squeeze themselves through quite tight spaces, rather like what is commonly known for rats. If you decide to purchase housing, you need to consider a lot of things.

Firstly, do you want a cage system, or a shelter and run? Do you want a separate area for them to roost? Do you want somewhere specific for your laying hens to nest? A shed for your free range chickens to use as shelter, as it’d be bigger?

One of the better ideas that a lot of pre-fabricated chicken shelter manufacturers have produced is that of a slide-out door underneath the roosting area, which is sensible as the majority of manure collects underneath this area, meaning that you could more easily dispose or reuse the manure as fertilizer. Like with a human dwelling, one must always check all the features of the house you are considering purchasing.

DIY Chicken Coop Design Guide

Here’s a suggestion, if you are good with hand tools, why not build your own chicken housing rather than buying a readymade one? Do you want to know how to build a poultry housing in your back yard?

If you do, check out the Building A Chicken Coop plans by Bill Keene. Bill is an seasoned chicken farmer with more than 20 years experience.

His DIY chicken coop plans was created to teach you how to build a small, medium and also large chicken coop on a shoestring budget. For more information, click on the link below and see what Bill has to offer.

==> Click here to visit Building A Chicken Coop now!

For anyone who’s planning on designing and building their personal chicken coop, there are a few imperative particulars to consider. As long as you have the fundamental idea of what you’re doing and take time to perfect your plan ahead of starting to construct it, your chicken house should turn out excellent.

Obviously before you can initiate constructing anything, you are required to have the plan of the DIY chicken coop which is the toughest branch. One of the foremost and most significant verdicts you need to make is how much square footage you’re going to necessitate for the coop.

Certainly this resolution should be mainly based on the quantity of chickens you have in the coop. It should be of smaller dimension but hefty enough that the chickens will have space to sprint around in and won’t be compressed up against each other.

Lighting is also vital on any DIY chicken house. Lighting is also important for any DIY chicken coop project, and one of the finest proposals is to have the lighting installed with a timer.

Lighting is imperative in chicken coops, particularly during wintry weather months, because it facilitates with egg production and will moreover keep the chickens warmer at night.

Even just a couple of lights fixed in the eaves of the coop will be adequate and by having them set on a timer they’ll switch off automatically. This will also work well to help you to save on your home energy expenditure and lend a hand with egg production during the chilly months.

A built-in heater or supplementary aesthetics can be predominantly essential depending on your preference. If you are staying in a metropolitan region, there are a small number of extra features that can be fitted.

While in more rustic areas, this is not such a matter of concern. But if you’re residing in or near a town and the birds were to flee, you wouldn’t want them to wind up on the thoroughfare and get knocked over by a car.

The quantity of nest containers you should posses per hen is ideally five. Keep them about ten inches spaced out as this will offer the hens satisfactory space to perch.

Roosters don’t like to be kept too close when they’re perching and having a sizable gap amid them will keep them from fighting. You should keep the roosters at least two feet away from each other.

Even though building your own DIY chicken coop is somewhat new to you, you can construct a homemade poultry coop in just a couple of days. Constructing a DIY chicken coop can be pretty simple if you set out a well thought-out, comprehensive sketch for yourself.

DIY Chicken Coop Design Guide

Do you want to know how to build a poultry housing in your back yard?

If you do, check out the Building A Chicken Coop manual by Bill Keene. Bill is an seasoned chicken farmer with more than 20 years experience.

His guide was written to teach you how to build a small, medium and also large chicken coop on a shoestring budget. For more information, click on the link below and see what Bill has to offer.

==> Click here to visit Building A Chicken Coop now!