Chicken Coops
You can make or purchase a coop thats as simple of sophisticated as your space, budget, and imagination will allow. The chickens wont care if they live in the place no longer used tool shed or a custom made structure built exclusively for them.

If youre not interested in the fancy kind of coop and just want a place for your birds to call home, you can make a basic coop without too much fuss right in the corner of your garage or by converting an unused garden shed.

You will need 8x12 feet for a few dozen birds. You want to plan to give birds a few feet of space to move around without being crowded. About 4 feet square per bird is good. You will also need space outdoors for them to roam around. One thing you should know is chickens peck on the ground so if you have a garden, you need to block them out of it because they will eat the tender stalks and peck the rest until theres nothing but ground. Inside the shed or garage, you should have nesting boxes, about one for every three birds. If you dont have nesting boxes for them to lay their eggs, they will lay them in places youll never think to look and the last thing you want is the scent of old egg to guide you.

You will also need places for your birds to perch and perches should be in front of the nesting boxes as well as other places in the coop.

You will need light to provide daylight and warmth for the chickens, especially if you live in a cold weather climate. The coop will also need to be insulated if youre in cold climates or the space isnt well heated. Remember we told you chickens like to peck the ground, well, theyll peck anything their beaks will reach including whatevers on the wall. Whether you insolate with foam or some other thing, make sure you cover it with plywood or a hard wood that wont give in to the curiosity of the flock. Because chickens can fly, cover the entire area of the coop with the wood. Understand, when we say they can fly, we dont mean theyll take off like an eagle, we mean they can lift themselves on the wing for short distances. Its not like if your bird gets out in Chicago, it wont stop til it gets to Akron, but she might make it to your neighbors house where she will start to eat whatevers over there. (You cant train a chicken to eat only their food if they can get to it, its theirs.)

One thing you can do to discourage your birds from flying is to clip their wings.
You will need to use sharp scissors and locate the flying wings (wont be too hard to do; theyre hidden underneath the outer feathers and are a different color.)
When you clip them, do only one side so the bird cannot gain the balance needed for flight.
The feathers are going to grow back so this isnt a one time thing, and you are going to have to make sure youve established a trusting relationship with the chicken so you can get close enough to do the procedure.

What you place on the floor of the coop is important, too. You dont want to use newspaper because it gets slippery and messy. You can use wood shavings and straw on the floor and replace it consistently. Heres one of the bonuses of raising chickens: you can take the wood shavings and straw and throw it right in the compost bin. Chicken waste is a wonderful fertilizer for your garden and will help beautify the parts of your property the chickens havent turned into a dirt floor. Your garden will thank you and youve recycled the shavings and straw for another use where nature will break it down and return it to the earth.

Remember, too, to make sure there is adequate ventilation throughout the coop for the steady flow of air, but not so much that you cause drafts which wouldnt be good for their health.

You might want to build little trap doors behind the nesting boxes that will allow you to gather eggs without stepping into the coop. You will still need to get in so you can clean and feed. You should also have a door built just for the chickens so they can walk in and out at will.

There should be windows in your coop, not only so your chickens can adore the view, but because they need the sunlight to stimulate them in laying their eggs. If you dont have enough natural light coming in, youll have to simulate daylight for them with lamps.

You can use a dirt floor, if you have that preference, but things tend to grow in dirt and not just plant things. Little creepy crawly things like bugs and parasites grow in dirt floors, and they attract not so little creepy crawly things like mice and rats. Thats bad enough in the country, but if your coop is an urban coop, your neighbors are going to like you even less than they did when you introduced livestock to the neighborhood.

Stone is a good choice for your flooring as it is durable and wont encourage rodents to move in. Also, if you can build a structure that is elevated off the ground a few feet, that will help with light and air, and deterring creatures.

Depending upon the size of your coop, you can suspend your coop off the ground and have a removable type floor that will collect chicken droppings and make cleaning and care easier. It doesnt have to be a floor per se, it can be a board that can be withdrawn and cleaned and replaced. Also, a suspended coop that doesnt sit completely off the ground offers some ventilation to the entire coop.

You should give the coop a thorough cleaning at least once a year where everything is emptied out of it and cleaned. Wipe down the walls with a disinfectant, use something to control little pests, and completely change the bedding and flooring, let it dry and air out, and your chickens will think theyve entered a new wing of the poultry hotel.

You will be able to tell when the coop will need cleaning because chickens can be pretty smelly under certain conditions. If you walk into the coop and you detect the scent of ammonia, its coming from the chicken droppings. That lets you know its time to clear out the flooring and replace the shavings with a fresh layer.

If you are in a climate where the weather is warm most times of the year, such as the south, southwest, your coop doesnt have to be so confining. As long as you make a haven to guard against rain or sand storms, have a roof or ceiling of some kind to keep predators out and the birds in, you dont have to have a fully enclosed coop for your birds. You do need to provide shade for them and a place where they can sleep for the night that doesnt let in too much heat or light. Weve read stories of people who have made their coops out of dog runs. They come in a variety of sizes, are relatively easy to move around, can be modified to provide roosts if you want them. Since the birds dont have to be way up in the air, they are tall enough to keep your flock comfortable.

Weve read stories where chickens were kept in boxes and household items. Chickens arent particular about where they stay as long as they have what they need. Your coop is going to be connected with your run, and your run is going to be where your chickens spend most of the day. Because you are going to lose whatever grass you have there, you need to have a flexible coop and/or a flexible run so you can move it away from the pecked earth to a section that has grass and give the old section time to recover.

If youre considering crafting your own coop, either from scratch or from an existing structure or some other source, there are some thing every coop needs for the health and well being of your flock:


1.     Protection Your birds will need shelter from the weather, from predators and from thieves. Your birds will need a place to come in from the rain, cool down from the heat, and hide after theyve teased the cat.
You want to protect them from drafts as well. So make sure the coop has ventilation along the walls so the air doesnt get blocked in and make them uncomfortable.

The coop should be off the ground to help keep the flooring from absorbing ground moisture. Of course, if the coop is done in a garage or shed, this will already be taken care of, and you will need to put down some flooring that can be removed and replaced regularly.

Make sure you can secure the coop. Poultry wont be the only wild creatures in your yard. It isnt uncommon for raccoons, skunks, and other beasties to find their way into urban places. You want to make sure they cant get at your livestock and go back and tell their friends about the all you can eat chicken buffet.

If you have pets, especially dogs, you will have to be careful how you introduce chickens to them. You think you know your dogs and believe they would never act destructive. But dogs arent furry people, and the rule they live by is: if theres no one around to stop me, its ok if I do it. that means sleeping in your easy chair, swiping the last pork chop, and getting to the chickens if they can. Domesticated though they are, all of their wildness has not been bred out of them and if you have a hunter, your chicken, like any other bird, is game and in play.

Once they get a hold of a chicken, youve got a new set of problems. If its your dog, you cant trust him ever again and cant leave him alone. If its a neighbors dog, speak with the neighbor, almost every municipality has a leash law and a law that says you can shoot the dog if hes attacking your livestock.

You also dont know about dogs in the neighborhood. Theyll know you have chickens, just like all the other creatures in the animal kingdom will know. The scent will get out and suddenly your place will be popular with man and beast.

Make sure your fencing goes down into the ground, so if visitors should start to dig, they get more fence not space to enter the run.



2.     Space Weve talked about this already. Make sure theres enough room for the chickens to have their own space to roam. You will have to make sure you have enough rooms for perches since birds like to sleep aloft. For birds that you are using for eggs, you will need perches so they dont sleep in the nesting boxes. If you want eggs, you should have 1 nesting box for every four birds. Why dont you want your chickens sleeping in nesting boxes? Because they dont get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and you have to reach in there to pull out eggs and thats all you want to pull out.

3.     Perches If you have old broom stick or mop handles, they will be perfect for making perches or roosts. Place a pan beneath the perch to catch droppings. Make sure the pan has a grate of some kind over it so the chickens wont leave the roost and scratch in their droppings.

4.     Food The birds need easy access to their food and water both in the coop and in the run.

5.     Light You need light to stimulate the birds to lay, and you need it to be able to see when you clean and gather eggs. The light will also be able to provide some warmth in cooler weather.

6.     Appearance - Were serious when we say the birds could care less whether the coop looks like the Taj Mahal or a box, but your neighbors might care. If you are raising chickens in a city or suburban area, your coop needs to fit in with the neighborhood. You might want to consider making it a little fancier on the outside so it doesnt distract from the surroundings.

7.     Windows and Doors You want windows or openings that will allow you to see in and check whats going on. Your doors should all go inward. The only time you should consider a guillotine type door is if youre using it behind the nesting boxes to reach in and pull out the eggs or if you use one that runs on electricity and can be used as a security door. You can make one with a timer and a electromagnet. This type of door provides security against predators getting through the front door.

To assist in ventilation, (see below) design windows to slide open top to bottom. You can adjust how much to open a window for proper airing of the coop and thats especially important in the colder months when you need ventilation, but dont want too much heat to escape.

8.     Ventilation - Chickens are mostly water (as are humans) and because of they way theyre designed with feathers and all, they lose a great deal of moisture from their bodies which is released into the air. Your coop needs to have good ventilation to allow the moisture to escape the house. This can be done with slits designed in the design of the coop and through the windows.