How to Build a Chicken Coop: 6 Important Elements to Consider before You Start

If you’re thinking about building a chicken coop I would suggest that before you start you take a look at these factors that must be considered for your project to be a success.

1. The Design and Appearance:

Before going any further sit down with a pencil and paper and draw out the look you are going for. Get detailed about it. What color will the roof be? How about the walls? This is important because you are trying to prevent an eyesore for your neighbors, and unless you are building it on your farm it will be visible to a lot of the neighborhood. The key to not having complaints is to focus on making it aesthetically pleasing and as least distracting, or noticeable, as possible. This also means cleaning any excess building material from around the coop when you are finished, and maintaining the landscape on a regular basis.

2. Use Common Sense Judgment

When planning the details of your chicken coop design it’s important to think things through and use common sense judgment.

A few examples of this would be choosing construction materials that are going to be easy to clean and will save you time when disinfecting, or installing doors on a chicken coop that open inwards to prevent them from letting themselves out. Another quick tip is to install sliding windows; this prevents the chickens from taking up roost on the window sills.

When looking for information on how to build a chicken coop many people are looking for the best solution for the floors. They should be made in a way that is easy to spray down and clean without any extra hassle. The secret is the angle of the floors, there should be a small slope going down towards the front. This will allow the water to flow down and out of the chicken coop without collecting and causing damage.

3. Protecting Your Structure From the Elements

If you want to know how to build a chicken coop that can stand up to the harshest elements, then pay attention.

The goal of course is to have a solidly constructed chicken coop that can protect your chickens year round against the worst weather possible. Conditions such as heavy rain, high winds, hale, and blizzards are just a few of the conditions you may have to deal with. On top of all this a quality chicken coop should protect the chickens against outside dangers such as predators, self injury, or even theft.

This sounds great, but how to do we get to this point?

It’s easier than you may think to build a coop that is free from drafts and leaks; the basic design should include windows and doors that are able to be open and closed whenever necessary. Having the right type of screening on your doors and windows is very important, you should always be sure to use something like a heavy gage mesh wire for example. When considering the location of the chicken coop you should look for the highest and driest area to limit the dampness during bad weather. Another important factor is the amount of direct sunlight the coop receives; this will allow it to dry out quickly after a storm.

Protecting your chickens from predators should be a top priority; the best way to go about this is by surrounding the structure with chicken wire. The posts around the coop should be buried about one foot deep with the chicken wire secured tightly around it. This will stop particularly persistent animals like raccoons, dogs, and cats from digging underneath the fence to get in.

4. Proper ventilation of your coop

Now that we have gone over how to build a chicken coop that will protect them from bad weather and predators, it’s now time to focus on having proper ventilation throughout your structure. It is very important for there to be good air flow throughout the coop, much like us our chicken need fresh air to stay healthy. Good air flow will also prevent the build of moisture and carbon dioxide within the coop. This will help prevent growth of molds and stop potential damage to the wood.

The walls inside should be properly insulated to ensure your chickens stay dry. Chickens are very durable and are able to handle cold weather, providing they are kept dry. A leaky house for your chickens will surely lead to major health problems and some very unhappy livestock.

5. There must be an ample light source

The absolute best position to place windows in your chicken coop is facing the south side of the structure, this will ensure you chickens are kept warm by the sunlight during the winter and will offer a good source of ventilation during the warmer months.

If your goal however is to keep chickens for the purpose of having delicious fresh eggs throughout the year you should consider an electric light source. This light can easily be hung close to ceiling level and will provide warmth for your chickens year round, helping them produce lots of eggs. For smaller structures you should only need one light source to benefit from it, but with larger structures a good rule is one light source for every 30-40 sq ft of area.

6. Easily accessible food and water

It’s very important that your chickens be able to access their food and water whenever they need to without any trouble. There is a balance you have to achieve here as chickens have a natural tendency to be messy eaters. The best compromise is to place the feeders at the height of their back; this will prevent them from kicking food when they eat due to their natural scratching instinct. There should always be fresh clean water available and it should be kept at the same level above the ground as their food.

If you want to build your own chicken coop, it is highly recommended that you get a good set of chicken coop plans before beginning the building process.

Check out our review page to see which plans work best for you.