Some Neat Ideas For Chicken Coop Designs

Keeping free range chickens is becoming a very popular pastime these days in the US, the UK and many other parts of the World. There are several reasons for this popularity. First, perhaps, is the availability of fresh eggs, right outside your back door. These are in a different league from those available in shops, even the ones sold as ‘fresh’.

Then there is the meat aspect. Keeping your own free range hens ensures that you can have good, healthy chicken from a known source of contented and well-fed birds. And, last but not least, there is the pleasure of backyard chicken raising that many find a very satisfying hobby. Hens are very sociable creatures and make excellent pets.

Sooner or later anyone keeping hens will want to install one or more chicken coops. These can be fixed or mobile depending on location, size of garden, climate and so on. You can buy fully assembled coops from specialist suppliers but most hen keepers opt to build their own. This is fun, satisfying, cheap and somehow part of the bond between you and your birds.

There seem to be almost as many different chicken coop designs as there are hens! You can design your own, buy designs or plans from expert chicken farmers, or simply build a coop from scratch using bits and pieces of wood and other necessary materials that might be lying around in your shed.

I prefer the disciplined approach, aiming to make a chicken coop that is strong, fit for purpose, comfortable for the hens and an attractive addition to the backyard.

These are some of the neat chicken coop design ideas I have picked up over the years.

Build the nesting boxes as attachments to an outside wall of the coop, preferably at a convenient height for you to reach in and collect the eggs. This not only makes egg collection easier for you but also gives the hens more room inside their coop.

Arrange a small lip between the box and access to the coop interior, so that bedding and eggs from the box are not easily kicked into the coop.

Ventilation is very important for the chickens’ health and comfort. You have to strike a balance between adequate in summer and too much in winter. Most designs favor a coop mounted a foot to 18 inches above the ground, with a wire-mesh floor to ensure a good flow of air around the inside. It is easy to design a sliding ply floor that can be positioned under the wire-mesh for the winter.

If you are using a solid wood floor, try to incorporate a slight slope – say, quarter inch to the foot – so that water will drain away easily when you are sluicing out the coop. You can make the floor in two halves lengthways, sloping towards the center-line of the coop. This will ensure a small crack along the lowest edges for draining, and will also make construction easier – you can stand in one half of the coop while fixing at least half of the floor!

The access door for the hens should be made several inches above the floor, again to prevent bedding materials being kicked outside the coop. This should be the door for the hens, not you! Your access should be a larger door at the rear of the coop, suitably lockable and racoon proof if you have them as neighbours. This is where you will reach in to clean the coop, change bedding, check feeders and water troughs and do any other necessary maintenance work.

The rear access door is also a good place to mount the feeders, so that you can reach them easily with the door open.

If you are using pressure-treated wood to make the coop – and this might be your only option if you live in a wet climate – then you should paint at least the interior thoroughly. This kind of wood can be poisonous for animals.

Although you might embrace the concept of ‘free range’ for your hens, the reality might have to be somewhat different. There are usually predators of some sort hanging around for a free lunch of their own. Attacks can come from ground level and from the sky. So you might need to consider a chicken run to keep Mr Fox out.

There is no set rule for the size of hen run needed, although some experts claim that 4 square feet per bird is a minimum. The hens will soon let you know if it is too small, by picking fights with each other and generally acting in an agitated manner and not laying as well as they should. Just make it as large as you can afford, in terms of both space and money.

Choose 2 inch chicken wire for the walls (and top, if you have threats from the sky). Bury the walls at least 6 inches deep, to deter dogs and other burrowing predators. Position the run under trees if possible, to give shade in summer and sun in winter.

Also known as tractors or arks, these give you and your hens more flexible foraging conditions. By moving your flock from one part of the garden to another systematically you can give them fresh ground and fertilize your garden at the same time!

Design of these mobile coops is again a balance between strength and portability. Many designs are based on an A frame structure. This gives good strength and avoids the need for a roof. Human access is more difficult but this is probably an acceptable compromise.

The coop is usually attached to a small enclosed run, so that the whole can be moved together. If the run has a wire mesh floor (and some do) then wheels at one end and a handle at the other can be the way to move it around. Unless the wheels are retractable, this design means that there will be clearance between the walls of the hen run and the ground – hence the wire floor against predators.

Except for very small tractors you will almost certainly need two people to move the coop in any case, even with wheels. I prefer the design which has handles at both ends of the ark, allowing two people to lift and move it like an old-fashioned sedan chair. This does away with the need for a floor and makes foraging easier for the hens.

Do-It-Yourself or Design-It-Yourself, either way is better than buying from a shop, in my opinion. The chicken community is extremely active and helpful, wherever you live, so you will always have someone to talk to or give you the benefit of their experience.

There are literally thousands of chicken coop designs to choose from, if you are not sure about what you want.

I also have an ongoing discussion about chicken coop plans that work which you might find interesting.