The British have taken chickens arks as they call them, to an art form. But with the US dollar weak against the Euro, who can afford to pay $1,000.00 or more for a place to keep their chickens? The Catawba Brougham ConvertiCoop chicken coop can be built for significantly less money, and still maintain the look of a piece of fine cabinetry built with relatively few woodworking tools. You don’t have to own a “New Yankee Workshop” to build a Catawba Brougham ConvertiCoop that will (more…)

A Review of “How To Build a Chicken Coop“

Need to buy a chicken coop? Are you any good at DIY? Well why not save yourself a ton of money and get Bill Keene’s How To Build a Chicken Coop.

Written by Bill Keene, a guy who’s been building different types of chicken coops for many years, Building a Chicken Coop not only gives you simple yet detailed plans to follow but also gives you useful insights into how to care for your chickens and keep them laying those fresh eggs every day.

Here’s just a handful of useful things you’ll find in this book:

6 simple items you need to have before you even think about building your chicken coop

How to build a good medium-sized chicken coop at a fraction of the price of buying a new one

How to build a large-size Premium chicken coop that’s easy to clean and automatically collects your fresh eggs!

How to build a Portable Chicken Coop that makes cleaning simple and provides useful fertilizer for your garden

How to pick the right breed of chicken for your climate, space and egg needs

How to easily breed chickens yourself and take care of the baby chicks so you have a self sustaining flock

The 9 daily, monthly and yearly chores you must perform to keep your chickens healthy, happy and laying eggs

How to protect your coop from predators such as foxes, coyotes, cats, hawks and many more

The 8 foods that can be potentially harmful if you give them to your chickens

Learn what to do if your chicken gets sick and the 2 most common health problems and how to cure them

…and much much more

The British have taken chickens arks as they call them, to an art form. But with the US dollar weak against the Euro, who can afford to pay $1,000.00 or more for a place to keep their chickens? The Catawba Brougham ConvertiCoop chicken coop can be built for significantly less money, and still maintain the look of a piece of fine cabinetry built with relatively few woodworking tools. You don’t have to own a “New Yankee Workshop” to build a Catawba Brougham ConvertiCoop that w (more…)

This handy guide provides you with not only a complete chicken tractor design, but also a brooder design, easy to follow instructions, great ways to get free materials, how to get your flock (nearly) for free, chicken care and more. If you’ve ever thought of having a chicken tractor, you won’t want to be without this book.

(more…)

Cows and horses, donkeys and mules, sheep and goats, pigs and fowl, even llamas are living on small farms and in backyard barnyards throughout the United States. But how and where are these critters being housed?Author Carol Ekarius knows. In How to Build Animal Housing, she provides dozens of plans–with illustrated, step-by-step instructions–for species-specific shelters that are well ventilated, safe, appropriate for the animals, appealing, convenient, and a solid value for the (more…)

Fresh Air or Bust! To stay healthy, your chickens need plenty of ventilation–probably more than they’re getting today. This was discovered over 100 years ago, but has been largely forgotten. Today’s small-flock housing tends to be dank, dark, and smelly. Chickens, like miners’ canaries, are easily harmed by poor air quality. Wet litter breeds disease. Darkness forces chickens, like parrots, to be artificially inactive. “Dank, dark, and smelly” is a deadly combination! Closed chic (more…)

Since 1973, Storey’s Country Wisdom Bulletins have offered practical, hands-on instructions designed to help readers master dozens of country living skills quickly and easily. There are now more than 170 titles in this series, and their remarkable popularity reflects the common desire of country and city dwellers alike to cultivate personal independence in everyday life.

From the Back Cover
Since the 1973 publication of Storey’s first Country Wisdom Bulletin, our commitment to (more…)

From the Back Cover
Bring your chickens home to roost in comfort and style! Whether you’re keeping one hen in a small backyard or 1,000 hens in a large free-range pasture, you will find the perfect housing plan in this comprehensive handbook. Author and farmer Judy Pangman combed the country to select these 45 plans for housing both laying hens and meat birds (chickens or turkeys). The coops range from fashionable backyard structures featured in the annual Seattle Tilth City Chicken (more…)

Chicken Coop Plans – Tips For Choosing the Best Chicken House Plans For You

Searching for chicken coop plans online will give you hundreds if not thousands of options for ways to build your chicken coop. To help you choose wisely, I’ve outlined below some things you need to know to help you pick the best chicken coop plans for you.

Chicken Coop Plans Tips

Size – Make sure the chicken coop plans are big enough. Generally speaking, and depending on different chicken breeds, each chicken should be given about 4 square feet of space. So if you’re planning on keeping 5 chickens than you need your chicken coop to be around 20 square feet or more to keep those chickens happy and laying

So look for the dimensions of the chicken coop nesting boxes in the chicken coop plans. If they’re in the plans, make sure the size if right for the breed of chicken you’re raising. If they’re not in the chicken coop plans…get some new ones!

Anything smaller will lead to problems you just don’t want…excessive pecking, disease and cannibalism being the more obvious ones.

Warm and Dry – It’s essential to keep your chickens warm and dry in the cold wet weather. Seal up any draughts, insulate the walls and ceiling and close most, but not all, of the vents. Checks for leaks on a regular basis until you’ve sealed them all.

Dampness is a breeding ground for disease in hen houses so the drier the better. It will prevent mould and fungus too.Replace the dry grass or straw on the floor about once a week.

Check your chicken tractor plans to ensure thay have enough windows and vents for your needs, if not obvious from the plans just look at the small chicken coop pictures that are normally provided so you can see what the finished article looks like.

Easy to Keep Clean – Make sure you can access the chicken coops easily. I make the whole front of the coop a door on hinges so I can open it up and clean out with ease. Obviously, I keep this closed at all other times and have a cut out door for the chickens to use. Have the floor gently slope towards the door so you can sweep out with ease and hose down with the water draining straight out the front of the coop. Check your chicken coop plans for these features.

Go Portable if Possible – Another way to go is with portable chicken coop plans. Being movable, it’s possible to shift the whole chicken tractor around to different parts of your backyard, so it might be possible to provide chickens with extra shade in the hot summer months and more shelter from the elements during the long, dark days of winter.

By incorporating these simple steps and tips into your small chicken coop plans you can save yourself a lot of both time and trouble as well as money in this highly enjoyable and worthwhile hobby. So just take your time and make sure to look over the various chicken coop plans available online today and you’re sure to come across the right chicken coop plans for you, your garden and your chickens.

Chicken Coop Plans

Chicken Coop Designs

With the vast amount of chicken coop designs knocking around online, how does someone new to keeping chickens tell which chicken hen house to choose? Many of the plans available turn out to be expensive and poorly designed and can cost you a lot of money just to bring up to scratch…pardon the pun!

Below, I’ve outlined the four things you should look for when picking chicken coop designs or building your own chicken coop.

Chicken Coop Designs Tips

#1 – It’s Got To Be Sturdy

You got to use materials in your chicken coop designs that are of a high quality without breaking the bank. Many people incorporate old doors and such into their chicken hen house to ensure it has some strength and durability. They’re easy to get in reclamation yards and dumps and also in your local neighbourhood. Keep an eye out for any local houses or businesses doing some building work and you should be able to get all you need for free.

Also important is the use of HEAVY-GAUGE wire mesh for the windows and doors. Using the cheaper stuff will result in predators gaining access to your chicken coop with only the barest of knawing through the cheaper wire mesh. Penny-pinching here will cost you in the long run.

#2 – Suitable Ventilation

Moisture and ammonia levels will build up quickly in a chicken coop if there is not proper ventilation. Having windows and doors that open easily and STAY OPEN until you want to close tham are the easiest and cheapest ways on ensuring the chicken coops gets enough fresh air. Consider sliding doors and windows or at least ones on a hinge that can be held open. (Make sure the main door opens inwards so nothing falls out when you open it up.)

#3 – Adequate Lighting

Chickens need around 14 hours of light to lay the most amount of eggs. This can be either natural light or electric lighting in the coop. Windows and doors will let in the natural light and a simple light bulb (It will also provide warmth during the winter) or a fluorescent bulb will be fine for the dark days of winter. Energy saving bulbs will save you some money and will last longer, I use daylight simulation bulbs and it seems to make a difference.

#4 – Easy to Clean

A big problem when it comes to chicken coop design is making it easy to clean. This is where many online plans fall flat. The chicken coops must have easy access for humans to clean it out quickly and properly to maintain coop hygiene and keep ammonia levels to a minimum. Ideally, a floor that slopes slightly downwards will aid cleaning and drainage.

Hopefully you found these few tips easy to follow will keep then in mind when looking to buy a chicken house or build your own chicken coop.

Chicken Coop Designs