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Hens House (Chicken Coop) - Build it Right the First Time
Raising chickens in your backyard can be fun and relaxing, but to be successful you will need to provide them with a chicken coop or hen house. Their housing must have specific features if you expect your flock to remain healthy and productive. Ignoring these considerations will increase your chances of disease and cannibalism.
If you wish to raise chickens in your yard then constructing a backyard chicken coop or hens house is a must. Hen houses are easy to build and all the materials are readily available. But to do it right, you need a good set of chicken plans. The DIY Chicken Coop Guide is a great place to find plans that will save you money and make your coop more efficient when it comes to cleanup, feeding, egg collecting, and other chores. In addition to supplying eggs and meat for the table, raising chickens can be a very relaxing hobby. Sometimes the hen house is the perfect place to start your day. Chickens are also invaluable for pest and weed control and can provide nitrogen rich manure for the soil.
Before building a hen house you first need to decide how many birds you want to raise. This will determine the size of their housing. If they are too crowded they will resort to cannibalism and be more prone to diseases. Chickens have a pecking order and some chickens will get pecked if confined in close quarters. About 2.5 to 3.0 square feet of space per bird is the minimum you will want for your birds, but the more space you give them the less likely for cannibalism.
Hens are vulnerable to many diseases if they are not provided with a clean and hygienic shelter, but will remain healthy and productive for many years in the right environment. Everyone knows happy healthy chickens lay more eggs. A healthy bird will provide you with years of fresh eggs and meat.
Once you have determined how much space you will be giving your birds it's time to formulate a few other things in regard to your hen house. The structure can be permanent or portable. Permanent poultry housing can be larger and hold more birds than a portable chicken ark or chicken tractor. If you're raising only a few birds a portable coop is the way to go, but if you're raising many birds you will either need a permanent structure or more than one movable chicken ark.
Permanent hen houses need to be cleaned regularly to keep your hens healthy. The floor should be covered with a material such as straw or wood chips to contain the chicken waste and allow easier cleanup of the chicken coop.
The ideal method for keeping a hens house is to construct it with a wire floor. The chicken droppings will fall through the floor so you'll never have to clean the coop. The only labor involved will be the occasional removal of the buildup under the hen house. It will be a simple matter to move this high quality organic fertilizer to your garden. Cleaning a portable coop is really not necessary because the ground is their floor. Once they have dirtied up one location the chicken ark can be moved to another location. Nature will do the cleanup for you.
As long as the hen house is free of drafts and doesn't have a leaky roof, chickens can handle temperatures down to the mid 30s. If temperatures in your area get below this you'll need to provide heat. Providing light during seasons with short days will keep your pullets laying regularly. Hens need a minimum amount of light per day to remain productive.
In addition to the poultry housing it's always a good idea to include an attached chicken run. This is a wired enclosure where the birds can peck for fun or food. Giving your birds a little extra room will help control disease and chicken pecking. In the interior housing area you will want to add a roost pole where pullets can sleep at night. A simple 2x4 about three feet off the ground will suffice. However, roosts should not be used if you are brooding meat birds because roosting can cause such problems as crooked breast bones and breast blisters.
Ventilation is very important in a hen house. If the hen house design is faulty it may fail to provide proper ventilation to your hens. For proper ventilation at least one window, or preferably two or more, will be needed. Wire will need to be placed across the opening to prevent chickens from escaping and predators from entering. Windows that can be open or shut as necessary will also keep out the moisture which can be very detrimental to a flock.
When designing the hen house be sure to provide enough space for feeding and watering. Your poultry will need a minimum of 3 linear inches of space for each bird at the feeder and the watering fountain. Overcrowding will cause the birds to become territorial, making it hard for some birds to get their fair share of food and water.
It doesn’t matter whether you’ve got two or two hundred chickens; a hen house is a necessary ingredient to raising chickens successfully. Providing sufficient space for feed and water, good ventilation, and a chicken run will make it possible to put fresh organic meat and eggs on the table for many years.
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