Building a Chicken Coop – Planning Ahead

Build a Functional Chicken Ark (Portable Chicken Coop) on your Own!

If you would like to learn how to build your own chicken ark (portable chicken coop) and save hundreds of dollars over buying a pre-built one, this article was written especially for you. Build it right the first time the smart and inexpensive way.

Once you have made the decision to save hundreds of dollars by building your chicken ark, you will want to consider a few other basic items of information. Chickens need three basic things; adequate food and pure water, a nesting area that can be kept clean and dry and a good-sized area to hunt and peck for food. First, you need to decide on the location. Next, you need to determine if you are going to build a portable chicken ark or place your chicken coops, also known as chicken sheds, in a permanent location. There are lots of good chicken ark plans, one of the more popular being the “A” frame type. However, permanent structures tend to be a more complicated in their designs.

If you are going to build permanent chicken coops, the outdoor section should be divided into two parts. You will only be using one part at a time, but there is a reason for this; Chickens tend to tear up the ground when they are scratching and pecking for food. If you have just one area where they can hunt and peck, the ground will get ruined fairly quickly.

Because chickens will be scratching in a single section of a chicken coop at any given time, after one section has been relieved of most of its bugs and wild plants it is a simple matter to move them to the other section. By following this method, areas that have recently been ravished will have a chance to grow new plants which will attract more tasty morsels in the form of insects. And buying some easy-to-understand chicken coop plans will make building your structure a lot less difficult and more efficient.

To build chicken sheds, two main materials must be supplied, wire and wood. Make sure that the chicken wire has small spaces, no larger than 2 inches square. This will prevent animals and wild birds from being able to enter the interior of the chicken ark where they can scare or hurt your poultry. The wood and wire used in building chicken coops should be weather-treated so that you will not end up with rotting wood, infestations of insects or rusted wire. The price will be a bit more initially, but it will save money and frustration over the long haul.

Make sure that when you are clearing out the perimeter of your chicken coop, you dig a 4-6 inch trench and add this to the height of your wire. You will want to do this to keep out predators that will try to dig under your fencing. It will also help prevent your chickens from escaping. The chicken coops themselves can be of any design, and there are many different chicken house plans and designs available for sale inexpensively.

There are some other considerations you should be aware of before starting on your project. Be sure to keep the inside of your chicken pen dry at all times and there must be enough nesting space available for each bird. You also need one or two windows for your chicken coops that can be closed up completely during wet or windy weather. Open windows and can be shut during stormy weather. You do not want the moisture inside the chicken hutch where it can ruin nests along with other structures and cause your chickens to become sick.

The chore that most backyard chicken farmers like the least has to be the cleanup. But, with a well designed chicken coop, this chore can actually be fairly easy. The most important thing is to install a large hinged door so that you can get completely inside when necessary. This will make cleanup much easier, but will also make it an easy job to gather eggs quicker and remove chickens when required. With proper planning you will have more time to enjoy your birds and less time required to clean up after them.