How to Build a Backyard Chicken Coop

Making the plans

With the economy we have now, many people are growing their own vegetable gardens to save money at the grocery store. Some families have backyard chicken coops, in order to get fresh eggs and save money as well. If you are interested in doing a family project, then you make plans of what you will be building. Check with you city or landlord to make sure that you are allowed to have chickens on your property.

Gathering what you will need

You will need:

Several sheets of plywood

Chicken wire fencing

U nails

Regular nails

Hammer

Wire cutters

Hardware cloth

Posthole diggers

Sawzall

4×4 posts

2×4 posts

Paint

Painting supplies

Ideas on how to build it

Our chicken coop was built on to an existing building, which allowed us to use less material and we saved money looking on craigslist for material. Decide exactly how you want to build the chicken coop and then measure it, in order to know how much material you will need. Check out Google search on backyard chicken coop designs which other people have built. You can choose any design you like and get up all the materials you will need to complete the project.

Building the chicken coop

Place your 4×4 posts in the ground using the posthole diggers and nail your plywood to the 4×4 posts. Continue building in the walls of the chicken coop, until you are ready to create a door big enough for you to walk in the chicken coop. After finishing the door, make a shelf inside the chicken coops for the hens and rooster to roost on. Next, start building the chicken wire off the side of the chicken coop you have built and make a door out of 2×4 posts.

Finished chicken coop

Now you should step into the chicken coop and cut out a door using a sawzall, but make sure the hole is big enough for a full-grown hen to get in and out of. Next, check for places snakes might in to the coop and use the hardware cloth to block off the snakes entrance. Make sure the outside yard is enclosed, so owls and other large birds cannot get to the chickens. Make sure the cage is dog or fox proof, because you don’t want any critters getting to your hens and chicks.

Raising the chickens

Once the coop is ready, look around on craigslist or livestock feed stores for baby chickens or grown adult hens. You can add a rooster if you want baby chicks as well as fresh eggs from the laying hens. If you get baby chicks only, you will have to wait a long time for them to begin laying eggs. You will need to buy chicken scratch and layer feed from a livestock feed store. Just ask the person who is managing the feed store, if you’re not sure about how often or how to feed the hens or chicks.