Building Chicken Coops – Making it Work For You

Building chicken coops may not be the easiest thing to do.  It takes time, patience, and above all, money.  However, finding ways to customize your coop is not as difficult as you may think.  There are a number of building plans available to you.  And even if your coop design is basic, these designs can give you ideas that help improve your chicken coop.

According to websites devoted to building chicken coops, it is extremely important to consider a number of factors before building.  These include the following:

• What you want to achieve by building a chicken coop

• The size of your flock

• The design you want

What you want to achieve

Before building chicken coops, you will need to determine what you hope to achieve by building one.  If your goal is to breed chickens for meat, you will need to think about chicken food.  If your coop is has limited space for food, then it may be helpful to build extra feeding structures in the grazing area.  You may also want to put feeding dishes outside in the grazing area. 

If you are raising chicken for eggs, you want to make sure they have enough room to lay eggs.  This can be achieved by building a coop that is easier to clean.  Instead of using wood that is grainy and weathered, you may want to use a higher quality wood.

The size of your flock

The size of your flock of chickens will ultimately determine a number of things.  If you have only a small number of chickens, it may not be necessary to expand upon your current nesting structures. 

When you have a large number of chickens, you will need to think in terms of space.  Is your existing coop too small?  Does each chicken have enough room to lay eggs comfortably?  These are all questions that most people ask.  If your coop is too small, you may want to consider adding on to an existing coop design, taking into consideration any additional needs your chickens may have.  If nests are placed close together, there is the potential for illness and poor egg production.  However, building extra structures for nests will make chickens happier, which will increase egg production and better quality chicken meat.

The design you want

Choosing the design you want, when building chicken coops, can be hard.  But it doesn’t have to be.  You can browse the internet for designs, which give details on how to build them.  However, not all of them may have what you’re looking for.  It may help to have a few ideas of add ons you wish to include.  If you want to keep predators out of your coop, it may help to build protective structures, such as barbed wire, to keep these threatening creatures out.  Many design plans include these types of structures, and give you ideas to include in your own, personal design. 

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