Building A Small Backyard Chicken Coop

Building a backyard chicken coop requires a little research and planning before getting started.  Below you will find a some of the things to think about with respect to the requirements and basic design principles before you start building, or even if you are considering buying a ready-made coop. Either way, if you are getting chickens you absolutely need to make sure you have a coop in place first!

Coop Requirements

• Plans can be bought or designed yourself. For our coop we did a lot of research online about design before we finally drew up our own plans.  
• You need to have a place in your yard where you want the coop to go. This will determine the size.  You also need to check with your local laws. In our town we are not allowed to have a rooster and there is a  maximum of five hens permitted (based on property size). There are also laws about how close to the property line the coop can be.
• We took pretty much took something from every plan we looked at in our research and fit it all together to work in our yard in the location we knew it was going in.  So basically our coop was designed specifically for the location where we have it, the number of chickens we planned on having, and the way we wanted it to look (it matches our house). 

Design Principles

• The coop house at 4' x 4' can hold up to 6 hens. There is a roost inside with a plexiglass side window over the egg boxes for light.
• ​The inside walls do have a thin layer of foam insulation. The roof doesn't, but it does have tar paper and shingles. 
• The inside walls of the coop are made of sheet plastic that would normally be used on walls in a bathroom. This was to make the coop easy to clean and it works!
• There are two vents near the roof peak: one in front and one in back. They are always open for fresh air which is very important.
• It has two hen boxes on the left side with a lifting (and locking) lid for easily collecting their eggs.  We felt two boxes were necessary and were right because they have worked out well.
• The house is lifted up and an 8' by 4' base was built to create an enclosed area.  This is so that even if we are not here to let them free range, they still have access to the outdoors.
• The house has a small inside door that lifts open and a ramp extends downwards for the chickens. We no longer close this door unless there is a very severe storm expected.  I can't even remember the last time we closed it.
• The entire coop, including under the bottom (so nothing can dig into it from below), is covered with the heavy duty wire mesh.  We then put plenty of sand and soil inside to cover up the mesh.
• Note that there is also a nice size front door on the house. This was initially for us  so that we could have easy access for cleaning, but the chickens love when we leave it open all day in the summer. It really lets the coop air out and they love 'jumping' in and out for fun.
• There is also outdoor perch. During the hot summer nights they mostly use the outside perch. 
• We added plexiglass on the top of the outside part because the first time it rained the outside part of their coop became a mud pit. This was not good and took quite a while to dry out.  We also added some plexi glass around the part under the house and halfway up all of the sides (not the screen door).  This helps keep them protected from heavy rains and winds all year round but still allows adequate ventilation. 

Coop Cost

• Our coop did not cost a lot of money because most of it was built from recycled wood and materials we in the garage. All we really had to buy was the insulation, six 8-foot 2 x 4's, some hinges and clasps, and the 1/4 inch galvanized wire mesh to wrap it in. Even the roofing material was left over from when we had our house roof re-done.
• Just know that we designed it so that it would be easy to build and we could use what we already had around!
• Basic materials: six 8 foot long 2x4's, TR111 for the outside, some trim wood, roofing paper and shingles, white sheet plastic for the interior walls and floor, caulk to seal up gaps etc., nails (duh), 2 hinges for egg box lid, 2 hinges for front door, 2 hinges for screen door, 2 hinges for the little interior door (it lifts up with a pull string), a handle with clasp for the front door, a clasp for the egg box, two slide locks for the screen door, a handle for the screen door, galvanized hardware cloth, plexiglass for the window and the sides of the exterior coop, corrugated plastic roofing for the top of the exterior coop, thin foam insulation for the walls of the coop, paint, and a lot of construction staples!

• Coops can be bought, however they can get expensive.  But buying  is an option :-)​

Check out our slide show of building the coop!
We built it in the spring of 2010 and it is still great 7 years later!

For information on  building a coop check out:  http://howtobuildachickencoopmanual.com

Thanks for visiting!
Check out more about our chickens on our page "Backyard Chickens" and follow our "Chickens & Eggs" board on Pinterest!
​Sincerely,