When deciding to be a backyard chicken farmer, an important consideration is the chicken coop or henhouse. Not only do you need a large, well secured pen, you need secure housing as well. Your henhouse should protect your flock from the weather and predators.
You can find ready-made chicken coops at area farm and hardware stores. Or, you can buy your Chicken Villa online. You will find them in various sizes and styles with prices ranging from $500 to over $5,000.
Personally, I prefer building a chicken coop over the cost of ready-made coops. You can build for a fraction of the price and usually, it only takes 2-3 days to finish. As long as you use cedar for the floor, pine wood, new or used will work.
Building your own henhouse has several benefits:
The most important tool, if building your own, is a good set of plans. I never recommend “anything” unless I’ve tried it myself, and “Building A Chicken Coop” by Bill Keene, is a good instructional book.
A former poultry farmer, Bill Keene not only tells you how to build your coop, he also shares his knowledge of raising chickens in this information packed eBook offered in PDF format. I have a portable coop made from Bill’s plans, and I call it my organic fertilizer spreader. We made this coop from used lumber from an old barn.
Besides building the coop, you will learn where to place it, add proper ventilation and what materials to use.
Included with your book:
The 4 bonus guides alone, are worth the cost of the book and contain a wealth of hard to find information. Even with no woodworking experience, you can complete one of these easy to follow coop plans.
All 3 coop styles have detailed 3D pictures of each step, clear and precise instructions and complete material list, showing the lumber sizes in both feet and inches measurements and meters.
I suggest only using this book for building your chicken coop, not for the other information it contains.
We raise all our livestock as organically as possible, without antibiotics, steroids etc. Our concern is having a good supply of meat and eggs coming from animals free of chemicals. This book suggests using medications and does not support raising chickens without these harmful drugs; which is contradictory to raising organic and healthy food.
Sarrah Tom says:
I`m interested into purchasing this guide, I really need to build a chicken coop but I would like to preview somehow its content, can you help me with this, feel free to email me !
Nancy says:
Hi Sarrah,
Go to http://www.buildingachickencoop.com/?hop=beadcatz They have pretty comprehensive details about the plans, including a video. I have the plan set and can tell you, it has every type of coop you ever need and the instructions are very easy to follow.