Weather The Storm

Chicken coop plans come in various sizes and designs today. You can either get a pre built coop or you can even build it yourself. Building a DIY chicken coop for your favorite pet is not at all tough. If you follow the right guidelines you can create the best coop for your chickens. There are certain things which you must remember while building your DIY chicken coop while there are others which you need to avoid.

You must be very careful about choosing the designs for chicken coops. You may be tempted to go for a cheap set of plans but the resulting coop will not be right for your chickens. These cheap designs might make you spend more money in the future on maintenance and repairs. So it is better to avoid very cheap designs.

There are several key factors that you should keep in mind when choosing which chicken coop plans to go with. First of all you must pay attention to the cleaning of the coop. Make sure you build the poultry coop in such a way that it can be cleaned easily. If you want your chickens to be in the best of health then you must clean them and the hen coop regularly.

Some of the coops are really difficult to clean due to certain complications. You really have to avoid this. You might get the design of your coop from a reliable source but it has been found that most of the designs fail to provide easy cleaning. You must look for those designs which will have the ground sloped towards the door.

You should also think about the drainage system of your poultry house. If you have a straight floor and improper drainage system then you will face lots of trouble when it rains. The rain water will be clogged inside your DIY chicken coop. You will find it quite difficult to bring them out.

If you cannot remove the water your chickens will remain sitting in the water and this can cause harm to them. So if you want your chickens to be safe, you need to keep them clean. The other thing which you need to keep in mind is that the doors of the coop must not open outwards. This can make it easy for the chickens to run out easily.

Therefore cleaning is one of the most important aspects that you need to keep in mind before building your DIY chicken coop. If you follow these tips on cleaning you will ensure that you have one of the best chicken coops for your pets. This will also help you to save lots of money in the future.

Related Reading:

Shelter [2007] [DVD]

Shelter [DVD]

Shelter (Blood Haze: Book One) A Paranormal Romance

Coleman Event Shelter 15' x 15'

Shelter (Mickey Bolitar 1)

Portable chicken coops, sometimes called chicken tractors, are lightweight hen houses that can be moved easily around the garden.  These have a number of advantages:

• Easy and cheap to make, even for diy amateurs

• Easy to clean

• Take up very little space

• Free fertilizing for your garden (the hens do it bit by bit for you as you move the chicken tractor around)

• Constantly changing stock of insects and greens for the hens

• Able to move poultry into shelter or shade quickly in changing weather conditions

• Predators are put off by a constantly shifting target (the hen house)

• Use as temporary housing for the hens while you clean out or repair their fixed coop

Their small size is the main disadvantage. Portability means that they can house only 3 or 4 chickens sensibly.  You should allow about 4 square feet per hen.

Typical chicken tractors are 3 or 4 feet long, 4 feet wide and 3 or 4 feet high, usually with an apex or triangular cross-section.  Usually they do not have a floor. Some portable chicken coops have wheels or even skids fitted to help move them easily around the yard.  You can make a chicken tractor in a few hours, using cheap wood and chicken wire – you might have some or all you need already lying around in your backyard!  A DIY portable coop will cost much less than a ready-made item, and you will be able to customize it exactly to your own requirements.

A portable chicken coop often comes in useful as overflow accommodation for the main hen house. 

A set of good quality chicken tractor plans is the next step. This is most important.  It is very easy to make portable chicken coops, but it is more than nailing a few bits of wood and wire together.  Your coop design will need to be planned around a number of vital considerations, such as the breed of hen and the layout of the garden.  There are many things to consider and include in your coop design, which is why we believe it is so important to get professional plans and instructions before you start the build. 

You should beware of so-called ‘free’ chicken tractor plans – we have found these are almost always worthless and sometimes are downright unsafe for your hens.  We strongly recommend that you look for proper chicken tractor plans and diagrams produced by professional designers of hen coops – people who rear chickens themselves and know what’s needed for a healthy and happy habitat.  These plans will include full details of all the materials and tools needed, and you will find things so much easier (and cheaper) if you assemble everything before starting to build.

We have plenty of good ideas to help you choose and build the best portable chicken coops for your particular circumstances – see How To Build A Chicken Coop and BuildAChickenCoop review. This includes a whole range of professional and expert guidance on every aspect of keeping hens, from food to health, not just about making the best houses for them.

Related Reading:

Shelter

Shelter [DVD]

Shelter (Mickey Bolitar 1 Adult Cover)

Shelter (Blood Haze: Book One) A Paranormal Romance

Home Work: Handbuilt Shelter

Chicken tractors, or portable chicken coops, are small houses for your hens that you can move easily around your backyard or garden.  A chicken tractor has a number of advantages:

• Cheap to make – perfect for beginners

• Easily cleanable

• Ideal if you don’t have much space in your yard

• Automatic fertilizing for your yard over time

• Constantly changing stock of insects and greens for the hens

• Easy to move hens into the shade (hot weather) or shelter such as a garage (cold weather)

• Predators are put off by a constantly shifting target (the hen house)

• Use as temporary housing for the hens while you clean out or repair their fixed coop

Their small size is the main disadvantage. Because of their lightweight construction they can only hold 3 or 4 hens for any length of time.  Typically each hen needs about 4 square feet.

Commonly chicken tractors have an A frame shape and a footprint of 12 to 16 square feet.  Normally there is no floor fitted. Sometimes skids are fitted underneath so that the coop can be moved more easily.  Leftover bits of wood and some chicken wire are all you need to make a chicken tractor.  Making your own portable chicken coop will certainly be much cheaper than buying a pre-built one, and you will also have the satisfaction of getting exactly what you want.

A portable chicken coop often comes in useful as overflow accommodation for the main hen house. 

Do not try to build your own without a good set of chicken tractor plans. This is most important.  Building a chicken tractor is easy but it is not just a case of hammering some pieces of wood and wire together.  The coop design will depend on a number of things, such as the breed of chickens and your backyard environment.  There are quite a few factors you need to be aware of when designing your mobile hen coop, which is why you should have proper advice and instructions from experts in chicken rearing. 

You will often see ‘free’ plans for chicken tractors advertised on the internet but, in our experience, these are invariably rubbish.  We firmly believe that you should use good quality chicken tractor plans and instructions produced by expert designers who themselves are experienced hen keepers.  Check that these include comprehensive lists of materials and tools needed for assembling the portable chicken coop – it is so much easier to get things right before you start to build.

There is further interesting information about making really professional chicken tractors of your own – see How To Build A Chicken Coop and BuildAChickenCoop review. You will find lots of professional tips, not only for building chicken coops, but also for choosing and rearing chickens, the sort of food they need, what can go wrong (and how to fix it) and much more.

Related Reading:

Shelter (Mickey Bolitar 1)

Shelter

Shelter [Blu-ray]

Shelter [DVD]

Shelter (Mickey Bolitar 1 Adult Cover)