If you are planning to build your own chicken coop, you will have to find some plans online. An alternative would be to design the coop yourself. However, if you haven't kept chickens before, there are some guidelines you should keep in mind which will help you with decision making when you are choosing the type of coop most suitable to you and the chickens. Here are some things you should know before building a chicken coop.
Chickens produce a surprising amount of waste. You will have to clean regularly, which is why the coop must be easily accessible for you. This could be a rear door, separate from the run because entering through the run will be difficult for you.
This external access will also be important when you want to collect eggs daily. Leaving the eggs in the coop may cause problems, as the chicken might start eating them if they are left there for too long. The entrance is also helpful while changing the water and for feeding.
One more aspect to consider before you begin to build a backyard chicken coop is whether it will be portable of fixed. Smaller coops take less effort to clean but they house very few chickens. So keep in mind the number of chickens you intend to keep and then decide on the portability. Large chicken coops are obviously not portable. If you want to keep around six chickens, it is advisable to build chicken coop which can be moved around by two people. An advantage of portable coops is that you can move the coop once the grass under it begins to get bare so that it can grow again.
You must also consider the placement of the coop. Twenty feet away from your house is quite suitable. It is not too far and not too close either. Keeping the coop too close to the house causes unpleasant odor while placing it too far away can make egg collection a chore.
Building chicken coop yourself is not a difficult task. However, you should be careful to study the plans properly, and make sure that you understand them. Many of the plans available on the internet are too complicated for someone with average skills, and such plans consequently lead to abandoned projects, wasting a lot of time, money and effort.
Nevertheless, look for an understandable plan and you will have your very own chicken coop in your backyard in no time.
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