To take care of chickens is a fun activity, but comes with a lot of responsibilities. One of those responsibilities is for you to construct a coop that can be a protective haven for your chickens. True, there are various hen house plans over the Web and on actual books that you can make use of, but, you first have to learn all about the basics of chicken house building, so that you’ll know which plan is the best for your hens.

One of the very first things you’ll have to consider when planning to build a pen for the chickens is the actual number of chickens you have. Are you to take care of chickens that total to more than 10? More than 20? Or maybe a hundred chickens? For you to be able to construct a coop that is big enough for your darling hens, you should take into consideration the actual number of chickens that you own or that you plan to raise. The hen house plans that you should choose from should have slightly larger dimensions than your actual requirements.

When going into chicken house building, you should also decide on which area of your lot to place the coop. It is best that you build the pen on a raised area to keep your chickens safe from flooding, which is a must if you want to ensure that you’ll excellently take care of chickens. It is also a good idea that you construct a coop in a shaded area to protect the chickens from really hot weather, which can be a cause of them being sick, or worse, dead.

The best hen house plans are also ones that include plans for a fence that will protect chickens from predators e.g. wolves, foxes, and the likes. Having a built pen for the hens is usually not enough – for better protection, you should follow this chicken house building tip which is to construct a durable and really protective fence around the coop.

People who actually take care of chickens should also remember this advice before they construct a coop: the coop should have good ventilation in order to keep the hens healthy. You can place some air vents into the pen, or make way for some windows, but make sure that those windows have protective wires so predators won’t be able to get in and eat your chickens.

There are really so many factors that one has to consider before they start the construction of chicken coops. You should follow the tips on chicken house building that were discussed in this article to make certain that you’ll come up with the best coop for your precious hens.

Karen Winton has several articles dedicated to chicken coop building. Want to create an affordable coop in a span of 3 days? Consult: Make Your Own Chicken Coop. For easy coop construction, see: ChickenDIYGuides.

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