Perfecting Your Plans
Designing an ideal henhouse begins not with lumber and nails but with proper preparation.
Building a coop required a lot of forethought and planning.
As farmers, we know that the animals must come first. We get up early if the barn chores are waiting; we feed the livestock before we feed ourselves. It’s just part of the lifestyle, and it’s completely satisfying and understandable to those who live it. So it should come as no surprise that farmers may also tend to spoil their animals when it comes to housing.
This actually makes a lot of sense when you think about it because well-designed and properly thought-out animal housing makes the farmer’s life better, too. The animals stay safe and are protected, and going the extra mile in design means that chores are more convenient, the work goes more efficiently and the entire process is more enjoyable. And isn’t enjoyment really one of the main goals of small-scale farming?
To that end, let’s look at a few ways you can spoil your hens — and yourself! — by designing your ideal chicken coop. Of course, what’s ideal will vary from person to person, so we won’t dive into specific construction details, but think of this as an idea bank for your next design. Let’s go!
Build from Experience
Sometimes a hobby farmer has experimented with keeping chickens on a very small scale and is now ready to upgrade. This is an excellent time to take the lessons you’ve learned from your first coop and apply them to the new design.
Was the coop door just too short? Did the angle of the clean-out door make for aggravating or uncomfortable work conditions? Were the nest boxes inconveniently located? Did the whole structure lack adequate ventilation? Was it built in a poor location for drainage, wind or sun exposure?
All of this experience can be very beneficial in moving forward on your new coop design. Choose the right location, far enough away from the house to control odors but not too far away from a water source. Include enough ventilation — a square foot per chicken or at least 1⁄5 the coop’s wall space — to prevent excess ammonia smells and other unwanted gases. Make the coop comfortable to work in.
Square Footage Vs. No. of Birds
All things being equal, a coop with more square footage is probably nicer! And if the goal is really to build your ideal coop, explore designs with larger footprints. Keep in mind that more square footage is more space to clean, but that may not be a large concern.
If you’re building a new coop because you’d like to increase the size of your flock, figure that each bird should generally have about 3 to 4 square feet of interior space but bigger is always better (within reason). Figure on even more square footage for regions with hard winters where the chickens might spend more time indoors.
Hardware Cloth
Experienced chicken owners probably already know this, but chicken wire — that familiar, flexible, hexagonal, woven wire — isn’t a very strong barrier. Determined predators can tear it down, so another method is needed. Popular alternatives include hardware cloth, which is a similar idea but constructed out of a much stronger wire. You’ll find this in 1⁄2- or 1⁄4-inch sizes, either of which could function well for a chicken coop.
Those extra (and now unused!) rolls of chicken wire you have stashed away can be better put to use as a way to control the movement of — or confine — chickens within the safety of an already secure area — to isolate a broody hen or otherwise limit interactions between members of the flock, both inside the coop or outside in the run.
Roosts aren’t Just for Roosters
Regardless of whether your flock contains just hens or includes a rooster or two, you’ll want to make sure that your coop has enough roost space. A few do’s and don’ts regarding roosts include:
• Do provide your hens with enough roosting space. Figure on 12 inches per bird.
• Don’t build the roosts over the nest boxes!
• Do provide wooden, somewhat rounded roosts that are at least 2 inches wide.
• Don’t use metal roosts (frostbite potential!).
• Do stagger the roosts to gain extra height and space.
Electricity
Of course, if you’re really serious about creating an ideal coop, consider adding electricity to it. You have a couple of different options here. While running a buried power line from the house or barn to the coop is certainly doable, this might be more effort or expense than you’re willing to invest even in an ideal coop.
Extension cords running across the top of the ground aren’t ideal or particularly safe. Happily, technology has made it easier (and less expensive) than ever to supply electrical conveniences to an “off the grid” coop — even if it’s only a couple hundred feet off the grid.