Backyard Poultry – Getting Starting Building Chicken Coops

Backyard Poultry - Nesting

It would be hard to tell you everything about backyard poultry coops without actually showing you some of it, but I can certainly details some basics to help get your mind rolling.

If you don’t know where you start, think about a dog house, but for chickens. Now through a little fenced in run around it so your backyard poultry can, well, step foot into your backyard. I have a coop for three chickens that is roughly three feet by five feet, with a run that is about four feet by five feet. All of it is enclosed with a gate on the run so that I can shut it at night to keep the predators out. The run isn’t huge, but it’s big enough that the chickens have a place to hang out during the play and look for bugs. On top of that, I usually let them out into the yard so that my backyard poultry really is “free range” and can spend their time eating grass and scratching for worms.

Lots of backyard poultry have smaller coops and smaller runs and don’t get let out to roam, and do just fine. This is still a huge upgrade from factory farms that pack multiple chickens into little cages – so consider any kind of space for your backyard poultry as sufficient.

When building a coop for backyard poultry, you really are just thinking about the same steps that would go into a dog house. You can use two-by-fours and plywood for materials, and chicken wire for the run with a two-by-four frame. Remember that you want the coop to protect the chickens from the weather, so the door should just be big enough for them to get in, and you may want additional access for yourself to clean the coop and remove eggs.

Backyard poultry need a nesting area, and up to four chickens can share the same area. A next is a half-box made out of wood that is clean with shavings, that the chickens use to lay their eggs in. My chickens have just figured what to do once the box was there.

Lastly, your backyard poultry coop needs a roost for your chickens to perch on at night. This is a simple rod or board on its side that is attached across the coop a foot or two off the ground. I actually have a branch that is attacked to the walls and sits off the floor that works just fine.

And that’s pretty much it. Backyard poultry need a place to be protected from predators and harsh weather, a place to range, a place to nest and perch, and that’s it. Anyone can put that all together and come up with a plan for building chicken coops that is feasible for their backyard poultry project.