Tips For Chicken Coop Building Plans

Before you actually sit down and construct a home for your chickens, it's a very good idea to have a set of chicken coop building plans that you've either made yourself or received from a reputable source.

Here is a list of commonly used materials:

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* 2" x 4" planks. These make great planks for making sturdy walls for your coop to keep predators out, and can also serve as roosts for your birds to sleep on. 2" x 2" planks or thick wooden dowels are also good materials to use for roosting.

* Large sheets of plywood or some other similarly weighted wood. These sheets makes excellent floors, ceilings, and can serve as the basic layer for the walls of your coop. However, it is not a good idea to have them as the only thing in your walls, because they are not particularly sturdy and may not be predator-proof.

* Chicken wire or a similar commercial-grade wire. You will need a lot of this, as it will keep your chicken run enclosed and safe from any wild animals that might wish to harm your birds. However, make sure that the holes are not large enough for your chickens to escape from! Chicken wire does not make a good wall for the coop itself, as birds like to have something to hide in and feel safe.

Of course, you will also need nails, and other common construction materials to actually put your chicken coop building plans into action, as well as any paint that you want for cosmetic purposes. Make sure you don't paint the inside of your coop though, nor finish it with anything that will be harmful to your birds. A natural (unfinished) surface is better to avoid having your chickens accidentally inhale chemicals from finished woods. Painting the outside is okay.

After you have a good workable set of chicken coop building plans, you'll want to go about procuring the materials to use when actually building it. Hardware stores like Lowes or Home Improvement are obviously a great place to start looking. Make sure you know exactly how much you need of each material before you go shopping around, as this will save you time and keep your expenses low. If you're not sure how to figure out what you'll need, make an educated estimate.

But don't feel that you absolutely have to go to a commercial store to get your materials. In many cases, it's possible to build a coop entirely for free. That's right, free! How you do this is by looking around at garbage dumps, furniture stores, or on the sides of the street after people have put out their garbage. People will often throw out perfectly good construction materials that you can use to complete your chicken coop building plans.

In addition, you can often make parts of your chicken coops out of discarded furniture or other items. Old lockers can make great nesting boxes, since they are already the right size. Just make sure, again, to remove any paint from their insides, or to cover the metal up with wood inside in addition to bedding material. Other great "second-hand coop" materials include chests of drawers for nesting boxes, wooden clothes hangers for roosts, and cat doors for easy entry flaps. You're limited only by your imagination and the sturdiness of the materials.

Tips For Chicken Coop Building Plans

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