Raising chickens is fun for the whole family. Kids especially love collecting fresh eggs.
Happy healthy chickens are easy to keep in a well designed chicken coop.
Chicken Coop Designs For Health Happy Chickens
1. Proper Ventilation
This is one of the most important elements in chicken coop design. Chicken can become sick if proper ventilation isn’t available. A damp or wet chicken house with very little fresh air isn’t good for chicken health. Make sure to design your chicken coop with proper ventilation. Chickens will need windows that open and shut or cover. We use a simple hinged swing up door for a “window” made out of siding material. We cut a fairly large opening in the side of the hen house and use the wood we cut out as the swing door. During the summer and on nice days the window door is down. When its cold we swing the window door up and lock it with a small latch. This closed window keeps the breeze off the chickens when it’s cold and helps keep their house warmer in the winter.
Chickens will also require a door to go out into their yard. This door will also help ventilate the chicken house in the winter. Our chicken door also has a swing down door that we keep open with a latch. This is handy so we can either lock the chickens in the house or lock them outside in the yard. Being able to lock the chickens either inside or outside is very handy especially if you have to catch a chicken. Confining the chicken to just one area makes them much easier to catch.
2. Easy To Clean Chicken House Design
This is one of the uglier sides to keeping chickens, their coops will need to be cleaned periodically. You will need full access to the chicken house, this will require a real man sized door. There are some simple design elements you can incorporate into your chicken coop design which will make cleaning an easier job: An open design with full access to the entire coop. You will be needing to get into every corner of the coop to clean so try to not block any corners or make them difficult to get to.
