Building a pen to keep your poultry in does not have to be a major undertaking. These creatures actually require very little n the way of creature comforts and thus they can easily be built a structure that will function as their home. How to build an easy chicken coop is one question that is actually even easy to answer.
The answer to how to build an easy chicken coop must start with you deciding how many chickens you are going to keep in the coop and you also have to decide the size of the chickens you will have. There are small breeds of chickens like the Bantams that take up far less room than the Rhode Island Red chickens take up. The Rhode Island Red chicken, and the Production Red are both large breed chickens that you can expect to weigh more than five pounds. The little Bantam will rarely weigh in at more than two pounds.
After you have decided the breed and the number of birds that you want to keep you can determine the approximate size in the dilemma of how to build an easy chicken coop. When the birds are in the yard portion of the coop that you construct they will need approximately two to three feet of space for each bird that you are going to have. The yard area is where they mill around and eat their food and where they will spend the majority of their time.
Inside the structure you will be building for them to sleep in and to protect them from things like rain, sleet, and snow you will need to construct them a set of roosting poles for them to sleep on. Each of your large breed chickens like the Production Red will need approximately ten inches of space on the pole for them to roost. The little Bantam will require about six inches of space on the roost pole.
Now that you know the amount of space the birds need both inside and outside their structure the next part of the how to build an easy chicken coop answer is for you to pace off the area where the coop will be located. Then you need to dig a hole at each of the four corners and place a post in the hole. You will also need to measure the structure and place a post in the middle of the post line if there is more than a six foot distance between your posts. The middle post is to add stability to the wire you will be attaching.
Once you have placed the post around the perimeter you will need to get inside of the area and decide the exact placement for the shelter for the birds. You can build this shelter with two solid sides and a roof. It is not necessary for the birds to have a full fledge house to live in. If you do live in the more northern states where the weather can get frigid for several days then you may want to build the birds an enclosure that has three or four sides rather than two to protect them from the winter elements.
After you have the structure placement decided then you need to decide where the entrance to the enclosure will be. Frame the area for the gate accordingly and you will then be ready to begin to stretch the wire around the enclosure. It is recommended that when you stretch the wire around the enclosure you bury a few inches of the wire in the dirt between the posts. This will help to stop animals such as fox, raccoons, and opossums from tunneling under your fence wire and harming your birds.
The only other thing you will need to decide about how to build easy chicken coops is whether or not you want to place wire over the top of the chicken yard area. Some people do this to stop the hawks and the owls from easily getting in. They also do this because if you do not put a top on the yard you must clip the wings of the birds so they will not be able to fly out of the yard.
