Chicken Koop Overview

A chicken koop construction overview is actually the blueprints for the construction of chicken houses and runs you can build. An overview is more than just a set of blueprints, because it will also detail the materials that will be required, and the instructions for using the materials.

If you have recently decided that you are going to start raising chickens you need to build some chicken huts or chickens houses before you start buying chickens. You can purchase a chicken koop construction overview to assist you in building your own poultry coop, or you can find already constructed chicken coops for sale. The majority of people construct their own coops, and runs to fit into the area they have pre-selected for placing their poultry.

There are a few main qualities a pen for these birds must have. You must provide them with a house, meaning an area with at least three walls made of wood or metal, and you must put a roof over their house. These birds will go inside this covered area to sleep at night. They do this to be better protected from nighttime predators that love to feed on them and their young. A chicken does not have many defense mechanisms at their disposal, so you are responsible for helping them secure their safety with appropriate housing, and yards.

The front wall of the house can be made out of chicken wire to provide you with the ability to see into it, and be able to ascertain what may be causing problems in your roosting area. If something like a raccoon, or a fox, attacks poultry pens, they are going to do so under the cover of darkness. If your hut is completely enclosed with wood or metal you will not be able to see what you are dealing with until you are already in the hut with the varmint. One wall out of chicken wire is optional in your design plans.

Inside the area that provides them shelter for the night, you will have to build roost poles for them to sleep on. They like to get as high up as they can, because their instincts tell them this is the safest place to be. Building these roosts require some thought to what the fowl need in order to be comfortable. You want wooden roost poles, metal poles, and plastic poles can both become very cold to the touch in the winter. These birds spend the entire night gripping these poles while they sleep, and a cold material is going to make your birds uncomfortable. Use wood for this purpose, wooden dowels can be purchased from a building supply store. You need them to be 1” or 11/4” in diameter for the optimum comfort. To roost a chicken must wrap its feet around the surface it is roosting on, so the proper diameter, and making sure it is a rounded pole, will ensure their comfort. Remember that they like to roost high up? Well if something in your pen is higher than your roost pole is, they will go to the higher object every time.

There is one other thing you really need to know about the roosting situation. All the birds will push and shove to be on the highest one. You either have to reinforce the roost to accommodate all that weight, or make a series of shorter roosts in a ladder fashion. If you build the roost like a crude ladder, space the rungs about a foot apart.

You will need to build some laying boxes for your hens to nest on. There are many different designs for these, and any good set of overview plans will include the details of nesting boxes.

In the overview you purchased you will more than likely find a section on building a yard, or run for the birds. They leave the roost area unless they are sleeping, or returning to get in their laying boxes. You never feed a chicken in this area. They eat outside their roost spot. If the yard you build is open on the top you are going to have to clip the wings on the birds when they are young. You only clip the wing on one side of the chicken, so you create the inability for them to fly.

Now you are ready to either buy your birds, or buy fertilized eggs and place them in chicken incubators. Either way, you are almost to the point where you own your own chicken ranch.