EASY CHICKEN PEN PLANS

Have you thought about raising chickens in your back yard?

Maybe you have had great intentions of raising chickens in your back yard. You did your homework and due diligence. You know how many chickens you want to raise. You learned what to feed them. You thought how great it would be to have farm fresh eggs in the morning.

This all seemed very possible until you researched the cost of a prefabricated chicken pen. You learned that you may have to pay anywhere from $500-$1000, which was not in your planned budget.

Easy Chicken Pen Plans has made it possible to build your own chicken coop at the fraction of what it would cost to buy a pre-made chicken pen. If you have a good set of chicken pen plans, your only cost would be the price of the materials. The tools required for this project are common tools that you probably already own or can be obtained at your local hardware store.

Why do you need chicken pen plans?

Chicken pen plans enable people with minimal carpentry skills to complete this project.

There a few thing you need to take into consideration before beginning this project.

• Size of your chicken coop

• Ventilation and Climate Control

• Protection from rodents and skunks

• Cleaning and maintenance

• Positioning the coop to allow sunlight

Good chicken pen plans will allow you to plan for all these elements. Not only will they make building a coop a breeze, it will save you hundred of dollars.

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Chicken Predators: Keeping Them Out!

One problem most people have raising chickens is protecting them from chicken predators.  Chickens are easy prey to these animals because it’s difficult for them to defend themselves.  They’re not too fast and not too ferocious so they are the perfect prey.  If you want to keep these chicken predators out, here are a few suggestions.

There are claims that animals don’t like human scent.  There aren’t many conclusive studies to confirm this but many say this is the reason why humans are the least preyed upon.  To add human scent to the chicken coop, you can place old clothing in various areas of your chicken coop.  Human scent won’t prevent all hungry predators so it is strongly advised that you don’t use this idea as your only chicken predator deterrent.

One of the best deterrents is the chicken coop.  It should have a sturdy build to keep animals out.  Build the structure free from excessive holes and gaps.  An elevated chicken coop can prevent some of the smaller animals from entering the chicken coop.  Wrapping the roosting posts with wire will prevent chicken predators from biting through the posts.

A wire fence around a well built chicken coop offers great protection from predators.  The planks should run at least 10 inches deep into the ground to prevent animals from digging underneath.  The fence should be tall enough to prevent chicken predators from jumping over the fence.  The height will depend on the types of predators in your area but a 5 foot fence should be tall enough to keep out most animals.  If you have foxes in your area, your fence should be built closer to the 5 foot recommendation as they can jump nearly twice their own length.

Protection from chicken predators is crucial if you want to have chicken that can produce eggs for a long time.  Your protection methods will depend on the types of predators you have in your area.  The best deterrent is to use multiple methods instead of relying on just one.  A sturdy coop and a wire fence is a great combination.  Add the human scent for good measures and your chickens should be well protected.

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Chicken Coop Nesting Boxes: How to Make Your Chickens Most Productive

After building a chicken pen, chicken coop nesting boxes are often the next step in completing the project.  These nesting boxes come in various shapes and sizes.  The size and shape is dependent upon the number of chickens you have and the size of your coop.  One also must choose whether to build their chicken coop nesting boxes with practicality in mind or aesthetics.

Chicken nesting boxes must be built with the goal of being the most productive.  In other words, we want our chickens to lay the most eggs possible.  Most boxes are built in a similar manner: build the box and fill it with straw.  However, if your chicken is not as productive as you’d like, your nesting box could be the issue.

Nesting boxes are often built to fit as many chickens as possible.  While there are good reasons for building boxes in this manner, it can decrease your egg production.  When larger boxes get crowded, chickens tend to lay eggs on the floor to avoid the crowd.  This can cause the eggs to get lost in the dirt, broken, or eaten.   Chickens lay more eggs in smaller nesting boxes where there isn’t a big crowd.  There tends to be less mess with the straw staying in the box.  A box that fits 3-4 chickens would suffice.

The angle of the nesting box roof should be at an angle.  This is to prevent the chickens from roosting on the roof.  If they are roosting on top of the roof chances are some of your eggs will be laid there also.  Chicken eggs rolling off the roof is not the most productive way to get eggs.

A chute placed where the laid eggs can roll to a separate location will increase your production.  Frequent interruptions that disturb the chickens can destroy the eggs.  Installing a chute might add to your costs but it will increase the amount of eggs you will have.

If you don’t want to build a chute, you can install doors at the back of the chicken coop nesting boxes.  This will allow you to collect eggs without disturbing the chickens.  You should build a lip at the edge to the box to prevent the eggs from falling out when you open the door. 

The size of the box will vary but you generally want the height to be approximately nine inches.  If you want to limit the amount of chickens in each nesting box as suggested earlier, they should be about 12 square inches. 

These were a few suggestions to make your chickens more productive by optimizing your chicken coop nesting boxes.  If your chicken is not laying eggs at the rate you would like, try implementing some of these suggestions.

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