The best tip I can give you is: choose a plan before you start building your chicken pen! This is really very important and will help you prevent making mistakes. And I can tell, at first I started building without a proper plan. But many things went wrong and I got very frustrated. So after a few attempts I started to look for a building plan.
There are a wide variety of plans available right now that you may feel overwhelmed in choosing which one will be most appropriate for you. This isn’t surprising because of the fact that most people don’t understand the process of building a chicken coop, therefore to them all the plans may even look the same. However they are not the same and if you’re not choosing the correct plan, the chances that you have succes with the building process will be much lower.
Here is what you need to know in order to choose the correct plan for you.
The first thing you’ll want to think about is the total number of chickens you plan to keep. The hen house plans you’re looking at should differentiate between small, medium, and large sized plans. Matching the correct size to the total number of chickens you want to keep will help make sure they’re happy in their surroundings are will be laying eggs properly. If you’re not sure exactly how big you should be building, always go larger than you think you’ll need.
The next thing to think about is to follow a specific blueprint plan. I highly recommend using plans that will give you a specific blueprint plan to follow. Having a good illustration before you set out with the building process will go a long way towards preventing screw-ups before they happen. Those individuals who are not careful with this and attempt to build without a plan will very likely run into some problems, so be sure you have a good drawing out in front of you first. You can also consider drawing up your own as well if that’s something you’d prefer doing. I got my blueprint from a chicken book I bought. It’s a very useful book, with lots of information. If you want to see that book, click here.
The third factor to think about before you dive right into the building process is the climate you are located in. If you’re getting a wide variety of weather patterns, you’re going to want to think a great deal harder about the amount and type of insulation you use in your chicken coop. It’s important that the plans you’re looking at identify methods that you can use to help maintain proper temperature over time because if it’s either too hot or too cold in the house there is a very high chance that you’re going to run into some problems.
Finally, consider whether or not you want to build a mobile chicken coop. These are increasingly popular among many people, especially those who also want to keep their chickens as pets as well. As I mentioned in the previous post, there are many advantages to a mobile coop so it is something you should give some consideration at least. By taking some time to look through various plans you can take a big step towards making sure you’re choosing one that best matches your own individual needs.
Click here to see the book that helped me build my own chicken pen.
Tags: chicken coop, chicken pen, poultry housing