Learn some chicken coop ideas that will help you to set up your DIY chicken coop for your backyard chickens. I have been using this chicken coop layout for years and it works great for my chickens.
Keep your backyard chickens happy with their coop by giving them enough space and setting it up correctly. My chickens are happy with my DIY chicken coop. I re-purposed a 12 by 12-foot wood shed and we converted it into a backyard chicken coop. If you are looking for chicken coop ideas, this is a great one.
Chicken Coop Ideas
Purchasing chicken coops can be expensive and a lot of store-bought chicken coops are small. Re-purposing a wooden shed is a great way to give your chickens a spacious, affordable chicken coop. You will need to make some alterations to the shed such as adding ventilation, roosts and nesting box areas.
Chicken coop designs
As you can see in the above photo, we turned the shed doors into double doors to have options for the changing seasons and bad weather. This was done by simply cutting the shed door in half and then adding a hook and eye, to the top half door, to be able to secure it open when we needed to. We also made a hardware cloth half door for the top, for ventilation. We did so by using wood to make a frame, lined it with hardware cloth and then used hinges and a hook and eye to secure it. Ventilation is really important for chickens. We added a small window on the side of the shed as well as a gable vent at the top of the shed. If you add a window to your chicken coop, make sure to cover it with hardware cloth to make it predator-proof.
Chicken coop layout
Inside this shed, it came with a loft. We strategically placed roosting bars and a ladder to allow the chickens access to the shed loft. We set up a total of four roosts and the adult chickens all prefer the highest two roosts that are up in the loft area. It is important to give chickens plenty of roost options, with different levels to keep them happy with their pecking order. The most dominant hens and one of our roosters prefer to be on the highest roost while the lower-ranking hens and our second rooster are on the roost below. The younger cockerels and pullets prefer the lowest roosts. Keep that in mind when you are setting up the roost layout in your coop.
DIY Nesting box ideas
The nesting boxes should be easily accessible and you should provide multiple nesting boxes for your hens to lay their eggs in. We built a large shelf for our chicken’s nesting boxes and they access them by a wooden ladder we built. We made the nesting boxes out of recycled plastic bins. With the large shelf, built from recycled plywood, we created not only a built-in shelf, but a space underneath to place an additional nesting box, as needed, for broody hens. This is a private space for a hen that is sitting on eggs or raising chicks. I call it their maternity ward.
Chicken feeding station
As far as feeding stations, to reduce fighting, I have two feeding stations. I have their layer pellets in a plastic poultry feeder as well as in a stainless steel poultry feeder on the opposite side of the coop. I also have a little alfalfa hay in a bowl along with a bowl of oyster shells and some grit. It is important to provide fresh water, a balanced layer pellet to your laying hens as well as provide them with oyster shells, as a calcium supplement, and grit to help them digest their food.
Chicken coop extras
During fly season, I hang a Big Bag fly control trap in the chicken coop. I hang up rodent repellent, as well, to help deter rodents from entering the coop and it makes the coop smell really nice. For bedding, I use mostly shavings but I also do use some hay in the nesting boxes as well. We’re just getting into the cold season in the fall here in Massachusetts, so I’m just starting to do the deep layer method and adding in layers of shavings as we go to build that up. At the bottom of each of the shed doors, I put some metal sheeting for extra enforcement to make sure that no rodents try to chew their way in through the door. Keeping the feed up off of the ground also helps. During the day, once the chickens are out, I close the lower door. It serves as a really good barrier to keep our wild rabbit population from going in and helping themselves to the poultry feed. Our chickens are able to hop up on the half door to get in and out of the coop. On the outside of the coop,
Chicken coop predator prevention
Predators can be a real problem when keeping backyard chickens. For safety, we have a motion sensor camera. We use this to notify us if we have any predator problems which, thankfully, we haven’t had any issues with. We have a decoy owl on top of the coop as well to deter predators. I highly recommend an owl for your coop. It works really well to protect our chickens from hawks. We used to have a lot of hawks in this area but once we got this owl, the hawks stopped flying over our area. Using hardware cloth to cover ventilation areas of the coop such as windows and half doors is really important to keep predators out.
I hope you enjoyed learning all about chicken coop ideas that we have used that work well for our happy chickens.
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