If you’re looking to build a chicken coop, you must prepare yourself, as with anything.  Not gaining the necessary knowledge up front, will likey cause you to be dissatisfied down the road with the chicken house you’ve built.  This stress could cause you to rebuild, or worse, abandon your chicken raising dreams.

Avoid these chicken house errors up front and you and your chickens will be much happier.

Error #1 – Not Having a Physical Chicken House Plan – Make sure you have a paper drawing of the chicken house.  This will alleviate any guessing on your part because everything from building materials and dimensions should be spelled out exactly.  If you’d like to see a great example of chicken house plans, click here.

Error #2 – Forgetting Insulation - Chickens don’t like cold weather.  They can become uncomfortable or worse, sick.  This will affecting the eggs that they lay so make sure the chicken house is properly insulated.  Even if you live in a warm climate, basic insulation will still be needed.

Error #3 – Not Putting the Water and Feeders in the Correct Place - While a small chicken house might not pose too much of an issue, a larger chicken house should have their water and feeders centrally located.  You might want to consider multiple feeders so none of your chickens gets crowded out.  Finally, make sure they are at the correct height.  Typically, right around their back level will work best.

Error #4 – Forgetting a Light Source - Make sure to incorporate at least one window into the chicken house.  This is an excellent source of natural light and will be cheaper than running electricilty into the chicken house.  Windows will also increase the ventilation as well.

Making sure to avoid these costly errors will insure a better built chicken house.  Failure to consider them now can and will cost more later.

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