Hen house plans - Build Your Own

Using a good set of hen house plans can make your building process fun and rewarding. Without a good set of plans you may end up with a pile of scrap wood that your hens may avoid like the plague. The small amount of money you spend on a good set of hen house plans can save you a considerable amount of time and aggravation.

Not all hen house plans are created equal, believe me I have a drawer full of plans I have never used. You want planes that are easy to follow and can be built with common readily available materials. You want to be able to purchase everything you need at your local hardware or home supply store.

Hen houses can be very simple or they can be multi-story hen house cities. Most of all you want your hens to be comfortable and happy. You will want some sort of heating device in cold weather. You will also want to use materials that are lasting and will withstand any type of weather. After all you do not want to build one of these every year.

In general you will want to have at least 2 square feet of space per hen. You'll also want to build nesting boxes inside your hen house. What about insulation and lady to keep your hens of the dark in long winter months ahead. Happy healthy hens will produce more eggs. If you have never had a Farm fresh egg before let me tell you you're really missing out. They are nothing like store-bought eggs.

Not only will your arm fresh eggs be better tasting than a will be organic and better for you. Another bonus is you will have a very good supply of fertilizer you can use in your garden or yard. Here are some other great tips you can use when deciding on which hen house plans would be right for you.


Build Your hen house for Easy Maintenance

When building your hen house who want to take into consideration how easy it is to maintain. Some people do not build their hen houses with ease of maintenance in mind, and suffer the consequences later on. But you can learn from there mistakes, and ensure that your hen house will be easy to clean in the future. One very important feature is to make sure the floor of the hen house is sloped downward toward the main door. When you wash the inside of the hen house, the water will automatically drain outside, instead of puddling in the middle.

Make sure you have Enough Space

Do not skimp on the size of your hen house. Chickens that live in undersized coops resort to abnormal pecking and even cannibalism. You do not want this! As a rule of thumb, you should allocate about 2 - 4 square feet per chicken. So if you have a coop holding 10 chickens, 40 square feet will be ample room for your happy hens to grow, feed, and produce.

Guarding Your hen house From Weather and Predators

It is important that you build your hen house with protection in mind. Both weather and predators can wreak havoc on your coop, so build it with these tips in mind.

Build the hen house on a high area with ample drainage and locate it facing the sun. In the event that it rains, this location will not only ensure that the coop does not get flooded, but that it dries quickly when the sun comes out.

Build your doors with proper strength mesh wire. Believe it or not, this step is one of the most common mistakes people make when building their coop. Without the proper strength, your mesh wire wil succumb to even the smallest of predators, allowing them easy access to your chickens.

So you can see there are quite a few different things to consider when deciding on which hen house plans to use. Using a set of free plans or an outdated set of hen house plans from your local library is not going to do the trick in my opinion. The plans I purchased were well worth the investment and made my building process so much easier. The result was a very professional looking hen house a fraction of the cost of what it would've cost me to buy one premade one or have one built.

Hen House Plans - Designing Your Hen House

Using a smart set of hen house plans will not only save you a lot of time and aggravation it will allow you to build a better longer lasting safe home for your hens. Building a house to keep your hens safe and comfy is vital if you plan to keep hens, thus you should start out with a sensible set of hen house plans. Your hens are going to provide you with a fresh supply of eggs and for them to do this they need a house that meets certain criteria. Oh course one of the primary things you should verify is your local laws as to  or not  be able to have a poultry house and where you'll find it one your property.

Your hen house plans ought to give you with detailed instructions for the development of the fundamental structure further as the dimensions. You'll would like a hen house that permits 1.five to two square feet of space for each hen that you are designing to keep. Inside your hen house you will would like to construct a series of nesting boxes for the hens to put their eggs in. Sometimes you would like to have one nesting box for each 4 to five hens.

Included in your hen house plans ought to be data on the sorts of materials that you'll want to make your chicken house. The wall can be made out of any kind of fabric however wood is the foremost common, whether or not you use sheets of wood like plywood or particle board the result is the same.  The roof want to be fairly robust and immune to the weather, a layer of plywood set on rafters makes a good start. Follow this with shingles abundant like those you utilize on your house for most weatherproofing.

A sensible set of hen house plans can conjointly tell you that you should take the time to insulate the inside of your chicken house. While hens are relatively resistant to the cold a very little insulation goes an extended means to helping them keep hotter within the winter. An electrical lightweight is crucial especially within the winter months it provides the extra light-weight they need on short winter days and helps provide a little heat on colder days. Warm hens are a lot happier and will keep you well equipped with eggs throughout the year.