Hen House Plans
Are you planning on raising hens?
Is this your first attempt?
Then I’ll bet you have a lot of questions that you need answers to!
The very first thing you will need is a good set of hen house plans.
The decision to rear hens can be very satisfying for you and your family, but in order to be successful you have to make sure you have the right hen house plans that will suit you, your chickens, your environment and your needs.
There are some important things that you will really need to keep in mind when choosing hen house plans to make sure that it is going to be the best coop for you, your family, and your chickens.
Space
You want to make sure that you have enough space for your hens. You might think that you are only going to have one or two chickens, but if experience has taught me anything, it’s that you are likely to want to expand much quicker than you expected.
So you need to make sure that your hen house plans include the construction of a coop that leaves room for expansion of your flock. You can of course, expand further later down the track by adding another chicken coop and run and joining it with the old one and merging the flocks!
Safety
You also need to ensure that the hen house plans that you choose have all the safety measures in place that will protect your chickens from both the weather and predators. This includes having some type of mesh or wire over any windows and a fence that goes into the ground to prevent any creatures getting inside the coop by burrowing.
Purpose
Before you look at any hen house plans you need to decide what your intention is in raising chickens. There is a difference between having them just as pets, and having them to be large producers of eggs. If you want them to lay lots of eggs then you need to make sure that the plans include a large nesting area and nest boxes that are suitable to your climate.
Materials
You should also make sure that any hen house plans that you look at include an extensive list of materials that you will need – including any hardware you will need – a cut list, easy to read diagrams and measurements.
Instructions
You also need to have in the plans information for laying the foundation for the coop, step by step, easy to follow building instructions and roof plan and rafter details. If you are lacking any of these elements in your plan you might find you get stuck or trapped mid construction! That would be a real shame.
Free?
There are a large number of hen house plans out there and you should keep in mind that while the free chicken coop plans might seem like a great idea at first, they often leave out some important elements in the building stages.
Building Materials
Whilst being thrifty is great, as is recycling when you are considering the building materials and plans for the chicken coops, keep in mind that there are some materials that are not appropriate.
Low grade wood or MDF board are not suitable. You need to have wood that is structurally sound, strong and resistant to water and moisture. Otherwise you will find you will be building a new structure before the season is out.
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