A chicken coop also known as chicken house or chicken shack and is a construction where chickens are kept and raised. Building a chicken coop all by yourself is quite a great experience and very pleasing. This is neither very easy nor very hard task. You will find yourself stumbling on problems along the way of build the coop but these problems are not that hard to solve. Most of the chicken coops are made of wood, chicken wire and straw. All of these materials are inexpensive and available in local hardware shops. Certain things should be kept in mind before building your own chicken coop such as the correct place for the coop, giving your chickens sufficient space headroom space, and dealing with the danger of the predators that might cause harm to your chickens. Making the right choice to deal with these features will help you to build a better and safe coop for your cute little chickens.
Where to have the coop
First of all, the placement problem may come to your mind. You may be a bit confused about where you should place it, whether to hang it or place it on the ground. But the interesting part is the placement is not that important. You can place it anywhere. You can hang them on walls or can keep them on the floor (if the coop is a small one). Either way it would be same. And there are no special advantages or disadvantages for any of these. Wherever you keep it, your coops should have windows and doors for ventilation as prolonged dampness can cause harm to your coop.
Height of the coop
As mentioned earlier, the next problem would be about headroom space. How much headroom should be given for your chickens? You are the one who can answer this question. For that you have to decide what type of chicken you want to raise. Generally battery chicken coops are of 16 to 18 inches high. It is the general height of the chicken coops for raising normal size chickens. But if you want to raise roosters as well then your coop needs to be higher than coops needed for normal chickens.
Safety to the chicken
If you want to place your coop outside your house then you have to conscious about their safety. Threats like raccoons and possums should be considered with great importance. They are not a matter of concern during the day time but night time scenario is entirely different. At night your chickens are really in a vulnerable condition because of these predators. You can think of chicken wires as a solution to this problem, but the fact is chicken wire is only effective to use for keeping your chicken in, this will not help you to keep the predators out.
The best solution to this problem is to use welded wire fencing which should be at least 3 feet high on top and 1½ feet on the ground. Otherwise it won't be able to save your chickens from the predators that can dig. You can also build a mobile chicken coop to solve this problem.
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