How to Make a Large Chicken Coop: Try This Easy DIY Tutorial!

If you’re a person who loves to grow his livestock, be it for consumption or business, you’ll need to have the complete equipment. Livestock such as pigs, cows, and chickens are like your average pet that needs a lot of special attention in how they grow.

If you’re a breeder of chickens, a large chicken coop is probably the most important thing that you should immediately provide. Chickens without coops are not likely to grow into healthy birds.

The good news is you don’t have to spend a lot to get one because you can make a coop at home which we will learn today!

What You’ll Need

• Lumber
• Measuring tape
• Saw
• Markers
• Chicken wire
• Plywood
• Hinges
• Watering device for chickens
• Nails and screws

Steps That You Need to Follow

Step 1: Decide the size of the coop

Chickens may not look like it, but they can be sensitive to their environment. Moreover, chickens can get stressed quickly.

Chickens will express their stress by getting into fights with their neighbors through pecking. Eventually, this will cause

So if you’re working with a large number of chickens, it’s important to give them their personal space. One chicken needs 3-5 square feet of space in their coop. So get your measuring tape the moment you start working because this is a vital tool.

However, there’s an additional reminder that you must take note of. Foremost, the size of your coop will depend on how you plan to raise your chickens. If you intend them to be cooped all the time, then you would need to extend the size of the coops to 10 feet.

On the other hand, chickens that are always outdoors can get by with a coop that’s only around 3 square feet.

Step 2: Find the perfect location

When it comes to finding the optimal location, you must consider factors such as the availability of sunshine as well as the presence of noise.

Again, the health of chickens is significantly affected by what’s around them. Building a coop that’s near a busy street full of noise and pollution would be bad for these birds. Thus, try to find a place that is peaceful without much presence of other people.

Also, find a good spot that’s very windy and chilly. Your chickens prefer a balanced climate so make sure that they don’t stay at places too cold or too hot. A spot with good exposure from sunlight and shade throughout the day is an ideal choice.

Step 3: Build the frame

Similar to any building, chicken coops should start out with a rectangular frame that’s supported by four pillars.

Grab your wood and start sawing it to your desired measurements. Standard measurements of chicken coops are 4x8, 6x12, 8x16. If you’re targeting to make a large coop, go for the 8x16.

As for the pillars of the coop, keep in mind that the rear pillars should be shorter than the front ones. This will make way for that pitched roof that you will install later on.

Finally, you’d need to add another pillar near a pillar on the frame’s front end. The post should have the same measurements as with the existing pillar. This will be the starting point of the gate that will enclose the coop.

Step 4: Construct the gate

You can now build the gate after securing the frame in place. Starting with the post that we just screwed or nailed at the right corner, attach another bar of wood to join the two pillars together. This should be attached horizontally, making an “H” shape.

Once that’s done, you can start making a gate. There are a lot of ways to build a gate for a chicken coop, but a simple one just needs a sheet of wood to form a rectangular shape. Attach the gate to the joined pillars by using hinges to screw it in place.

Step 5: Making the Flooring

Once the gate is in place, turn over your work so that it won’t be upside down anymore. This means that the pillars that were sticking upwards must be planted to the ground. Try to dig holes in your backyard or apply concrete to keep the pillars in place.

Now, if the gate is on your left, the enclosed area of the coop must be at the right part of the frame, vice versa.

To start with the flooring, measure the appropriate space that you would need for your chickens by drawing it up on a sheet of wood. This sheet of wood will be used for the flooring.

The flooring would take half of the entire rectangular frame. It will be ½ wood and ½ chicken wire. The chicken wire flooring will be used in connection with the roosting bar that we will put later.

Saw the sheet of wood once you’ve decided. Remember, it’s supposed to be only half of the width of the frame. Align it to the frame and mark its measurements. Using these marks, attach two posts again on the front and rear frame.

From the base going up, give at least 10 inches of allowance to elevate the flooring from the ground. Nail the bars of wood again to connect the pillars to form an inner cube in the rectangular frame.

Once in place, you can now nail the wooden flooring and install the other half made from chicken wires. To make the floor sturdy, nail horizontal bars of wood beneath the flooring (both the wood flooring and chicken wire) to support it.

Step 6: Finish the Exterior

At this stage, you’re almost done with your chicken coop. All you have to do now is to add the roof, walls, and the little details that are common with a chicken coop.

For the roof, you can use a sheet of tin since it’s weatherproof. On the other hand, wood siding would suffice for the wall that will separate the nesting area and roosting area.

However, before we enclose it with roof and walls, be sure to add watering devices, nest boxes, and a roosting bar inside the cube. All these must be located within the flooring that you did earlier.

Once all of these are in place, you can now attach the roof. The walls are a little trickier. You’ll need four sheets of wood to enclose the cube. However, three of these walls will be modified.

One wall would need to have a door (which is similar to the gate done earlier).

The other one would need a slit below where you can quickly clean the flooring, while the other one would need a doorway to connect the ramp that the chickens will use outside. You can do all these by referring to the techniques we did in the earlier stages.

As for the open area and the gate, enclose it with chicken wires.

Wrapping it Up

These are the basics of making a chicken coop. It’s no different from making a house with a backyard. However, the interior of it changes to cater to your chicken’s nesting and roosting.

Of course, you can still add a flavor of your own when building your coop. Just remember, always make the living conditions of your chicken as your priority!