Chicken House Plans
Constructing a comfortable chicken coop for your chicken entails paying close attention to the details in the building plans. Indeed constructing a chicken coop without adequate plans is a complete waste of money, time, building tools and materials. In your chicken house plans, make provision for the comfort of the chicken.
Make sure that you provide them with a spacious place to live in if you want them to be healthy. The least amount of space required for every chicken in a coop is about four square feet. Therefore, make out the number of chicken you plan to raise before constructing the chicken coop. Chicken house plans have never been that easy. It is quite easy to determine that for 30 chickens for instance you would need to build at least 120 square feet of chicken coop. It would not be bad if you are able to build more than the required space. The more space they have the more they are able to enjoy and produce better eggs. Never try to beat down cost by limiting the space allotted to each chicken. It could eventually work against you.
Again, in your chicken house plans, do not give room for the overcrowding of chicken. It rather leads to negative effects like diseases, pests and cannibalism. If your chickens do not get enough air then they would be exposed to all kinds of sicknesses and diseases. They could be very weak and die eventually. Construct a perch for your chicken. It would be very filthy to see chicken droppings mix up with the eggs. Ensure that you have boxes or any other type of containers under the perch to collect the droppings that come through. Similarly you could you could use broom handles to provide them a comfortable place to perch. It helps to keep the perch free from diseases.
Also your chicken coop should be well ventilated to prevent the chickens from sweating. Sweat promotes the development of diseases and ailments on the skin. Supply your chicken coop with small vents or windows to allow the sweat to evaporate. Indeed the best position for a window is one that does not face the direction of the wind. This position keeps stale air out and rather brings in fresher air.
Barring any unforeseen circumstances you should have a maximum of six chickens per nesting box. As much as possible the nesting boxes should be dark. This makes the chicken feel comfortable and relaxed. To prevent the eggs from cracks you could place straw shavings in the nesting boxes.
If you know how to design chicken house plans remember that the chicken coops should be strong to inhibit intruders. The wood used should be sturdy enough. Push your chicken after construction to see if it is really strong. If it shakes then you have not applied all the principles of how to design chicken house plans.