How do you build a chicken coop

If you stumbled upon this article, there’s a high chance that you’re new to raising chickens and looking to build a chicken coop by yourself. Not buying a pre-fabricated one.

That’s great. For most people with basic woodworking skill, building a chicken coop isn’t really that hard.

You just need a detailed plan to build one.

This is extremely important especially if you don’t have any experience in building something like this before.

There are a lot of free chicken coop plans on the internet. In fact, BackyardChicken alone (one of the biggest online chicken owner communities) has more than 3,000 of them, submitted by the members.

But, the problem is, not all of them are good enough to follow.

While I’m browsing the collection a few weeks ago, among those 3,000 ideas only 10% of them are realistically can be built by beginners. Most of them are either too hard to build or don’t have detailed plans.

That’s why I created this article.

I gathered 61 of the best-looking, easiest-to-build, or the cheapest chicken coop plan available so YOU too can build it by yourself.

Before we start to the free plans, it’s important to know what makes a good chicken coop. A coop isn’t just a shelter, it’s a house where your chickens live. Just like a human’s house, the happiness and healthiness of your chickens highly influenced by the coop.

That’s why it’s important to know these things before you build one.

I’ll keep it short, but if you want to skip to the first free plan, click the button:

As a general rule of thumb, one chicken needs 3-4 square feet of space of coop. So if you’re planning to have 3, then you’ll need 12 square foot coop (3×4, 6×2, or bigger).

However, if you plan to coop them all the time, you need at least 10 feet each.

If the space is too small, your chickens will not be happy. The coop will get smelly real fast, your chicken will be stressed out, they will start pecking each other, they will get sick, and eventually, die.

You can technically provide less than 3 square feet per chicken, BUT they must be outdoors most of the time.

For smaller bantam breeds, you’ll only need 2 square feet instead of 4.

Pro tip: Don’t decide a location right away, monitor the area for at least one week to make sure there’s no major problem.

Your coop isn’t just a wall and roof to protect your chickens, there are things on the inside (and outside) to keep your chickens alive and healthy. Here are a few important things to plan.

That’s the basic, but not everything. I can’t go too in-depth in this article, otherwise, the whole page would become too long.

And that’s all you need to know…now you’re ready to build a chicken coop.

1. Urban Chicken Coop

This raised chicken coop is perfect if you don’t have a big area or if you’re not raising too many chickens in your flock. You can see by the image that while it’s beautiful, it seems really easy to build. Well, it is! The best thing about this one is that Lynda included a well-designed infographics on how to build the coop.

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6.Trictle’s Chicken Coop

Look at that cute little chicken house. You don’t have to worry of your flock getting cold in the winter, you don’t have to give it additional heater, this coop will give your chickens enough heat by itself. By the way, it’s raised from the ground. That means extra protection from predators, safe from flooding, and cooler on the summer.

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8. My6Chick’s Chicken Coop

It has removable roosts, door sweep, electricity for heated water feeder, lights, IR Chick-cam, and good ventilation. Basically, everything you need (and want) in a coop. This chicken coop can be attached to a run, although the plan for the run itself is not included here.

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9. Pallet Palace Chicken Coop

Pallets are like treasures for homesteaders, it’s often free and you can build anything with it. If you can get pallets easily (which it is) then you might be able to build this coop for almost $0, no cost (other than the optional paint job). The size of Pallet Palace is rather big, but you can easily adjust it by the number of pallets if you don’t have too many chickens.

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10. Easy Chicken Coop

The name doesn’t lie, it does look easy. The guys at MyOutdoorPlans said that you can build this coop in just one day even if you haven’t built anything before. By the way, they have a plan for nesting box too.

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11. Judy’s Free Pallet Chicken Coop

Another chicken coop made of pallets that you can possibly build for free. Judy said that she saved about $1,000 in lumbers by using pallets. The difference between Judy’s plan and Pallet Palace is that Judy disassembled it first before using the pallet for materials. Extra work, but the result is better than if you don’t disassemble it.

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13.Wire Spools Chicken Coop

This one has a unique shape…but not only that. While it’s not the most beautiful-looking coop, it’s free to build (well, almost) and it doesn’t take much space. I mean, look at the image, it’s vertical unlike the other plans in this article. One thing, though. This coop is originally made for bantam breeds. However, if you want to, you can make it a little bit wider. And you shouldn’t keep the chickens inside for the whole day.

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14. Chicken Coop Plans by Home Depot

There’s no way you don’t know who Home Depot is, they’re the pros when in comes to home improvement. In this chicken coop plan, they listed every material needed and how to buy them (from their own store, obviously). They even made a two part videos just so you can understand it better.

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15. Farmer Kitty’s Coop

If you want a chicken coop that can literally be built in a few hours, this one’s for you. The owner of this coop, Farmer Kitty (it’s his/her username on BYC), is raising chickens but only for a few months in a year. That’s why she/he built this super simple chicken coop because building a complicated and expensive one would be a waste.

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16. Shed Chicken Coop

Ana created this chicken coop plan for his friend, Whitney, who managed to build it in 30 hours in 4 days with only 3 people working on it. In this post, Ana listed every tool, material (and the size), and the 3D SketchUp pictures that you’ll need to build the coop.

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18. PVC Chicken Coop

Think about it, PVC is inexpensive, durable, and easy to assemble. It’s a perfect alternative to woods as material for chicken coop structures. You don’t have to cut or nail anything if you’re building a coop with this plan. When you’ve downloaded the PDF files from this site (there are 3 designs) you’ll realize that it’s really easy to build.

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20. Kevin’s Chicken Tractor

If you don’t know yet, a chicken tractor is basically a portable chicken coop that can be moved easily around your yard. Why build a portable instead of permanent coop? There are 2 reasons for this. The first one is because chickens are good for your garden, they produce natural fertilizer, and they eat pests and weeds. Second, if they stay too long on one place, that area will become smelly.

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21. The Kerr Center Chicken Tractor

Another chicken tractor plan, this time from The Kerr Center. It’s bigger than the previous one and the shelter is raised from the ground. Although this is a portable tractor, you can also use it as a permanent coop.

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22. Robb’s Backyard Chicken Coop

One of the most popular chicken coop plans in Instructables with over 500 favorites and 700,000 views. Robb said the design was inspired by some barns in Kansas. It looks really easy to build and only costs about $40. By the way, Robb shared some of his knowledge about chicken and coop on this page, make sure to read it even if you’re not interested in the design.

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23. Melissa’s DIY Chicken Coop

Judging by the design alone, this may not the best out of all I’ve listed above. But this one is the true DIY. Melissa — who didn’t have any experience in constructions at all — builds (almost) all of this by herself, his husband only helped her with the roof. Anyway, I can’t include the picture but there’s actually a hinge on the roof. It can be opened like a door so you can clean the inside easily.

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24. Large Chicken Coop Design

The overall dimensions are 8×12, with 4×8 for the shelter. This is perfect if you want to raise more than 10 heavy layers without them getting cramped. I can imagine if I were a chicken, I’d be happy to live here for the rest of my life.

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25. Simplistic Chicken Coop

For people who are serious about raising chickens, they’ll have no problem building large, complicated, expensive coop. But what if you just want to raise 2 or 3 just to save a little money on eggs and meats? Building those large coops would be a huge waste. This Simplistic Chicken Coop is for you. It requires very little money, time, and skill to build, but it’s strong and weather-proof.

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26. The Feather Factory Chicken Coop

It’s large, it’s beautiful, it’s secure, it has proper ventilation. It may be a little expensive but if you build this coop, you won’t have to build another one for years so it worth the investment. You may want to increase or decrease the size, but the creator of this plan has already optimized it so there will be no waste (in material and money).

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28. Downeast Thunder Farm Chicken Coop

Personally, if I were to choose one, this might be the one I’d build. The design isn’t too simple, but not unnecessarily complicated. On top of that, I prefer a wide rectangle coop instead of square because it’s more efficient. The chickens will spend most of their time outside anyway.

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29. A-Frame Chicken Coop

Another chicken coop plans by Ana White. This time, it’s a portable chicken tractor. For a chicken tractor, this design is the most efficient in weight-space ratio. Your chickens still have comfortable vertical space, yet it’s not too heavy to lift and move.

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31. Minimal Cost Chicken Coop

Now imagine if you have more than 10 heavy breed chickens, and you need a coop for them. This would easily cost you over $1000 just to build the coop. Well, fortunately, there’s a way to build a beautiful large coop with just $600.

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33. DIY Small Backyard Chicken Coop

This chicken coop — just like its name — is small and easy to set up. They even included 2-part videos explaining step by step on how to build it. The guy on this website said that it can hold up to 4 chickens, but I don’t recommend you to keep more than 2.

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35. M101 Chicken Coop

If you love chickens (I mean really love chickens) then you’ll definitely want to consider a larger coop.

And if that is the case, then you’ll want to give this one a glance. The actual coop is off the ground for better predator protection. Plus, it has a large run as well.

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36. The Free and Easy Chicken Coop

Are you on a budget and have limited supplies or carpentry skills? Don’t fret. You can still have a fully functional chicken coop.

So you’ll only need 3 pallets, a few tools, and something that will work for a nesting box. Then your girls will be ready.

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38. The Stoop Coop

This coop is actually very brilliant. If you don’t have a lot of room to dedicate to your chickens (or their coop), then you might need to get creative.

Well, in this instance, the builder combined the chicken coop with a set of steps that they needed around their property.

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43. The Crib Coop

If you have an old baby crib don’t throw it out. Instead cover the inside with chicken wire and apply a nice roof.

But don’t forget the opening for the birds and one for you to clean the coop out. The guess what? You have a very inexpensive and functional chicken coop.

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44. The Trampoline Chicken Coop

I’ve seen this before, but I always find it fascinating how people take items that they have quit using and make them into something that functions so well.

So you’ll have a great tutorial to help you along with this coop, but you basically build a small roosting area for your birds. Then the trampoline is enclosed and made into a good sized run.

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46. Another Ana White Coop

But when I saw this coop, I knew it would be a good one to share. She always gives thorough instructions and materials lists to get you started.

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50. The Custom Wood Chicken Coop

I really like the way this chicken coop looks. It seems very functional and clean in appearance.

But it is also a blank canvas. You can decorate it anyway you want so it can stand out or blend in as much as you desire for it too.

51. From Playhouse to Hen House

Do you have an old play house hanging around your house that you’ve never thrown away? Don’t do it now.

Instead, transform it (with this tutorial’s help) into the perfect hen house. That way you save money and give your girls a happy home.

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52. The Simple Coop That Works

This is more of an idea of what you can do to build a chicken coop. They took a small shed and transformed it into a smaller coop.

But it has everything your hens would need from roosting bars to nesting boxes. It also looks very inviting.

53. The Rustic/Whimsical Coop

This coop is so cool looking. It is a raised coop that is tucked neatly against the side of a house. The chickens free range as there is no attached run.

But you could always add one if desired. Other than that, they used a rustic tin roof and gave the hens a perfect country home.

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54. The Well Protected Coop

Then all you have to do is build a large enclosure and secure it with chicken wire and safe latches so no predators can get into your coop.

55. The Raised Wooden Pallet Coop

This coop is made from pallets so therefore it couldn’t be very expensive to build. It also is designed well so it appears it would function as most people would desire a coop to.

So if you are on a budget and need a functional coop, you might want to consider following this tutorial and building one similar to this.

56. The Palace Redone

There is a building plan for a palace chicken coop listed above. This palace is a little different though. They went above and beyond to make it a quaint design. So if you’d like to have a clean looking chicken coop with lots of character, then you might want to consider the way this chicken coop was finished.

57. Chicken Condo

This chicken condo is as cute as it can be. They break the build down for you so you can see how it is constructed as well. Hopefully, it’ll make the process a little easier. But this coop also has a run attached to it and a good number of nesting boxes as well. So if you are looking for a functional coop that will catch the eye, then this could be it.

58. Saltbox Coop

This chicken coop looks to be a manlier version of the chicken condo. It is made of solid wood and also has the upgrade of being able to collect eggs without entering the coop. But this coop also has a nice place on top so you can grow fresh herbs or lettuce for your birds as well.

59. Chicken Coop with Planter

This coop is a smaller version of the one mentioned above. It has been painted as well to add a little flare to the coop. But though it is a smaller coop, it still has room to grow fresh herbs and lettuce right on the roof of the coop.

60. The Small Modern Coop

This little coop is a bright addition to any yard. It would only hold a couple of hens, but it would fit well in many small backyards. Plus, it has the nice addition of being able to grow food right on top of your coop as well. So if you want something smaller but modern, this coop could be it.

How do you build a good chicken coop?

What do you put in the bottom of a chicken coop?