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I love chickens and I love raising them.
You want to have plans so that your baby chicks will grow in a healthy, safe environment. There are as many reasons families want to raise chickens as there are people. In our particular family, we were given a "gift" of about a dozen baby chicks one fine Easter morning. My first impression was, "holy cow, where are all these chickens going to sleep???" On the other hand, I also remembered that saying "if life hands you lemons, make lemonade." (I swear, no more quotes).
I was not thinking of eating the little chicks, but the thought of low-cost eggs sounded like a great idea to me. I thought about how fun it would be -- a nice family project to build a chicken house, and we would at least have some fresh eggs. This was a one-time investment, if done right, it will pay in fresh eggs for years. :-) So when you are looking for the best Chicken House Plans, consider these following steps in your plan.
The first step is to consider the location or placement of your chicken house. From there you can determine exactly what your size limitations are. One thing to be mindful about is that a basic 4 by 8 foot structure. This makes it easy on the materials sides because most plywood and other materials come in 4 x 8 foot sheets.

Second, you want to frame out a play area for the chicken house. You can accomplish this with nails or screws at the bottom of the four pieces. (You really should use screws that you can drive with an electric screwdriver. This makes it easy to take apart if you ever want to move your chicken house: simply unscrew and move the wood parts!) With this done, then you can attach two corner sections, each consisting of two pieces to make the respective corner)
After this framework is completed, you can attach your basic chicken wire to enclose the play area. Once your chicken house frame is done, you can begin with the actual house. You would probably want to consider if you are installing some sort of chicken house door, and if so, where the location would be. It's been our experience that if you put the door closer to the nesting area rather than in the front, it works a little bit better for your other tasks down the road. How you attach the door is going to be determined by what kind of door you would like. We had a door that opened toward the back of the nesting area that had a long piano hinge across the top, and the door opened by pulling the door up (toward the sky). Our door had a long wooden dowel added to prop in the "up" position so we could easily access inside the chicken house.
The next step is generally installing the roof. Plywood is perfect for this because it comes in 4 x 8 foot sheets, but check with your local lumbar yard for other material options in your area. Once the roof is up you can move forward with the nesting area of your chicken house.
Here, the size is going to depend on the number of chickens you want to raise. A basic 4 foot by 8 foot chicken house is probably enough room to raise 10 chickens. For our nesting area, we made two support from 4 foot sections attached on both sides of our frame to support the nesting box. With the support in place, you can build a basic nesting box out of plywood to place on this support system.

The nesting area usually goes near a back wall away frorm the front entrance (and near that door location for eeasy acces to the eggs. in the front, cut a small entrance door, like a small pet door, so your chickens have access to the play area.
When completed, you want to make sure you sand smooth all the edges and corners for the safety of your chickens. Finally, check to make sure that all sharp wooden edges and corners are sanded smooth and any chicken wire is cut or bent so will not harm your flock.
Ventilation and lighting are critical to your chicken's health and welfare. You may want to have open sides that can be closed with hinged doors made of plywood.This way, the doors can be opened and closed for ventilation during hot days, and closed at night for protection.
When it comes to chicken house floors, you have some options. Most folks use sawdust, but some farms and others have access to hay or use straw. Others even use sand at the bottom of their chicken house. Check in your local area (feed store or your vet) and ask what is best for your location and weather.

Having a solid chicken house will provide your chickens with a safe, healthy environment where they can grow and prosper. Our family enjoyed watching the chickens grow, and they took pride in the eggs that were collected for our breakfast table. Enjoy your flock of chickens, and make sure you consider these steps in your Chicken House Plans.

Author's Resource:

Millie has been raising chickens for too many years, but you can get more information at her site for Chicken House Plans.

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