Chicken Houses / Coops

Chicken houses  (often called chicken coops) come in a variety of qualities, materials, shapes and sizes and there are many different variants to suit different circumstances.

Plastic Chicken Houses.

plastic chicken coopI haven’t ever tried a plastic chicken coop to be honest with you, although they are certainly a popular chicken house with many keepers. Omlet seem to be the leading supplier and they produce a number of different models and accessories. The size of run that the birds get is not that big so you need to consider letting your birds out regularly to free range. If this is difficult, you can easily move most of their coops around. The mesh is sturdy on their runs and there is a flap of mesh around the base that stops predators from getting in but remember the ground must be flat so as not to create a weak point.

Omlet make a range of different coops and associated accessories such as clip on feeders / drinkers that match the colour of their coops.

omlet-chicken-coopThe biggest advantage of their coops is that it can be cleaned out easily and there are fewer cracks and crevices so it’s harder for red mite to take up residence as they are washed away easily. The Omlet website sells a huge range of products for the chicken keeper.

Unless you have a very large run, you can end up running out of grass, especially in the winter but with an average sized lawn, and a movable run such as the runs supplied by Omlet, you should be able to provide your hens with fresh grass every week.

Eco Chicken Houses

Eco-chicken-house

A recycled Eco Chicken House

I have seen some sturdy recycled plastic ‘ECO’ chicken houses being sold that are made from recycled plastic (usually made from recycled farm waste) and in my opinion are a very well designed.

The plastic used in chicken houses is normally quite thick and the walls are bolted together securely or moulded in one piece.

Houses usually come flat packed so are both practical (for cleaning) and are certainly secure from predators such as foxes and badgers. Plastic houses also allow a large DIY run to be built around them or some come with optional fitted runs that can be extended (e.g. Omlet). Building your own run is of course time consuming but if done properly it can last a very long time and save you a good few hundred pounds.

Wooden Chicken Coops.

My one small bit of advice when buying a hen house: Always buy one a little bigger than you need! Hen house manufacturers will give you numbers of chickens that can be housed in a coop but you will find the hens usually need a little more space than this. They assume this is roosting space and you have a contented flock that are happy to roost together. Often this isn’t the case and you will find some chickens are at the bottom of the pecking order and don’t get the opportunity to roost.

For example, all of the hens want to roost on the one top perch or one hen is being pecked  so has to roost with a gap between her and the others or the hens need to stay in their house because of snow or you started with 3 chickens but you’ve been given another 2 by a friend and so on….  it’s so addictive keeping chickens you may want to buy a few more.  All of these reasons mean you’ll wish you had a slightly bigger house.

There is a good article on Cheap Chicken Coops on the Poultry Keeper website that looks for chicken houses below £200 that you might find worth reading.

chicken-houses

The ‘Devon’ a budget Chicken House

“…a good choice if you are on a limited budget…”

Some of the cheapest wooden hen houses are manufactured abroad, like this hen house shown to the right. This may be a good choice if you are on a limited budget or would like to ‘dip your toes’ into the World of Chicken keeping.

How Much Space?

Manufacturers usually give you a guide as to how many chickens a coop will take. This is usually roosting space in an ‘ideal’ world… At the cheaper end of the market, often these figures get exaggerated so use this as a guide for standard (hybrid size) chickens or bantams. Large breeds such as Orpingtons, or Wyandottes should have half as much space again.

Your chicken coop should have:

  • Floor Space: A minimum of 30 cm x 30cm (90 square cm) per bird floor area.  i.e. If you have a coop that is 90cm x 90cm, this could house a maximum of 9 medium chickens.  Do not include nest boxes in this measurement. This should be the inside floor area.
  • Perches: 4 to 5cm wide perches with rounded edges. At least 40cm long per large fowl and 30cm per medium hen (hybrid size) or bantam. Chickens like to sit down when they sleep and a fairly wide perch helps them balance when sleeping like this. They don’t take all of this perch space as they often huddle together but you do need the extra space to allow for gaps so birds lower in the pecking order can still roost away from other hens. e.g. in our example above three perches across a 90cm wide coop is suitable for (90cm x 3 perches / 30cm) = 9 medium hens or bantams, 6 large fowl. Some large breeds will not roost very high and can damage their legs or feet when jumping down from high perches so low perches 30 cm from the floor or a series of perches gaining in height like a sloping ladder is normally better for these breeds.
  • Nest boxes: should be provided below the height of the perches to ensure birds don’t roost in them and soil them. They should contain straw (not hay due to mould spores that can cause problems) or another suitable nesting material. Aim to provide one nest box for every four hens with a minimum of two nest boxes.

See further down the page for more information on perches and nest boxes.

Quality

The quality of a chicken coop is important. Generally speaking, the more you pay, the better quality you get, especially with wooden hen houses where the wood costs are the main ingredient. Higher quality chicken coops are made of solid, pressure treated 12mm tongue and groove boards that interlock with one another. Remember thin boards can mean weak doors if you are not careful that can be a problem if you have a determined fox.

Fittings should ideally be galvanised to stop them rusting. This is very easy to check, even when buying online – you can often tell, just by looking at a manufacturer’s pictures.

“Chicken Coops are the most expensive thing you will need to buy. If you buy a good quality house once, it will last a lifetime, it will also have a good resale value if you need to sell it.”

Lenham Chicken House

A high quality coop – The Lenham from Forsham Cottage Arks. Click the image to learn more!

A well known name in the UK is Forsham Cottage Arks. You may even recognise these coops from television shows such as Big Brother (some of the earlier series) and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s ‘Chicken Out‘ campaign that was on the television a few years ago. The house shown on the right is the famous ‘Lenham‘ – one of these was also presented by the Poultry Club of Great Britain to the late Queen Mother in celebration of her 100th Birthday back in 2000! These houses are made in the UK and are a good quality construction that is built to last. With a little care, these will last a lifetime. Omlet bought Forsham Cottage Arks in 2011 and now produce these chicken houses.

You can see the Lenham and a range of other houses on their website here where there are some better photos and further information.

Roof

In days gone by, chicken houses were often sold with a felt roof and the main wooden body of the house was treated with Creosote to weatherproof it. Red mite that live in the cracks of houses weren’t really a problem, however since Creosote was replaced with “Creosote Substitute” chicken keepers have been finding their coops full of red mites in the summer months.

Chicken Coop

A well built chicken coop. Good quality timber & fittings, easy access. The roof isn’t ideal having felt tiles which can harbour red mite.

So what has this got to do with the roof of the chicken house? Well, felt roofs are all very good until you find the red mite have gone underneath the felt where you can’t get to them and as a result, you cannot get rid of the red mites without removing the felt and starting again.

Ideally, you should be looking for a corrugated steel or an onduline roof to prevent this problem occurring. This also has the benefit of providing high level ventilation where the roof meets the wall. Some houses use tongue and groove (interlocking or overlapping) wooden roofs which are normally easy to clean with a hosepipe jet or pressure washer if there is a red mite problem.

Draft Free Ventilation

This is very important – Chickens can withstand the cold and are kept in temperatures as low as -20 in countries such as Canada, however, they need a dry, draft free house to sleep in that is well ventilated. Your coop should have some form of ventilation at high level and some sort of inlet at a lower level. They should not be perched next to an opening as it will be too drafty for them.

Chickens droppings release ammonia which needs to be removed from the house by having good ventilation. The heat from the droppings causes this to rise and with a vent at the bottom to bring in fresh air and a vent at the top to allow the ammonia filled air out, all should be fine.  Always point ventilation windows away from prevailing winds and close them up if there is wind blowing in through them because on nights like this, there will be sufficient ventilation through the gaps in the wood.

The real test is to put your head into the coop in the morning before letting the chickens out to see if you can smell ammonia.

If there is too much ammonia in the air, your hens lungs and eyes can be damaged. Chickens are particularly susceptible to respiratory problems but this can also stress your hens and lower their immune systems… which in turn increases the chances of disease being picked up.

Nest Boxes

collecting-eggs

Collecting Eggs from a Nestbox

If you buy a chicken house then it should come already fitted out with nest boxes. These are usually added onto the side of wooden chicken houses with a lid to the outside so that you can lift it to collect your eggs. Remember that foxes are quite smart and can usually lift these lids so it is always best to have a latch on the lid that can be secured firmly.

Garden sheds or similar can also be adapted to house chickens and nest boxes can be added to the inside of the shed easily as there is usually more room. You can of course build your own nest boxes out of wood (15 inches square is usually a good dimension) and plastic inserts that allow eggs to ‘roll away’ out of the nest can be purchased too. An alternative solution is to buy some ready-made nest boxes. Some of these like the Chickbox are plastic and make it easy to remove red mite which can be a problem with the cracks around wooden boxes.

plastic-nestboxes

Plastic Nestboxes “The Chickbox”

The Chickbox has a roll away plastic tray built in which causes the eggs to roll into a safe area which keeps eggs clean and away from other hens feet when they come in afterwards lay. To collect your eggs, you have to lift the landing perch and then lift the little clear plastic lid. The Chickboxes can clip together side by side to form groups of nestboxes if you need more than one.

Perches

Perches should be sturdy and allow a hen to wrap her toes around the edges. The corners should be smooth to help her do this. The most important thing is they should be higher than the nest boxes are to ensure the hens use the perches at night and not the nest boxes. If they use the nest box, it will need cleaning every day – chicken muck where they lay eggs is not good! See “How Much Space?” further up this page for the dimensions.

Cleaning

choosing a hen house for easy cleaningAfter some use, you will need to wash the chicken house out using a detergent like poultry shield. This helps to remove organic matter (or chicken muck) and also helps to keep red mite under control which can be prolific during the warmer summer months (usually between May and October).

Ideally, you want a coop that has easy access for cleaning and has as many removable parts as possible – droppings boards, perches and nest boxes should all ideally be removable so that you can clean your chickens’ house out more easily.

If you can’t get easy access, you will struggle to clean it and are more likely to regret your purchase later on…

Check List:

  • The wood thickness and whether it is pressure treated.
  • The fittings are galvanised.
  • There is easy access for cleaning
  • Avoid a felt roof if you can
  • Ensure there is adequate ventilation
  • Check that perches are higher than nest boxes
  • There are ideally removable perches, droppings boards and nest boxes

There are of course hundreds of suppliers of chicken houses of varying quality. One I would recommend that provides  practical, high quality houses is Omlet – they stock the famous plastic chicken coops, but also produce the high quality Forsham Cottage Arks wooden coops and arks. The Forsham Cottage Arks range are hand built in the UK, are practical and will certainly last a lifetime and will have good resale value in many years to come.

319 Comments

  1. Hi, I have just brough a flatpack henhouse, I want to make sure it is well preserved so my plan was to paint all the internal parts (nesting box etc) with an external gloss paint to seal the wood and reduce the number of places that Mites can hiden and ease cleaning. I also have access to traditional creosote so was going to paint all the external parts with this. Is there likely to be any problems using this. I also don’t have the largest garden, i was going to dig down 1ft and build a small single skin brick wall, I will then backfill with screen compacted top soil, and then fill with 10-20mm round pea gravel. I will then screw the Run/Coop onto the bricks which means that hopefully it will also last longer as it is not sat on Damp earth. The idea is that it will be easy to clean, give them something to scratch around on and I can put grass cuttings etc to keep it interesting. Does this sound like a goo approach to make a safe, interesting fox proof run.

    • Sounds good. A couple of tips though that I’m sure you have already considered:

      Animal friendly paint (you can always call the helpline number on the back of the tin if in doubt)

      Old Creosote was banned due to health risks (such as Cancer)… be careful and make sure in is dried and aired long before you put hens inside. I have used this on the inside to stop mite but only on perch ends and walls / cracks, nestboxes / floor. Not on perches where hens sit. The floor has shavings and the nest boxes straw of course so they are not coming into contact with the creosote.

  2. I recently discovered 4 chickens scratching around a fence-less front garden and out in the road. The garden resembled a scrapyard with cooker, bath, tv set, etc. and the neighbor said the chickens spent all their time out there. What are the minimum requirements for these birds and is the owner committing an offence?

  3. Could you tell me what type of flooring I would need to provide ?

    The coop would be placed on a paving flag surface would I need to put regular straw down and ‘muck out’ the coop area ?
    Would it be a good idea to put some sort of cheap liner out ?

    I am looking to get a coop big enough for 4 chickens and I will also purchase an extension for the coop to allow an extra few metres freedom during the day.

    Would this be acceptable?

    Thanks
    Andy

    • In the chicken house, you’ll want a wooden floor that can be scraped out. This should be raised off the floor to insulate it from the cold. The run should have wood chippings, sand or gravel that can be changed periodically. This will allow hens to scratch on what would otherwise be a solid floor.

  4. Would a coop need some light? would it be dangerous?
    How much shall the min temperature be at night in wintertime in the coop?
    Thanks
    Jonathan

    • Personally, I don’t use artificial light during Winter, I let my hens rest. If you are going to use it though, it is best to let the birds rest over most of winter and then start the light in Mid December. Keep the extra light constant at 14 hours until it is light at this time anyway in late spring when it can be finished. If you reduce the light at all, it will usually cause them to stop laying.

      There is not usually any need to heat the coop – chickens do survive in Canada at -20 degrees. Ensure it is draft free (but ventilated) and dry. Small specialist breeds like Seramas may need some extra care in the cold.

Leave a Reply to LynnCancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.