Nowadays more people are returning back to the land to help support their families.  For many, one of their fondest memories is the old hen house in the back yard.  The idea of fresh eggs from your own hen house for breakfast is tantalizing.  However before you can kick back and enjoy these glorious eggs you need to know how to build a chicken pen and house. 

There are plenty of methods to build a chicken pen and house and many different ideas with no 2 are similar.  Many factors must be considered before setting out to design your hen house.  Maybe the most significant factor to consider is how many chickens you intend to have.  This correlates directly to the dimensions of both the hen house and the chicken run you’ll need to have. 

You also must decide what your most important goal in raising chickens is, are you planning on raising your chickens essentially for their eggs or are you raising them as a source of meat for the table?  You need to take under consideration that they will need somewhere that they can roost and lay their eggs when you build a chicken pen.  Your hen house plans must take under consideration that laying hens need roughly 1.5 square feet each of space inside the henhouse. 

When it is time to plan your outside run remember again that each sort of chicken has different space wants a laying hen needs about 8 sq.  feet, whereas a large chicken wants closer to 10 feet of space.  This much space is needed in order for them to get enough room to exercise and to lower the risk of your hens and chickens fighting one another causing injury or possibly death, all of this must be taken into consideration when you build a chicken pen. 

When you build a chicken pen you need to design it in such a way that your chickens can seek shelter from the elements and provide them with places they can shelter from both the sun and the rain to keep them healthy year round and you well supplied with fresh eggs.

There is plenty of data out there that can help you on Chicken Coops Plans. More info at Building Chicken Coops.