Several years ago, we decided to add a flock of laying hens to our farm & homestead here in Downeast Maine. The chickens needed a home, so I designed the chicken coop you see here. It has a footprint of 4 feet by 8 feet, so a standard sized sheet of plywood makes up the main floor surface without any cutting. The video I made shows a few steps during the original construction of the coop, and I built it right from the plans I drew in CAD.
This chicken coop will house up to a dozen hens, and our chickens have survived many brutal Maine winters where temperatures plummeted well below zero. The coop is also very sturdy, and has worked out well in preventing predators from getting at our hens.
Over the years, I made a few changes. The picture of the purple coop is how it looks now. The same coop in yellow is how it was first built.
Here are free plans for this coop you can download in a pdf file:
You’ll want to pay attention to the drawing details. Some people over the years have emailed me to say there was a mistake in the dimensions. No. There are no mistakes. Remember this coop was designed in CAD and so they are very accurate. In addition, I built this coop right from these very same drawings without changing any of the dimensions. If you think there is a mistake, go over the plans again (more carefully) before sending me an email.
