Raising chickens in your yard can be a very rewarding pasttime, not only from the joy you will get for taking care of animals and making sure they stay healthy and happy, but because properly cared-for chickens will give you a steady supply of fresh eggs to eat. The best thing about those eggs is that you'll know for certain that they don't have any unnatural chemicals or byproducts in them, and that the hens which laid them were raised humanely, because you will have done the raising yourself. If you want to get started on this exciting and rewarding process, one of the first things you will want to think about is chicken housing.
The most common method is to use a chicken coop. You can buy these pre-constructed, but it's just as easy—and much cheaper—to build one yourself using a set of chicken coop plans. You can build coops to any size you wish, but make sure you leave enough space for all your birds when thinking about your chicken housing solution. Chickens need enough room to live comfortably, or their happiness and their health will suffer. That's bad, because it means your chickens may die, or at the very least it means that they will not lay as many eggs as they might otherwise be laying.
When building a place for your birds to live, make sure:
* There's enough space for them to be comfortable. In practical terms this means 4 square feet per bird within the coop, 10 square feet per bird in an outdoor chicken run, and 3 horizontal feet on any roosts you build in.
* That your chicken housing construction is predator-proof. Chickens, like other poultry, have plenty of natural predators. These range from hawks and other birds of prey to stray dogs, foxes, wild cats, and other mammals. Because of the wide variety of animals that like to eat chickens, it's important to ensure your birds' house is of sturdy construction and will not be easy for predators to get into. Don't use a wire mesh for the entire thing, because this will be unsafe and will make your chickens stressed out.
* That the chicken housing you build is well ventilated. Chickens' droppings are very noxious in enclosed spaces, as they off-gas ammonia and other deadly chemicals. Your birds will need clean fresh air to stay comfortable, and adequate ventilation will also help to ensure that they do not get sick from extremes of temperature. Windows with adjustable width are a good idea, as you can vary how open they are depending on the time of year.
Once you are sure that you've taken care of these problems in your search for chicken housing, the sky is the limit! You can make the outside of your coop or ark as decorative or as plain as you wish. You can even create portable houses for your birds, called arks or tractors. These can be helpful if you have a large yard and want your chickens to help you keep the grass trimmed. Greens such as grasses are a natural part of the diet of most poultry, so you will get free lawn care and free dietary supplements for your birds at the same time this way. However, if you live somewhere cold or with a lot of predators, more traditional coops may be best.
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