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Wednesday, July 21, 2010

How to Build a Hen House

By Janet Patrick

When it comes to deciding how to build a hen house there a plenty of different ideas depending on who you talk to and of course the type of birds you are planning to build the house for. Your hen house is a place for your hens to sleep at night and for them to seek shelter in case of inclement weather. Their hen house is also where the nesting boxes are for them to lay their eggs.

When looking at how to build a hen house you should first consider how many hens you are going to have as you should allow for 1.5 square feet of space for each hen inside the house. This will prevent overcrowding that can result not only in fights but reduced egg production. You will need to build one nesting box for every 4 to 5 hens so that are plenty of places for them to lay their eggs. Enough perches should be available to provide 6 to 10 inches of space for each bird.

Material selection is an important part of how to build a hen house. Wood is the ideal medium as it is easy to work with and does not take a lot of time to cut and assemble. With a little hard work you should be able to complete construction in one or two weekends. Your hen house needs to have plenty of ventilation to keep your hens from overheating in the summer and to keep the odors from building. A good window with chicken wire over it works fine.

Part of learning how to build a hen house is taking care of feeding your hens and supplying them with water. Your feeding tray should be designed so that it sits at about the same height as your hens' back, this will help keep the feed and trays clean. You should provide 2 to 3 inches of tray per bird for both feed and water to give them adequate room. A warm dry comfortable home will keep your birds healthy and supplying you with fresh eggs year round.

For expert and detailed step by step instruction on how to construct your own Chicken Coop visit How To Build A Hen House
Buying a Chicken Coop can be quite costly, and you can easily build one for a quarter of the cost of buying...plus you have the satisfaction of knowing that you did it yourself. Check out how to build it now at How To Build A Hen House