There is a great outline for an a-frame chicken coop in our How To Build A Chicken Coop article. For those of us who want to know how to build a chicken “house”, this one is for you! This much larger chicken coop requires a few more building materials than the smaller coop, and is a slightly trickier job. This article gives you a basic outline on how to build a chicken house, and shows you where to download an eBook containing highly detailed building instructions.

Chicken House Designs

There are 4 main chicken house designs: the mid-sized rectangular shaped coop, the double storey chicken house, the large chicken house design, and the traditional style hen house (all pictured below).

The Medium Chicken CoopThe Double Storey Chicken CoopThe Large Chicken HouseThe Premium Hen House

Naturally, all of these types of chicken houses have their respective advantages and disadvantages. Whilst the box coop is quite easy to build, it lacks quite a bit in the looks department. On the other hand, the hen house looks amazing, but will take time and effort to construct.

This article focuses on the mid-sized rectangular chicken house. Check out the How To Build A Hen House article for the other design.

Building Requirements

As was previously stated, the chicken house requires a few more building materials than the a-frame coop. Some of the more basic requirements are:

  • 4 long pieces of timber (for the frame – length)
  • 8 slightly shorter pieces of timber (for the frame – height)
  • 4 even shorter pieces of timber (for the frame – width)
  • Chicken wire (to enclose the frame)
  • Chipboard or plywood (for the nesting area)
  • Sawdust, straw, or sand (for the coop flooring).
  • Nails and other some other bits and pieces.

As you can see, there is still not many building materials involved. You can see a much more detailed materials list inside the “Building A Chicken Coop” eBook, which you can read about in the Chicken Coop Plans section of this site.

Step 1 – Constructing The Frame

Take the lengths of timber and nail them together, forming a rectangular shape. You can use the diagram below as a reference. Take note of where each length of timber goes. It’s essentially 3 pieces across on each side.

Step 2 – Applying The Chicken Wire

You’ll need quite a bit of chicken wire for this particular chicken coop design. You want to cut the wire so it covers the entire frame, even the nesting area at the end. You can use screws, pins, nails or other materials to attach the wire.

Step 3 – Setting Up The Nesting Area

This is perhaps the most important part of how to build a chicken house. The nesting area needs to be 100% predator proof, and highly protected from the elements. Use chipboard or plywood to enclose one end of the chicken house. Here you can setup nesting boxes and extra insulation. You can even build this area in a way so that you can collect eggs without having to go inside the actual chicken house.

This article explains how to build a chicken house in extremely simple terms. If you want a much more detailed explanation, complete with schematics, check out the eBook in the Chicken Coop Plans section of this website.