Plans for Building Easy Chicken Coops and Henhouses and Filling Them with the Right Chicken Breeds

Do you want to raise chickens so it is relaxing and enjoyable and done easily? Helpful tips and experience save you time and hard work. Years of experience raising hundreds of Heritage and Rare breed chickens has helped us learn quickly, the hard way!

If you want to find the best ways to get started and continue with the hobby, share our time and labour saving resources! Get started building your henhouses and choosing the right breed. Improve the efficiency of your hobby now. We will help save people making the mistakes we have made and keep chicken raising fun!

Build Great Henhouses helps you choose a simple design that's right for your location, chickens and budget.

They are easily built by non-handymen!

Full color step-by-step scale plans

• How to build large premium henhouses that are easy to clean, automatically collects eggs and allows you to maintain up to 50 laying hens
• The 6 critical things you must have before you even think about starting to build a henhouse
• Simple tips on how to set-up your building site and select your materials that will make building quick, easy and affordable.

Click here for Henhouses building info. With more information on getting started

There are some gorgeous ready made henhouses available online. Look for

• Waterproof draft-free henhouse designs with good ventilation
• Look for Predator-proof welded wire or hardware cloth runs
• Easy access for filling feed and water and cleaning coop
• Ease of egg collection and access to chickens for treats
• Suitable for your weather extremes, deep snow or desert heat
• Light and easy to move henhouse if portable
• Minimum 6 foot tall entrance for access if permanent henhouses-your back will thank you!
• Good sized easy access nesting boxes, ideally 1 per 4 hens

Your choice depends on likes, preferences and what you want the poultry for. A suitable breed makes your life easier. Care is straightforward & less expensive if you plan for your weather extremes too. A slower moving docile breed may need less space than a more active breed.

Some breeds and strains of breeds are friendlier than others, or lay more eggs or put weight on faster. The breeder providing your chickens or chicks or fertile eggs can tell you their strains qualities and what to expect.

• Eggs or Meat or Both?
• Efficient year round or Less production & longer life?
• Green, Blue, Olive, Pink, Tinted, White, Speckly, Light or Chocolate Brown Eggs?
• Fast grown commercial meat or raise your own chicks,?
• Kid-friendly and docile or hard for predators to catch?
• Tolerance to extreme weather or is climate controlled?
  
• Low maintenance birds or fancy feathered crested?
  
• Free range foragers or enclosed run?
  
• What colours do you like?
  
• Preserve Rare heritage breeds or cheap easy to find hybrids?
• Show your birds at the fair?
  

Here are the two best websites for anyone looking to choose a breed!

Hendersons Breed Chart
It's a huge table of most of the breeds, easy to compare for cold hardiness, laying egg size, temperament

Feathersite
Has descriptions of breeds but the photos are spectacular-see what a breed looks like in reality

Also the Storeys Guide to Poultry Breeds Book is excellent and has helped us a lot.  Ask if you have questions.  We have had over 35 breeds here and can compare them for you.