If you’d like to skip ahead to the chicken coop design plans I used, then click here.

Here’s a finished picture of what I accomplished:

Now, going into some of the factors that went along with my final decision:

1. Cost - I looked all over the internet from Amazon to Ebay and while I did find some coops, they all costed well into the THOUSANDS of dollars, not including shipping. If you’re like me and live overseas, then shipping is a very big concern. Did I also mention these coops can weigh a couple hundred pounds - that’s a small one, seriously.

2. Chicken Coop Design - I contacted a few different enthusiast as well as a local egg farmer I used to buy eggs from and they all gave me the same advice. Building your own coop that is custom built for your local/regional environment and area is so important. Buying a coop that is designed for another climate region won’t make your hens happy.

This was the biggest decision making factor, I wanted happy egg producing hens so I went with the Chicken Coop Plans here.

3. Scalability - As with all interests and passions, there comes a time when you want to scale up or down. I felt that starting off with an inexpensive, small chicken coop would be best for me since I am a novice planning to house about 4 chickens. I want to scale up in the future, so buying a larger coop is in thoughts and having plans to go from small, to medium, up to large is most logical.

Now I do want to stress that there are some options out there, but for most of us it just isn’t feasible in terms of cost and long-term savings. Now while I did find an excellent resource for chicken coop plans, I just didn’t to leave you folks out that may still be interested in buying a pre-made coop. The link below is to a company called Green Roof Chicken Coops which is just an excellent design.

Small, compact, and eco-friendly (the coop also has a planting box built in as the roof!) the Green Roof Chicken Coop is sure to be a great solution to those looking for a smaller sized chicken coop that can comfortable house about 4 hens.

If you’d like to see the Green Roof Chicken Coop then please click on this link Chicken Coop For Sale.

If you’d like to go ahead and purchase the plans I bought, and built my own personal coop from, then you want to click here.

Naturally, there are a great number of sites that offer chicken coop design plans which I thought would be helpful since they were free. Upon further inspection, almost every single plan was a complicated blueprint with no pictures or graphics of any kind. All they basically tell you is a list of materials, their measurements, and “good luck”. That was very unnerving, even more so when I saw a comment on one highly ranked site that said the instructions just sort of…came to an end in the middle of the project. The poor fellow had spent nearly $500 on lumber and materials, and mid-way through the project the plans just didn’t match up! Were these “plans” ever built/tested before they were published??

So I know that these free chicken house plans are very dicey at best. Luckily, I have found one solid source for plans (it is paid, but they have a solid guarantee policy - and it is cheap) and also another source for pre-assembled chicken coops. I don’t want to get too excited though, as a precaution I have sent a number of questions to the company to see what kind of customer service they offer. In fact, their website even offers Chicken Coop Kits with lumber and all materials…you just put it together.

Like I said, my main thing in finding a reliable chicken coop design is that it is accurate, trustworthy, and most of all easy for someone like me. When I hear back from the prospective chicken coop design companies, I will let you know my own personal opinion and which route I plan to take.

It’s no wonder that with those great benefits you may be in search of a chicken coop for sale, but you may find that it’s pretty difficult to find one! Believe it or not, I tried almost everywhere in my search for a small chicken coop. You’d think that a store like Home Depot or even Lowes may have at least a resource on a backyard chicken coop, but NOPE! I was left with no answers after leaving their store.

So the internet seemed like the next logical step so I decided to check there next. I tried a lot of search terms like “chicken coup” or “chicken houses” and I did find a lot of information. In fact, so much information that I nearly got buried in the avalanche. While there was a great deal of information from hobbyist and such…I still COULD NOT find a coop for sale that was within driving distance. Not too sure what rock or stone I haven’t looked under yet because it’s a pretty tough search.

Here is a short list of popular places I tried searching:

1. Craigslist - No luck there, not much “farmer” type things for sale in my area. Tried searching other cities but it too dizzying/confusing.
2. Ebay - They sold a “Kit” for $50 that only included screws and 2 wheels, what!? No lumber included. What kind of deal is that?
3. Amazon - I knew it’d be no luck, but I thought I’d try anyway.
4. Dozens of web results - My eyes began to hurt so I stopped looking. Once again I found a lot of pictures, stories, but nothing I could get started with.
5. Home Depot, Lowes, etc. - Was told they’d sell me the material, but they don’t special order or anything to do with chicken coops
6. Local classifieds - No luck, although I did see an outdoor table set at a good price.

Well, I’ll continue that search and we’ll see how it all comes along.

Thanks for reading!