This is a simple yet large design. It’s a free 4×8 chicken coop plan for 10 chickens available in PDF. It features a lower design but still holds the same number of chickens as a walk-in style 4×8 coop. However, because there are fewer materials involved, it costs less to build.
You can house up to 16 or more chickens in this coop if you are free ranging your flock!
Moreover, the large lid on top is hinged on the back side to lift up. This allows for easy access to the nest boxes, cleaning, etc., all from the outside.
It can also be downloaded and/or printed. We personally like having the paper version when building things.
Alright then, enough chat already! Check out this free 4×8 chicken coop plan for 10 chickens PDF!
4×8-coop-shortPossible Changes
We like the design of this coop for it’s simplicity. However, there were a few things we spotted you may want to take into consideration when building it.
Keep in mind we are NOT carpenters or even pretend to be. After reviewing the plan, we tried to put ourselves in the place of the person building it to see if there were any ideas that may make it better.
Roof
The roof in this plan is plywood. This can work just fine as long as you use pressure treated or exterior grade plywood. Simply paint it the color you like and you should be good to go!
However, if you want to add roofing material over the top, that’s not a bad idea either. If you go this route, you can use OSB plywood for the roof (which is also cheaper), and then add whatever roofing material you like over top.
Popular choices are asphalt roofing liked rolled roofing or shingles, tin, stone, or cedar shakes. Just keep in mind this roof is pretty large as is at 4×8, so the more you add on top of the plywood increases that weight even more!
Also, you’ll need a board to prop under the lid to keep it open while working in the coop.
For more on setting up your coop, read this guide.
Roost
We noticed the roost is not included in this plan, so you’ll have to add one where you think will be be the best placement. Perhaps one long roost, about 8 feet, running across the length of the coop will suffice.
One simple idea is to place the roost around one foot (or more) in front of the nest boxes by adding two (2) twenty four inch 2×4’s attached under the nest boxes.
They’ll need to be positioned far enough in front of the nest boxes so when they roost on it, the droppings land on the floor and not in the boxes. Yuck! If you want information on a dropping board, read this article.
See diagram below:
Ventilation Window
The plan depicts a wire mesh material over the opening. There are many ideas that can be used here. Perhaps the simplest idea is to use a piece of hardware cloth or chicken wire and staple it over the opening from the inside.
You could also use a floor register and frame it in. These can often be purchased used at repurposed building supply stores.
Closing Thoughts
We hope this plan works great for you. If it’s not quite the design you’re looking for, look around at some of our other paid or free coop plans!
As fellow chickeneers, we love providing as much useful information as we can to help you in your chicken raising journey.
Thanks for stopping by. Happy “Chickening!”