If you’re looking for a very solid, stationary coop, take a look at this plan! This is a free chicken coop plan for 6 chickens, but COULD house more (we’ll expand more on that later). The way it’s currently designed, we would not recommend any more than six.
Technically, it’s 4×8 (4 feet by 8 feet) but, because the nest boxes are inset, it’s floor space is closer to 3×8. This totals 24 sf of space. With a 4sf per chicken space requirements, it totals 6 chickens. Math is not my strong suit but thankfully I can figure this out!
Essentially it breaks down like this: 3sf x 8sf =24sf total. 24sf/4sf = 6 chickens. The enclosed run below the coop is 4×8 so that will give them a fair amount of space to run around and do what chickens do – pick and scratch around.
More on coop space requirements and setting up your coop can be found in our guide.
This is a sweet coop design. It’s great if you live in wet climates since the external nest boxes are tucked under the eave of the roof, protecting the siding and nest box cover from getting drenched.
Also – because of it’s inset design, the seam where the nest box is attached to the framing is less likely to have water leaking into the boxes, which can be an issue with the nest boxes positioned on the outside.
Since we’re a site dedicated to free plans, we have been adding different links and free plans all the time, and plan to continue offering this to our readers. Some of the plans have great detail, others may be missing a few construction details. But we hope they all provide adequate instructions for making a killer cool coop!
More on building a coop, space requirements, etc., can be found here.
Below is the PDF for easy printing or downloading!
Chicken-Coop-Plans-Folder
Ideas For Possible Revisions
This is a lovely design for a coop and would look great in a back yard or anywhere for that matter. It’s very solid, as are most coops you make yourself! The plan provides a lot of detail for ease in building it and it will look and perform great as-is.
We decided to add a few thoughts of how the coop could be designed slightly differently. These are just ways to use the coop differently, maybe add more chickens, etc.
Enclosed Run Or Free Range?
Having the chickens contained to a 4×8 space in the yard (including the run) is appealing if you don’t want to have a large run attached, which can take up more space.
But if you would like to add more chickens, don’t add the enclosed hardware cloth run. If you are able to free range your chickens in the yard or pasture, you can house even more chickens since they’ll be roaming all day in the yard.
We have done that for many years and notice that the flock only comes in the coop to roost at night, to lay an egg, or grab a bite. Otherwise – they’re bug hunting and exploring!
By free ranging, you could hold up to 10 or more chickens, as long as you have an adequate amount of roost space in the coop. There are ample nest boxes in this design to accommodate those numbers.
Wheels?
If you don’t like the idea of free ranging your chickens, consider making the coop mobile by adding a wheel to each corner stilt. A pneumatic wheel that swivels would allow you to move the coop wherever you like!
The wheel pictured above is ideal, and can be attached more to each stilt. It could potentially make the coop look more bulky, but will make moving the coop much easier.
You can keep the enclosed hardware cloth run under the coop, and then reposition the coop every few days or so, enough so the flock has access to fresh grass and bugs once in awhile. Not only that, they’ll be fertilizing the lawn with each move!
Closing Thoughts
We hope this coop design will inspire you to build one for yourself, whether it be with this plan or another one. Raising chickens is fun and building or buying a solid coop is important.
If this plan doesn’t quite do it for you, then peruse through our site to find another one that does! Thanks for stopping by!
Happy ‘chickening’
