If you’ve taken an interest in chicken-raising, either as a hobby or a way to acquire eggs and chicken meat without having to buy them from the grocery store, housing your new birds will be one of the first things you want to tackle. The standard for housing poultry is to build them a comfortable chicken coop to live in. Of course, how you construct it will vary depending on your specific scenario, how many chickens you plan on keeping, what kind of area you live in, and so forth.

Regardless, there are some aspects of chicken coop designs that are identical no matter the circumstances.

Make sure your birds have enough living space. Inside the coop, you’ll want to give them at least 4 square feet each in total area. This means if you have 5 chickens, you need to have at least 20 square feet of room for them to live comfortably in the coop.

Make sure you leave room in the plan to attach a chicken run outside the coop itself. Chickens need 10 square feet each to walk around in, otherwise they will feel cramped.

A few other things you want to include, regardless of your chicken coop designs are adequate ventilation and predator protection. There are many animals which prey on poultry, from foxes and hawks to wolves, wild dogs, and even wild cats. Without all this to worry about, your birds will feel much safer and thus, will be much more productive and healthy.