50 DIY Chicken Coop Ideas You Can Try Right Now

There are so many perks to raising chickens, or any other domestic bird, at home. According to Stromberg's Chicks & Game Birds, people who raise backyard chickens have access to healthy straight-from-farm meat and eggs, enjoy backyard entertainment from their flock, and sustainable living. And if you happen to have a home garden, your cutesy funny courtyard birds can act as natural pest control, weed control, and a source of fertilizer for your plants.

But nothing good — including raising chickens — comes that easily. Beyond the necessity of commitment, people who are interested in raising these birds should be ready for the costs of buying chicks, feeding, bedding, cooping, and other miscellaneous expenses, per The Hen House Collection.

Speaking of kitchen coops, Almanac recently listed the features you need in order to build a sturdy, practical and secure one. According to them, you need roosting bars, electricity, cooping ventilation, secure latches, nesting boxes, secure doors, predator protection, coop flooring material, location, and a defined size for it. Anyway, in this post, we will reveal to you 50 DIY chicken coop ideas you can try right now to get you started on your little farmstead.

Engineer a dream-worthy residence for your domestic birds and watch them live like true royals. This gorgeous mansion-inspired hutch offers an under-deck playing space for your chickens while keeping them protected from potential predators and harsh weather conditions within an enclosed entry porch. The tricky part of this project is the setting of the angle of those stairs, but once you get it right, you'll be proud of your craft.

If you have shabby wooden pallets lying around, convert them into a spacious henhouse. This is a simple chicken coop idea for anyone who's pretty new to woodworking and also for those who want to raise a large brood of chickens easily. You can also buy used wooden pallets that are still in good shape from a charity store or use the internet to find free wooden pallets that are up for upcycling in your area.

This chicken house on wheels resembling a shepherd's hut makes lawn mowing an easy and effective process. It frees you from spending hard-earned money on special weeding tools needed to reach tight spots around and within a henhouse. Instead, all you have to do is push the wheeled structure to a mowed area whenever you need to cut the grass around it. Yes, that's right! Make life easier for yourself.

Do you have an old beat-up cabinet that's now out of use or too old to refurbish and place in your house? In that case, you can turn it into a mini chicken coop using a simple upcycling process. You mostly want to repair whatever damage it has, which typically means filling in the cracks and replacing broken parts, building windows and doors into it, and finally spruce it up with a paint of your choice.

This is another beginner-friendly chicken coop project for new woodworkers and hobbyists who barely started trying their hands at the craft. It is also a minimalist idea for those under a tight budget but who still want to create enough space for their domestic birds. However, because this is an open space house, it is not ideal in a location where the weather condition is regularly harsh.

This wooden roosting apartment in the backyard offers enough room for your chickens to breed, eat, rest, and run around. As you can see, the roof design is a drum shelter, which is the best for rainwater control and flooding prevention. With your birds in this house, you can rest assured that they are safe and warm during the rainy season.

Make a plain and simple countryside chicken coop with a combination of wood planks, wire mesh, and aluminum. This domestic enclosure is sturdy and easy to revamp into a completely different design just in case you have a change of taste in the future. For the roofing part, you can combine plastic tops with traditional metal roofing to create a natural shielding system.

There's so much we can do with little, or should we say more is less. This henhouse design is living proof that you don't have to break the bank to create a homely abode for your chickens. All you need is a couple of unused wooden pallets, a reasonable size of wire mesh, some nails, and your woodworking toolkit.

A floating henhouse (or wall-hung henhouse) is the best option for those with limited space. This structure's conservative design is ideal for city tenants who want to convert their balconies into a mini garden without going overboard. Though engineering a floating hutch is an easy project, people who don't want to get their hands dirty can purchase wall-mounted poultry cages from the market.

Do you have a neglected shipping container outback deteriorating and eroding away? Well, it's time to give it another shot at life with this upcycling idea. Yes, weld the broken parts, add new features, and make it shine with the right combo of paint. This chicken coop idea is really awesome if you're planning to raise a large brood.

This tiny barndominium-style coop takes a classic approach to Americana, a recognizable and endearing architectural style that will never go out of fashion. It's perfectly cross-ventilated and offers maximum protection with small windows and doors. To recreate this chicken coop, you'll be working with just one type of material (metal or wood) for the entire house.

Now, this is more of a chicken run than it is a coop. This style offers maximum space to your brood for better mating, reproduction, feeding, and playtime. As it's also believed that animals grow better in an environment where they have a lot of free space, we believe you might be up to maximize the yield from your chickens with this open coop.

Do you have a pile of wooden shipping boxes in the garage? This may be the best time to put them to use by converting them to backyard henhouses. Another option is a delivery box, typically those wooden boxes you received your wines from Amazon. They are generally made of super-sturdy wood pieces that are adaptive to the elements and can withstand the pecking beaks of your chickens.

These traditional chicken houses have been around for ages. They are sturdy, weather-adaptive, and easy to construct as long as you make the right wood choice. In this coop, chickens are separated into groups to promote better nesting and reduce the spread of diseases. Also, grouping your chickens prevents them from pecking at each other, which may be a great idea for those raising a large flock.

This elevated wooden henhouse is best for your chicken if your yard is haunted by pests (especially wood termites) and floods easily. Each of the four legs of the house is often positioned inside a bowl of a pest-killing solution to keep the hens shielded and protect the wood from termites. The elevated structure also encourages better air circulation among the birds.

For the large-scale chicken keepers, this massive mobile house is everything you need to keep your brood in comfortability, protection, and freedom. Big mobile enclosures like this one are available for sale on the market though you can always decide to build yours from scratch if that's what you want. Some mobile houses for domestic birds have extra features such as solar panels and air conditioners, which are more expensive than the simple ones.

Although this bamboo coop is incredibly practical, your chickens will be connected to the outside world and may be exposed to predators. To that end, this kind of enclosure is not ideal for hens during their egg-laying stage, especially in an area haunted by snakes. The metal roof can also be a noise source on a rainy day. However, this coop is cost-effective and easy to maintain and repair when required.

If you have a farmhouse, you can build this tiny beauty to complement it while providing a healthy living to your flock. With its thatched roof and stone masonry walls, this white village-style house is easy to clean and will remain strong for years to come, even in extreme weather conditions. In addition, it has a roomy design that can conveniently accommodate quite a number of domestic fowls.

If you are looking for an easy DIY option, try making nesting boxes out of plastic milk crates. All you need to do is cut away the basket portion of one side panel, add some hay, and stack several together. If you want to take it a step further, you can add plastic to the bottom of each nesting box to keep things from falling through. 

Do you know how to weave baskets? This keep-it-simple-stupid basket-inspired chicken coop can be your next best weekend project. As long as you have the skills, it's easy to make without spending too much money or time. And even if you're not a fan of weaving, you can purchase a raffia basket from the market and upcycle it into a house for your domestic birds.

Give your domestic fowls the city vibes in this urban-style coop without taking the magic of nature from them. Surround the house with non-toxic, air-cleansing flowering plants that you're committed to keeping evergreen and bright. This house offers maximum protection with tall fencing but may become uncomfortable to feathery fowls during summer unless you provide a cooling solution to combat the heating tendency of the walls.

A gorgeous color combination of yellow, green, and brown make this coop look way more expensive than it really is. As you can see, there are openings on both sides of the main house serving not only as windows but also as doors. This design allows you to easily bring out a chicken from the coop without going through the main entrance in the chicken run.

This cottage-style chicken house opens at every side so you can have easy access to your lovely birds. The all-side-opening style also makes it super-easy to clean before it gets too messy with droppings. However, just as with every white-painted coop, a little stain can become really hard to wipe away, so you better be ready for some gruesome scrubbing or, better still, opt for a different color of paint.

Make your hens live like Disney princesses in this elegant white and pink henhouse. Trust us; it won't exceed the $138 it costs to stay at Disney Fort Wilderness for a night. Build a fence around your fort and grow some of the best space-conservative garden plants around it for nature-given aesthetics.

Pull off an old cabinet-style chicken coop this weekend if you're up for some real work at your woodwork space. Make it as big or small as your flock size requires. Just be true to the vintage spirit by avoiding the temptation to splash in some color or add some modern tech features to the house. Will you?

Take your design cues from this red dreamy DIY henhouse worth clocking about. Surround it with pole-mounted electricity lamps to keep the flock out of those darker nights, and keep the main house above the ground to provide enough room for a chicken run and reduce the likelihood of infestation. This unique chicken coop will make raising a flock easy-peasy.

Two large portrait windows to the front plus one landscape window on two sides to the top building, then a nesting space below; this is how you create a mini two-story building for your fowls. FYI, this modern residence, with its aluminum-framed windows, requires a combination of both woodwork and metalwork skills. Do you have what it takes? Hit or miss? You decide.

If your landscape is large and you're willing to let go of a part of it for chicken rearing, this coop idea is for you. Create a fence around the portion you've chosen, grow some garden plants in it, build a series of small nesting houses inside and watch your large flock have the best of life.

Here's another cost-effective option for all skilled weavers: a wicker hut. Wicking is an ancient furniture-making technique that dates as far back as 5,000 years ago. Primarily, you'll be working with reeds or a bunch of strong, dry branches to weave multi-layered walls connected by thick wooden poles. The roof can be made of any material, but the house must be suspended.

Why spend an extra budget on a new coop when you have an old barn on your farm or landscape? Even if you don't have one, you can easily convert an unused garage into a barn-like coop that can be a comfortable nesting place for your chickens. In addition, these structures are usually spacious enough to offer an additional run area for your domestic birds.

Do you have an old camping tent that's now out of use? How about converting it into a low-budget chicken coop in the backyard? This project is easier than almost every other one recommended so far. Mostly, you want to locate and stitch torn parts, wash the tent for the sake of hygiene, and set it up in the least windy area of your backyard. And that's it! Chicken coop, here I come!

Combine rural architecture with urban technology in this creative coop. Create a lot of vertical rooms for the birds to fly around (especially if you're raising active hens) by using long timbers, and installing air conditioners and heaters to keep the birds comfortable through every weather condition. This chicken coop plan is for those ready to spend a lot of money. Does this sound like you?

Extend nature's green charm of tranquility, good health, fertility, growth, and freshness to your brood by painting their wooden coop green — in and out. Substitute the staircase for a mini ladder and enjoy the evening view of their dramatic navigation around it. Sprinkle in and around the house nature-given decor to add a touch of glory to it. There's probably no simpler way to achieve much in building this chickens' coop.

There is nothing fancy here, just a wide-open coop that offers more than enough room for your chicks to grow fast. You'll find often find this coop style in the countryside during the period when farmers are just beginning to raise new domestic birds. And just so you know, this coop is easy to upkeep thanks to its abundance of space.

Ready to work with clay this weekend to mold a mud house for your new fowls? You can build one of the most down-to-earth chicken coops with this simple earthy tool. If you live in Georgia, North Carolina, Alabama, or Texas, those are some of the best places to get good quality and low-cost clay for this project. Yay!

Make a cute box-shaped chicken coop out of one of those crates lying around in your garage or at any retail store. How to do it? Simply use a 4x8 crate as one of the most gorgeous coops for your birds to live in. While most of these nesting coops can accommodate up to 30 chicks or five adult chickens, you can play with those numbers by getting or building crates of different sizes.

Make your chickens live as good as horses in this stable-style coop that will never go out of fashion. All you have to work with is some wood, nails, wood glue, and your woodworking toolkit. If you're new to woodworking, it's best to start with a wood type that's easy to handle and make your way to the hardest to work with after gaining some experience.

Borrow your design cues from the architecture of aroma-filled cinnamon houses. This bakery-inspired coop is for seasoned woodworkers with keen attention to detail and pro-level skills. Once it's ready, it makes a fashionable indoor nesting house for your pet fowl and can also be used as interior décor when your bird is out in the yard running around.

If you're an ardent beach-goer, you've probably seen one of those cocktail beach bars made of logs. They are elegant, luxurious, yet simple. Right? So, how about you take inspiration from them and make something similar when engineering a new home for your domestic birds? Like most coop ideas shared so far, all you need is a bunch of wood logs to recreate this beach bar-inspired henhouse.

Okay, enough with the wood and log coops. Have you seen one of these elegant Spanish concrete houses mostly built for pigeons and feral cats? If you're in a windy location or an environment where wooden structures are not ideal, this concrete enclosure will be the most secured abode you can get for your chickens. It's the best option out there you can get that guarantees your hens' safety no matter the weather.

Right here is another conservative way to raise chickens at home. Making this bamboo-style coop won't cost you a lot of money, and it is a good way to manage a small space. Simply make boxes with bamboo pieces and anchor them directly to an exterior wall that's shaded from the elements. Not only is this coop idea practical, but it also looks good.

Transform the rear loader of a garbage truck into a monster henhouse or take inspiration from its shape and design. This chicken coop idea is exceptional for large-scale birds rearing on a broad landscape. FYI, in a big enclosed coop like this, it's essential to make possible ventilation enhancement to promote better airflow and prevent the spread of diseases within the brood.

No, you're not mistaken; that's a hen chilling inside a clay pot. And yours doesn't have to be boring, bland, and old. You can make some sparkling DIY clay pots and give them a creative splash of colors if you're into pottery. A fancy clay pot can be an indoor décor while serving as a cozy place for your hen to lay her eggs. Both practical and aesthetic — isn't this awesome?

If you have a brooding hen that often hatches her eggs in that abandoned tire in the garage and will never use a nest box no matter what you do, it's time to stop swimming against the waves. Instead, convert that tire into a warm nesting coop by filling it with nesting materials and painting it to give it some appeal.

Do you have a pile of roofing sheets lying around? If you don't want to spend lots of money but still want a comfortable home for your domestic birds, this roofing sheet chicken coop is an answered prayer. Note this; if yours are metal roofing sheets, a coop built with such will be distressingly hot for your birds. To avoid this, position your metal coop under trees' shade.

If you're not a fan of flashy things but still love aesthetically pleasing structures, this one here will match your taste. The color choice for this simple coop makes it blend with the surrounding plants and the soil on which it is standing. And regardless of the design of your landscape, this coop is sure to add character to your property no matter where it is positioned.

You read that right; a chicken-themed house for your domestic birds. How sweet! This fairy hut is like something straight out of your imagination, but it's real. Now, putting those logs together to make the main structure easy, but where the real work is, is carving those chicken legs it's standing on. But once you get it right, it's a project you'll be proud of.

This is another budget-friendly option for those who don't have access to a pile of dollar bills. Walk around your property and locate a corner that needs just a wall to form a box or a triangular-shaped plan. Once you spot one, measure the size of the required structure and construct it using wooden slats. Cover the structure with a roofing material of your choice, and you're all set.

Look at how picturesque that backyard chicken house is! While the coop itself looks like something born out of scraps, the small garden of potted plants and flowers built by its side brightens it to life and makes it look classy. Warning though; when choosing the plants to place around your chicken coop, always make sure they are non-toxic to animals.

This flamboyant modern house looks just like a real house but is not. Look at those downpipes, those windows, and that red door! The attention to detail put into this project deserves an award. We know that a lot of money went into this one, but if any of you end up recreating it, you'd definitely love it.