If you haven’t kept chickens before you will find them interesting characters to watch both in their chicken coop and in the their chicken run. Did you know that a hen is called a “broody” when she’s raising her chicks. You will see her offering protection to her brood, teaching the chicks to find food and generally hovering over them to keep them warm. Hence, the saying that an over-protective mother is like a “broody hen”.

It is important to provide your “broody” and her chicks and other birds you have with the correct type of housing and there are guidelines to follow which will help you to choose the chicken coop which will best suit your needs.

Materials used for the construction of chicken coops should not be harmful to the chickens and should be easily cleaned and disinfected. There should be no sharp edges or protrusions in the chicken coop that may cause injury to the hens. The coops must be suitably equipped to prevent your hens from escaping and the design and dimensions of the coop pop hole should be such that an adult hen can be removed without undergoing unnecessary suffering or sustaining injury.

Choose a chicken coop that will facilitate good management of your chickens, allow for
easy maintenance, provide good conditions of hygiene and air quality and provide shelter for your chickens from adverse weather conditions

DEFRA state that the coop should limit the risk of disease, disorders manifested by behavioural changes, traumatic injuries to the birds, injuries caused by birds to each other and, as far as possible, contamination of the birds by droppings.

ideas-4-pets have many chicken coops and chicken runs to choose from and many of them have a full roof over the run area to prevent wild birds’ droppings from entering the run and so help prevent avian ‘flu.

The chicken coop and run should have the type of mesh that will help to exclude any predators, rodents, and wild animals and also minimise the infestation of insects and external parasites.

The coops should have floors, perches and platforms of a suitable design and material to ensure that your chickens are not caused any discomfort, distress or injury. The perches and platforms must provide sufficient support and be of sufficient length to allow all your birds to roost at the same time. Some suppliers do not put perches in their chicken coops and this is because they feel that different sized birds need different diameter perches so they leave the hen owner the choice of putting the correct diameter perches in the coops. All floors, perches and platforms in the chicken coop should be kept dry and clean.

It is important that there is adequate ventilation, heating, lighting, feeding, watering
and all other equipment in the coop and these should be carefully placed to avoid risk of injuring the chickens.

New chickens owners can read more about these recommendations by reading the DEFRA booklet on keeping chickens which can be downloaded from their website.