Just like we humans need a warm and safe place to live so do chickens.
We humans also like to be protected and so do the chickens.
Chickens are very temperamental animals and they need a warm place to live.
They also need a place where their natural enemies can't get at them and be part of the animal cycle of life and death.
Chickens need a place of safe haven so that predators cannot break in and possibly take them away or their young ones.
Shelter is their haven and chickens need to be protected from the elements of weather.
Whenever there is rain or a cold snap they need to be protected.
To build a chicken coop that will withstand the elements of nature and its natural predators is a must if you want to be able to keep the chickens for any period of time.
If you have never built one before then you will have access to information that will give you all the information that you ever wanted in building one later on.
I will give you some initial pointers that you need to start with the foundation of building a chicken coop.
When scouting out areas for building these chicken havens it's important to understand about ground saturation.
Ground saturation is an important aspect to understand because if the targeted area has a tendency to gather water then that area is not a good candidate to build one on.
Chickens need to have a dry level space to have their coop built on.
Never build a chicken coop directly on the ground itself.
That's because predators can easily go under fences and into the chicken coop and cause much grief in your hard work.
Predators come in all kinds of shapes and forms.
For instance predators can come from the sky as well.
Hawks and large predator birds can swoop down on a chicken coop and just snatch them away for their meals.
Chickens can't always stay within the confines of the chicken coop but you really have to be careful and be on the lookout for these birds of prey when taking care of your chickens.
Your chickens need to be protected at all costs if you are to get the benefit that they can do for you.
Getting back to the place of abode itself you want to make sure that you have enough openings and vents to eliminate humidity.
A chicken coop that has humidity is not healthy for the chickens and having these vents will usually take care of that aspect of the coop.
Nothing fancy here but you do need to allow for ventilation to insure that your chickens is taken care of.
Don't end up taking too many shortcuts as some people do that carve out a small hole I the plywood and nail a screen over that.
Ventilation needs to infiltrate the chicken coop amply to allow the humidity to escape.
One note on the ventilation hatch has to be one that be closed in the event of inclement weather.
You have to make sure that you don't allow rain water to excessively accumulate within the chicken coop itself or that heavy drafts of air can get inside.
Chickens look like they can fly but they really can't.
So understanding that attribute you have to make sure that you don't place the perches so high that if they fall they won't hurt themselves.
They don't have 9 lives like cats do.
Perches should be built any higher than three to four feet off the chicken coop floor.