How to Build a Poultry Pen for Chickens

Place a hen house or rabbit hutch in an area that will be the corner of your coop. If you are a decent carpenter, you can build your own small house. Just make sure it can contain all your birds comfortably and that they can get in and out easily. Rabbit hutches are ideal because they typically have a screened bottom and are elevated so the excrement doesn't pile up inside the enclosure and make for unhealthy sleeping quarters for your chickens. The house should also be weatherproof to protect your animals from whatever weather conditions may threaten.

Lay out a square floor pattern around the hen house with four even lengths of thick-gauge PVC piping. If you want more of a rectangular shape, use two long pieces for the sides and two short pieces for the ends. Cover the circumference of each end of the first two pipes with epoxy. Coat the inside of the two connection points on the bottom of the first three-prong corner piece as well before inserting the two pipe ends. Use the rubber mallet to tap the corner piece into place while holding each pipe with your other hand to obtain a secure fit. Repeat this three more times to complete the base.

Make an exact replica of the floor frame to construct the roof of your coop. Follow the same process with the thick-gauge pipe lengths, epoxy and the corner pieces. The height of the coop should be around 4 to 6-fee high so the birds have room to spread their wings and flutter short distances. A taller pen will allow for easier cleaning, feeding, and egg gathering. A shorter pen will be more portable and lighter weight. Decide how tall you want your pen to be before framing.

Connect each corner wall frame pipe to the floor frame corner joint first, again using epoxy to coat the pipe end and the connector piece. Tap the top end of the pipe with the mallet to create a tight seal. Once you have all four wall frame pieces connected to the floor frame corner joints, coat the circumference around the tops of these four wall lengths and all four roof joint connectors with epoxy. Quickly attach the roof joints and tap them in place with the mallet. Try to accomplish this fast enough so that the epoxy doesn't have time to dry before all four corner points are attached.

Connect your fencing or chicken wire to the frame using bailing wire. Start with the roof and work down to the floor, overlapping sections of caging that connect to the frame area for a stronger structure. Rather than weaving long single strands of wire along each length of pipe, use uniform shorter lengths and tightly twist the ends closed around the pipe so that the twists are on the outside where the chickens cannot peck at them. Once your cage is fully enclosed, use wire cutters to make a door opening. Cut another piece of fencing for the door section that is slightly larger than the opening. Place it directly over the opening and weave a hinge along one edge with the bailing wire. Cut the hook off an end of each mini bungee cord. Tie these ends one-by-one around the unhinged edges of the door. Pull the hooked end of each of these cords tight. Latch the hook onto the fencing to keep the door securely closed. Unhook these cords to gain entry for cleaning, feeding, and egg collection. Use thinner-gauge PVC pipe to set up perches halfway between the ground and the roof in the outer corners. To keep these perches in place, pass the bailing wire all the way through each perch pipe so there is enough length at each end to firmly wrap the excess wire around the links of the fencing.