Tools You Need to Build a Chicken Coop
The tools you need to construct a chicken coop depend on the kind of coop you choose to build and the materials you decide to utilize, but you’ll almost certainly need these building basics:
Personal safety gear: Don’t forget work gloves, protective goggles, and hearing protection. They’re the most important items in your toolkit.
Tape measure: Use a tape measure that’s at least 10 feet long and shows an incremental measurement at least every eighth of an inch.
Circular saw: This portable power tool is essential to coop construction. You may choose to also use a miter saw, a table saw, a jigsaw, and a handsaw for various steps, but a circular saw is almost a must-have.
Hammer: Select a hammer that you can swing comfortably. Even if you plan on predominantly using screws, you’ll need a hammer for knocking boards into position. For large jobs, consider a pneumatic nailer.
Drill: You’ll use a drill most often as a screw gun. If your drill is cordless, have a spare battery charged and ready to go to keep the job moving.
Level: You’ll likely find it handy to have more than one level: a pocket-sized torpedo level; a medium, 2-foot model; and a long, 4-foot carpenter’s level.
Speed square: You’ll find a speed square indispensable for marking straight lines, laying out and checking angles, and using as a cutting straightedge.
Tin snips: Just about every chicken coop on the planet uses some sort of wire mesh somewhere in its design. Tin snips are the best way to cut it.
Raising Chickens Glossary
broiler; broiler bird
Any chicken of a breed known or developed for meat; usually with deeper, larger breasts, a larger frame, and fast growth.
Raising Chickens Glossary
brooder
An enclosed area for chicks in the first few weeks of life; provides warmth and safety in the absence of a mother hen.
Raising Chickens Glossary
chiggers
A common external parasite of chickens (and humans) that feed on blood while injecting an irritant into the skin.
Raising Chickens Glossary
Coccidia
An internal parasite of chickens that lines the digestive tract and may cause serious problems.
Raising Chickens Glossary
coccidiosis
An infection by Coccidia.
Raising Chickens Glossary
coccidiostats
A medicine that controls the disease coccidiosis; often added to commercial chicken feed.
Raising Chickens Glossary
cockerel
A young male chicken.
Raising Chickens Glossary
County Extension agent
A county employee, sometimes called an educator, who is associated with a land-grant university in the same state and whose job is to take research-based knowledge and bring it to the general public.
Raising Chickens Glossary
crumbles
Medium-sized pieces of feed, actually broken-up pellets.
Raising Chickens Glossary
egg binding
The condition that occurs when a hen has an egg that she can’t pass from the oviduct for some reason.
Raising Chickens Glossary
fowl tick
An external parasite of chickens, common in the U.S. South, that feed on the chicken’s blood but do not stay attached.
Raising Chickens Glossary
gapeworm
A common internal parasite of free-range or pastured chickens, usually found in the trachea; may cause serious breathing problems.
Raising Chickens Glossary
grit
1. Small rocks or gravel; aids digestion for chickens. 2. Chicken feed supplement, made of crushed limestone and granite, available for purchase in feed stores for chickens requiring extra grit.
Raising Chickens Glossary
hybrid
A cross between two chicken breeds, usually created to take advantage of specific qualities such as increased breast meat.
Raising Chickens Glossary
layer; laying hen
Any chicken of a breed known or developed for laying eggs; will not sit on their own eggs.
Raising Chickens Glossary
lice
A common external parasite of chickens that feeds on feathers or shedding skin cells.
Raising Chickens Glossary
Raising Chickens Glossary
mite
A common external parasite of chickens that burrows into the chicken’s skin and feeds on chicken blood.
Raising Chickens Glossary
oocysts
Immature Coccidia that are passed in fecal matter. Coccidia is an internal parasite of chickens that lines the digestive tract.
Raising Chickens Glossary
parasite
Things that feed on a chicken’s blood, other body secretions, or its feathers; may be internal or external.
Raising Chickens Glossary
pellets
Long, narrow, cylinder-shaped pieces of compressed feed.
Raising Chickens Glossary
pullet
A young female chicken who has not started laying eggs.
Raising Chickens Glossary
roost
1. (noun) Any above-floor structure provided for a bird to perch on. 2. (verb) The act of perching on such a structure.
Raising Chickens Glossary
roundworm
A common internal parasite of chickens, usually found in the intestines but occasionally in the oviduct or even an egg
Raising Chickens Glossary
shelter-and-run unit
A form of chicken housing that combines an indoor, protected area with an outside enclosure.
Raising Chickens Glossary
Raising Chickens Glossary
tapeworm
A common internal parasite of chickens, usually found in the intestines and usually considered harmless.
Raising Chickens Glossary
vent; vent area
The common opening for feces in chickens.
Raising Chickens Glossary
vet wrap
A bandage, often used with animals, that sticks to itself.
Raising Chickens Glossary
zoning variance
A formal agreement with the governing body of an area to allow one individual or entity to deviate from the restrictions of a zoning area.
Raising Chickens Glossary
zoning; zoning area
1. (noun) An area or district with specific restrictions or rules about the types of buildings and activities that can take place there. 2. (adjective) Of or about the restrictions required due to the zoning area.
