Chicken Coop Plans: 8 Free Extension Designs (2026)

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Most "free chicken coop plans" online are a photo and a wish. The plans worth building from were drawn by agricultural engineers at land-grant universities and the USDA, with framing details, a bill of materials, and a note to check your local building code, and they are still free. This guide lists eight of them, each one opened and read before it went on the page, with the size, the number of hens the plan was drawn for, what is on the sheet, and what a plan from 1943 or 1976 needs updated before you cut lumber.

We did not design any of these. Where a dimension or a materials list appears below, it comes from the plan sheet or the publication that carries it, and it is credited.

Quick Answer: The Eight Plans

For 3 to 6 hens, the Victory house or the 8 by 8 is the right size. For 10 to 20, the 8 by 8 or the 10 by 12. Past 25, the West Virginia post-frame plans. For a moveable pen, the range shelter or the Minnesota hut.

What You'll Learn

• •Where free coop plans actually come from
• •How to size a coop before you pick a plan
• •How to read a plan sheet
• •The plans
• •What every old plan needs updated
• •What a coop costs to build
• •Build or buy?
• •FAQ

Where Free Coop Plans Actually Come From

From the 1920s to the 1980s, the USDA and the land-grant universities ran the Cooperative Farm Building Plan Exchange: state extension engineers drew farm buildings, the USDA reviewed and numbered them, and any county agent could hand a farmer a copy. Poultry houses were a large part of it, because every farm kept chickens. The whole poultry set, from a 6 by 8 backyard house to a 40 by 200 layer barn, is scanned and hosted free by North Dakota State University's Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering department, and several of the same sheets are republished by Mississippi State Extension and the LSU AgCenter under their own numbers.

Newer material is thinner but better documented. The University of Minnesota's small farms program published a full build guide for a cattle-panel mobile hut with a priced materials list. Virginia Cooperative Extension, Oregon State, Kansas State, and NC State publish design guides that tell you what a good coop needs even if they do not draw one.

Everything below links to the source, and every link was opened on September 6, 2026.

How to Size a Coop Before You Pick a Plan

The numbers that matter come from Virginia Cooperative Extension's small-scale poultry housing guide and Oregon State's coop design publication:

• •Floor space inside: 3 to 4 square feet per laying hen, 2 to 3 for bantams, per Virginia Tech. Oregon State gives 3 with a run and 8 to 10 without one. This site uses 4 as the working number.
• •Run space: 10 square feet per hen, 5 to 8 for bantams.
• •Perch: 8 to 10 inches per bird, on wood, set about 2 feet off the floor for standard breeds and 1 foot for Silkies.
• •Nests: one 12 by 12 by 12 inch box for every 4 or 5 hens, above the floor and below the roosts, with a sloped top so nobody sleeps on it.
• •Height: if you will clean it, make it tall enough to stand in. Every plan below except the Victory house and the range shelter is a walk-in.

So a 6-hen flock wants 24 square feet inside and 60 in a run, and a 12-hen flock wants 48 and 120. Our coop sizing guide walks through it in more detail. Notice that the old plans rate their houses for more birds than the modern rule allows; a 1975 sheet that says "40 to 50 birds" for a 10 by 10 assumed the flock ranged all day. Use the plan's floor area and today's rule, not the number in the title.

How to Read a Plan Sheet

The exchange plans are one or two sheets each, drawn to scale, and they all share a layout:

• •A floor plan with inside dimensions, showing where the roosts, nests, feeders, and water go.
• •Framing elevations for the front, side, and rear walls, with stud spacing and header sizes.
• •A section through the building showing roof pitch, wall height, and floor construction.
• •A bill of materials, on most sheets, listing every board, sheet, and roll of roofing by size and count. This is the part that makes a plan buildable.
• •A note that reads, on nearly every sheet, "consult local health and building code authorities before starting construction." It was good advice in 1976 and it still is; our backyard chicken laws guide covers what cities regulate.

They are scanned drawings, so you will read them, not search them. Print at full size or open them on a large screen.

The Plans

◆1. Poultry House 10' x 12', Plan No. 6248 (1976)

The best all-round backyard plan in the archive, and the one Mississippi State and LSU still hand out. It is a 10 by 12 foot shed-roof building split into a 9 by 10 coop room and a 3-foot-wide feed and litter storage room along one end, with a 7-foot front wall. The floor sits on twelve concrete blocks over 2 by 6 joists, so it stays dry and off the ground. Walls are 2 by 4 studs on 2-foot centers under plywood siding; two 2 by 10 foot fiberglass panel windows tip in at the top; a screened opening 24 inches high runs along the front for summer ventilation, with a fiberglass panel to close it in winter. Roosts run along the back wall, nests along a side wall, and the sheet shows two feeders, a waterer, and a 75-watt lamp.

The bill of materials is complete: 12 concrete blocks, seven 2 by 6 by 10 floor joists, 150 board feet of tongue-and-groove floor sheathing, the stud count for each wall, 175 board feet of roof sheathing, a square and a half of roll roofing, eleven sheets of half-inch exterior plywood, the two window panels, and the hardware.

Drawn for: 25 hens. The 90 square foot coop room gives 22 by the 4-square-foot rule, so 20 to 22 is honest. Best for: A permanent coop for 12 to 22 hens that you can walk into, with feed storage under the same roof. Get it: NDSU plan 6248 or Mississippi State Extension, Poultry House 10' x 12'.

◆2. Poultry and Pigeon Houses, 8' x 8', Plan No. 6232 (1975)

An 8 by 8 gable-roofed house on pressure-treated 4 by 4 skids, drawn from University of Wisconsin plans, and the plan Virginia Cooperative Extension points to as its 8 by 8 layer house for 15 to 20 hens. The sheet's own note gives the capacity as 15 to 20 hens with four nests, a roost, and a storage area. Framing is 2 by 4 studs on 2-foot centers, three-quarter-inch plywood floor, exterior plywood walls, a tilt-up window, a louvered screened vent, and a 12 by 12 inch plywood cupola on the ridge with an adjustable pegboard vent, which is a better winter ventilation detail than most modern coops have. The skids mean a tractor or a truck can drag it to fresh ground.

The second sheet shows the same shell fitted out as an 8 by 8 brooder house, with heat lamps and an 18-inch draft shield, so one build can raise chicks and then house the layers.

Drawn for: 15 to 20 hens. The 64 square feet give 16 by the modern rule. Best for: The classic small-flock coop: 8 to 16 hens, moveable, and tall enough to walk into. Get it: NDSU plan 6232, two sheets.

◆3. Victory Poultry House, Plan No. ND 727-15-1 (1943)

The wartime backyard coop, drawn at North Dakota Agricultural College in 1943 when the government was asking families to keep a few hens. It is a 6 by 8 foot shed-roof house on skids with a roughly 6-foot front wall, drop siding over moisture-proof paper, a window covered with cotton cloth for ventilation, roost poles along the back, nests, a grit box, a self-feeder, and a waterer stand, all detailed on the one sheet with a bill of materials. Nothing on it is complicated, and it is the smallest complete plan in the archive.

Drawn for: No number is given. The 48 square feet give 12 by today's rule, and 8 to 10 leaves room for the feeder. Best for: A first coop for 4 to 8 hens, built in a weekend from dimensional lumber. Get it: NDSU plan ND 727-15-1. Swap the cotton window and the poultry netting for hardware cloth; see the updates section below.

◆4. Poultry House 40-50 Birds, Plan No. 6195 (1975)

A 10 by 10 gable-roofed house based on a Rutgers plan, framed on 4 by 4 corner posts with 2 by 4 rafters and purlins. The sheet details 1 by 6 tongue-and-groove board siding, a 2 by 10 foot clear fiberglass window, a rodent barrier at the base of the walls, a three-tier nest unit built from half-inch plywood, and a 400-pound feed bin, all drawn to scale. Two sheets.

Drawn for: 40 to 50 birds, which assumed daytime range. By the modern rule the 100 square feet hold 25. Best for: 15 to 25 hens on a permanent site, with the nest and feed-bin details worth borrowing for any coop. Get it: NDSU plan 6195.

◆5. Poultry House 25 to 40 Layers, Plan No. 6187 (1974)

A West Virginia University design for a post-frame house, about 8 by 12 feet outside once finished, on pressure-treated posts set in the ground, with a shed roof, 2 inches of fiberglass insulation in the walls and roof, and a dirt or concrete floor. The feature that makes it worth a look is the 5 by 8 foot roost and feed platform over galvanized wire mesh, so droppings fall through and the birds never stand in them, with a cleanout door in the wall behind it. Windows front and rear, roof of metal or plywood with shingles or roll roofing.

Drawn for: 25 to 40 layers. Best for: A cold-climate flock of 20 to 30 where insulation matters and you are comfortable setting posts. Get it: NDSU plan 6187; the LSU AgCenter lists the same sheet as its 25 to 40 layer house.

◆6. Poultry House 50 to 80 Layers, Plan No. 6188 (1974)

The same West Virginia design scaled up to about 12 by 16 feet, with a taller shed roof, the same 2-inch insulation and roost-and-feed platform, two windows in each long wall, and a cleanout door. Virginia Cooperative Extension lists it as a plan for 50 to 65 hens; the LSU AgCenter gives the finished size as 11 feet 2 inches by 15 feet 7 inches.

Drawn for: 50 to 80 layers. Best for: A homestead laying flock past 40 birds. Not a backyard build. Get it: NDSU plan 6188.

◆7. Summer Range Poultry Shelter, Plan No. 5400 (1933)

The ancestor of the chicken tractor. A 10 by 10 foot open shelter on 4 by 6 skid runners with a gable roof of 8-inch shiplap, roosts across the inside, and 1-inch poultry netting for the floor, sides, and ends, so the flock lives on grass and the droppings fall through. The bill of material fits in one box on the sheet: the runners, roost stock, framing, 108 board feet of shiplap, netting, hinges, and staples.

Drawn for: No count given; at 100 square feet it will shelter 25 to 30 birds on range. Best for: Summer housing for pastured layers or meat birds, dragged to new ground every few days. It is not a winter house. Get it: NDSU plan 5400. Replace the poultry netting sides with hardware cloth; the wire floor is the design.

◆8. DIY Mobile Poultry Hut, University of Minnesota Extension (2022)

The one modern plan here, and the only one with step-by-step text. Two 4 by 4 by 8 runners and 2 by 4 end rails make a frame; two cattle panels bent into an arc over it and a third cut for the back make the hoop; the lower half is wrapped in half-inch hardware cloth and the upper half in poultry wire; vinyl siding panels wired to the cattle panels make the cover; four 10-inch wheels bolted through the runners let one person move it with a dolly or a rope. It is tall enough to walk into, and Minnesota's authors note feeders and waterers hang from the panels and move with it.

The published materials list totals $373: the lumber, 25 feet of half-inch hardware cloth, a 50-foot roll of poultry netting, three cattle panels, twelve siding panels, four wheels, bolts, and staples, priced when the page was reviewed in 2022.

Drawn for: About 35 birds per hut, written for pastured broilers and usable for layers if you add nests. Best for: Rotational grazing on a quarter acre or more. Our chicken tractor guide covers the ready-made alternatives. Get it: Farmbytes: DIY mobile poultry hut.

What Every Old Plan Needs Updated

The exchange plans are sound structures drawn for a different era. Five things to change on any of them:

1. •Hardware cloth, not poultry netting. Every sheet older than the 1990s calls for 1-inch poultry netting on windows, vents, and range shelters. It keeps chickens in and nothing out. Use half-inch hardware cloth on every opening, and bury or apron it at the base of a permanent house. A 36 by 50 foot roll covers a small coop; the 48 by 100 covers a run. Oregon State's guide accepts 1 by 2 inch mesh for a run; most keepers who have met a raccoon go tighter. Our run fencing guide explains the gauges.
2. •Pressure-treated wood at the ground. The 1975 sheets already specify treated skids and posts; the 1930s and 1940s ones do not. Anything touching soil gets treated lumber, and nothing treated goes where birds will peck it.
3. •A raccoon-proof latch and an automatic door. The plans show simple hasps. Add a carabiner or a two-step latch, and consider an automatic pop door; our automatic door guide compares them.
4. •Ventilation you can close, insulation you can cover. The cupola on plan 6232 and the 24-inch screened opening on 6248 are better than most modern coops. Keep them, and if you insulate as 6187 does, cover the insulation so the birds cannot peck it. Our coop insulation guide has the winter details.
5. •Modern roofing and paint. Roll roofing is still fine; shingles or metal last longer. Use exterior paint or sealer that is dry before the birds move in.

None of these change the framing, so the bill of materials still works with a few substitutions.

What a Coop Costs to Build

Only one of these plans comes with a price: the Minnesota hut's materials list totals $373 as published in 2022, and the largest items on it were cattle panels at $90 for three and vinyl siding at $60.

For the wooden houses, the plan sheets give you the materials list and your lumber yard gives you the prices, and those move too much to print as fact. As a labeled estimate: pricing the 6248 bill of materials at typical big-box prices in September 2026, the eleven sheets of half-inch exterior plywood are the biggest line at roughly $40 each, the framing and floor lumber run a few hundred dollars more, and the whole 10 by 12 house lands somewhere between $1,000 and $1,400 before hardware cloth and paint. The 8 by 8 plan 6232 uses about two-thirds of the material. Treat both figures as a starting point for your own list, not a quote.

Hardware cloth is the one cost that is the same everywhere: about $56 for a 36 by 50 foot roll and $86 for 48 by 100, checked this week.

Build or Buy?

A built coop from these plans outlasts anything under $500 on Amazon, and for the same money as a $1,700 OverEZ you can build the 10 by 12 twice. The trade is a weekend or two and basic carpentry, and the plans assume you can read a framing drawing. If that is not you, our coops under $500 and walk-in coop guides cover the buy side, and the how to build a chicken coop guide walks through the process for a first-time builder.

Frequently Asked Questions

◆Where can I get free chicken coop plans as a PDF?

North Dakota State University hosts the Cooperative Farm Building Plan Exchange poultry plans as free PDFs, including all seven of the numbered plans above. Mississippi State Extension and the LSU AgCenter republish several of the same sheets. The University of Minnesota's mobile hut is a web page with a materials list and steps.

◆What size chicken coop plan do I need for 6 chickens?

Six hens need about 24 square feet inside and 60 in a run. The 6 by 8 Victory house (48 square feet) or the 8 by 8 plan 6232 (64 square feet) both fit, with room to grow.

◆What about 10, 12, or 20 chickens?

Ten to twelve hens want 40 to 48 square feet inside: the 8 by 8 at its rated 15 to 20, or the 10 by 12 house with room to spare. Twenty hens fit the 10 by 12 (plan 6248) at 90 square feet of coop room, or the 10 by 10 plan 6195.

◆Are there free 4x8 chicken coop plans?

Not in the extension archives we checked. The smallest verified plan is the 6 by 8 Victory house, which uses the same lumber lengths and holds twice the birds; if you need a 4 by 8 footprint, a 4 by 8 coop is a hutch for two or three hens and the coops under $500 guide lists ready-made ones.

◆Are there free chicken tractor plans?

Two here: the 1933 range shelter, a skid-mounted 10 by 10, and Minnesota's cattle-panel hut on wheels with a full build guide. For A-frame tractors there is no extension plan we could verify; they are DIY designs, and the chicken tractor guide covers ready-made options.

◆Do I need a permit to build a chicken coop?

Sometimes. Every exchange plan carries the note to consult local building and health authorities, and many cities cap coop size, set setbacks from property lines, or require a permit above a certain footprint. Check before you buy lumber; the backyard chicken laws guide covers what to look for.

◆Can I use pallet chicken coop plans?

There are no verified pallet plans from an extension source. Pallets vary in size and some are chemically treated (look for the HT stamp, which means heat treated, and avoid MB, which means methyl bromide). If you build with them, use one of the framed plans above for the layout and the sizing.

◆How much does it cost to build a chicken coop from plans?

The one plan with a published price, Minnesota's mobile hut, listed $373 in materials in 2022. A framed wooden house from the exchange plans runs into four figures at current lumber prices; price the bill of materials at your yard before you start.

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Start with the plan that matches your flock in five years, not this spring, and read the whole sheet before buying anything. For most backyards, plan 6232 is the one: 8 by 8, walk-in, on skids, with better ventilation than most coops you can buy. Then swap in hardware cloth, add a good latch, and build it once.

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Sources:

• •North Dakota State University, Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering. Poultry Building Plans (Cooperative Farm Building Plan Exchange archive). https://www.ndsu.edu/agriculture/ag-hub/ag-topics/ag-buildings/building-plans/poultry-building-plans
• •Mississippi State University Extension. Poultry House 10' x 12' (Plan 6248). https://extension.msstate.edu/publications/poultry-house-10-x-12
• •LSU AgCenter. Building Plans: Poultry. https://www.lsuagcenter.com/portals/our_offices/departments/biological-ag-engineering/extension/building_plans/poultry
• •University of Minnesota Extension. Farmbytes: DIY mobile poultry hut (materials list and instructions, reviewed 2022). https://extension.umn.edu/agriculture/farm-operations-and-systems/small-farms/farmbytes-diy-mobile-poultry-hut
• •Virginia Cooperative Extension. Small-scale Poultry Housing, publication 2902-1092 (space table, perches, nests, designs for small poultry structures). https://pubs.ext.vt.edu/2902/2902-1092/2902-1092.html
• •Oregon State University Extension. Living on the Land: Backyard Chicken Coop Design, EC 1644. https://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog/ec-1644-living-land-backyard-chicken-coop-design
• •Kansas State University Research and Extension. Housing Tips for Small Poultry Flocks, MF3296. https://bookstore.ksre.ksu.edu/pubs/housing-tips-for-small-poultry-flocks_MF3296.pdf
• •NC State Extension. Keeping Garden Chickens in North Carolina. https://poultry.ces.ncsu.edu/documents/659833/keeping-garden-chickens-in-north-carolina.pdf

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