Chicken keeping is a popular past time, especially due to a recent resurgence of backyard chicken owners.
Chickens make great pets, providing their owners with eggs and meat.
However, it is important that chickens have housing that meets their needs and yours.
This leads to a debate on buying coops versus building your own.
Here are five reasons why you should build a chicken coop.

1. Cost.
   It is cheaper to build your own coop then purchase one.
   If you use recycled materials, construction will become even cheaper.
   In fact, if you manage to salvage everything you need, the coop will cost next to nothing.
   
2. Design.
   By using plans, you can design the coop to suit your needs, site, climate, number of chickens to house, shape, position and budget.
   You can even design it to match your house!
3. Environmental.
   By building your own coop, you can utilise locally sourced materials.
   This will reduce transport costs and pollution, not to mention the trouble of moving a whole coop.
   Using recycled materials will reduce land fill as well and saves on dumping fees.
   
4. Protection.
   You can build the coop to suit your local area.
   You may want extra roofing for more shade in open areas, insulation for cold weather or specific protection against local predators.
   Building your own coop gives you that choice.
   
5. Fun! Finally, building your chicken coop is lots of fun.
   You can get family members involved, spending quality time together.
   Decorating and painting the coop can be a very unique expression of yourself and your family.
   

Think of building your own coop as a special way of bonding with your flock.
Designing and building chicken coops will provide a valuable understanding of your pets.
Consider these five reasons why you should build a chicken coop when next buying chickens.