Best Chicken Coops for Secure, Practical Housing

These hen houses were selected from makers’ published specifications and live UK retail listings, checked October 2026. They were not tested by us. The set mixes insulated plastic houses, recycled-plastic boxes and timber coops with short attached runs, so a keeper can judge night space separately from daytime ground.

How Much Space Does a Chicken Coop Need?

A chicken coop is the lockable night house, not the whole living area. The British Hen Welfare Trust hen-setup page asks for a sturdy, lockable house with nest boxes and roosts, then a daytime area of at least 1 square metre of clear floor per ex-caged hen or 2 square metres per hen from other systems. Clear floor excludes the patch under the house and the drinker. BHWT also says to use the lower end of any maker bird count, so a house marked for three to five birds is treated as a three-hen house for an ex-battery hybrid.

Searches for quality chicken coops, coops for chickens and chickens coops all land here: you are buying a sleeping and laying box, then planning a day run that actually meets those square metres. Several timber models on this page attach a short mesh run. That run is useful as a lockable porch, not as the only daytime space. The Welfare of Farmed Animals (England) Regulations 2007, Schedule 2 still sets farm perch and litter figures that garden keepers can use as a floor: at least 15 cm of perch per hen, 30 cm between perches, 20 cm from the wall, and 250 cm² of litter per bird.

Should You Choose Plastic or Wood?

Plastic sheds water and has no grain for red mite to sit in, so a hose or a slide-out tray finishes the weekly clean. Wood is cheaper to buy, holds screws for extra roost bars, and weathers if you leave it untreated. The Omlet Raised Chicken Coop Go Up is a raised plastic shell over a 2 m steel run, sized by Omlet for three large hens or four bantams, overall 144 x 218 x 113 cm. The Omlet Eglu Cube Large Chicken Coop is the house only, for up to six large hens, eight medium breeds or ten bantams, with a 100 x 94 x 65 cm shell and twin-wall panels. Harmony by Chick’A Medium Chicken Coop House is 70 percent recycled plastic, 108 x 128 x 91 cm, 33.6 kg, with two nests, two perches and a rear hatch. Kerbl Plastic Pen Barney uses a 60 percent plastic and 40 percent wood mix, 137 x 73 x 83 cm, with two nests and two perches.

FeelGoodUK Chicken Coop 160 x 75 x 80 cm is a fir CH14 house-and-run with two internal perches, a nest box and a galvanised tray. FeelGoodUK Windsor Plastic Chicken Coop and Run uses plastic panels on a wood frame at 175 x 66 x 100 cm and 18 kg, with one perch and a magnet-latched nest lid. PawHut Chicken Coop with Chicken Run 196 x 76 x 97cm Grey has a 64 x 64 x 97 cm house and a 96.5 x 63.5 x 58 cm run. PawHut Large Chicken Coop with Run 204 x 85 x 93cm has a 65 x 48 x 52 cm house and a 69 x 57 x 68 cm run box. WilTec Chicken Coop with Nesting Box and Open Enclosure Grey is 152 x 52 x 92 cm with a 115.5 x 52 cm mesh yard. VOUNOT Chicken Coop and Run Wooden Hen House with Nest Box is a 190 cm timber ark the listing sizes for two to three small or medium birds. Ferplast Hen House Basic for Up to 4 Hens is 124 x 98 x 110 cm with an 85 x 63 cm inner room. Cocoon 3000WX Chicken Coop Wooden Hen House with Integrated Run is about 250 x 76 x 103 cm for three to four birds and is not a walk-in house.

How Do You Keep a Coop Secure from Foxes?

Foxes lift loose lids, squeeze under mesh and dig at the skirt. A lockable pop-hole and a roof that actually latches matter more than a pretty paint colour. Pair the house with an automatic pop-hole if you cannot shut birds in at dusk. Peg the run skirt, close gaps under the tray, and treat timber so boards do not warp open. GOV.UK’s poultry on-farm welfare codes sit with the Animal Welfare Act duty to provide a suitable environment, including shelter from weather and predators. After a housing order, the night house plus a roofed daytime pen has to hold the whole flock, which is why a tiny attached run is a poor only option.

Put a dry dust bath in the covered daytime space so hens can still groom when the pop-hole stays shut. Check latches after wind. A sliding night door that jams half-open is an invitation, not a lock.

How Do These Chicken Coops Compare?

How Should You Set Up a New Hen House?

1. Measure the garden patch, then size the daytime run to BHWT’s 1 or 2 square metres of clear floor per hen before you order the night box.
2. Assemble the house on level ground and leave the tray slide and nest lid a full swing away from a fence.
3. Fit perches 3 to 5 cm wide with 25 cm of length per hen, and keep 30 cm between bars if you add a second rail.
4. Treat bare timber on a dry day and check that every latch closes without a gap a paw can lift.
5. Add a pop-hole lock or an automatic door, then walk the mesh skirt and peg any lift.
6. Put feed, water and a dust bath in the covered daytime space, not under the sleeping floor.
7. Shut the birds in for the first evenings so they learn the house, then open the pop-hole at a regular dusk.

Frequently Asked Questions

Last reviewed: 5 October 2026.