Lightweight, versatile and inexpensive, PVC is a great material to work with for several reasons, which is why it’s unsurprising that people use it for all kinds of DIY projects, including making chicken coops, chicken tractors and chicken runs.
We were curious to see some of the things people have been trying, so we scoured the internet for plans – and as a result, here are our 21 favorite plans for a DIY PVC chicken coop you might like to try building at home.
1. DIY PVC Chicken Coop: 13 Steps – Instructables
To get things started, here’s a great plan for a simple DIY chicken coop based on PVC piping from the Instructables website. It starts by giving you a list of the supplies you’ll need to tackle the project and then goes on to teach you how to do it in 13 easy steps. You’ll also find plenty of useful photos to show you what to do, making this a plan that just about anybody will be able to copy.
2. Building a DIY PVC Hoop Coop – The Simple Things
Hoop coops are very popular in the world of chicken keeping at the moment, and here’s a video that will show you how to make a large, tall version mainly using PVC pipes. Since they’re so flexible, PVC pipes are the perfect material for a project like this, and because they’re so cheap, it will hardly cost you anything to build either. Sound like the kind of plan you’re looking for? Then give the video a watch and see what you think!
3. PVC Chicken Tractor/Coop – Sweet Pig Farm
In this video, you’ll learn how to make a portable chicken coop – AKA a chicken tractor – from PVC pipes. Again, PVC is the perfect material for this kind of construction because it’s so lightweight. The point of a chicken tractor is that you can move it around to change the chickens’ pasture, so making it out of PVC means it’s light enough for one person to move on their own. It looks great too, so we’re sure lots of people will be itching to build one just like it.
4. How to Build a Portable PVC Pipe Chicken Run – diycoopbuilder.com
Although this is technically a plan for a chicken run made of PVC piping rather than a full coop, we thought it was worth including since it’s such a good design – and the same techniques could easily be adapted to make a coop too. It’s large enough to give the chickens inside plenty of space, and it’s cheap and easy to make – and we also love the access tunnel borrowed from a children’s toy the chickens have to go through to reach it!
5. How to Build a Hoop Coop – Square County Homestead
Here’s another tutorial that teaches you how to make a hoop coop from PVC piping, and we have to say, this one looks super professional. At 20 minutes, this video is quite a long one, but it’s packed full of all the info you need to build something similar, and it’s also useful to see exactly how these YouTubers put theirs together. This is a design we really liked – give the video a watch and see if you agree!
6. How to Build a Chicken Tractor – Fresh Eggs Daily® with Lisa Steele
There’s no shortage online of plans for DIY chicken tractors made of PVC – and here’s another one we enjoyed. This one isn’t made entirely of PVC since the base is made of wood, but that gives a bit of added sturdiness to the PVC hoops, and the overall design is exceptional. Something else we love is the unique and original door to the coop – we think this post is worth checking out for that alone, even if you don’t want to copy the plan.
7. Best PVC Pipe Chicken Tractor for Pastured Poultry – Vineyard Chicks Homestead
The chicken tractor that this young and enterprising YouTuber makes in her video is another of our favorites, and we also like the clear and logical way she explains everything she does as she works. It’s obvious she’s a talented DIYer, even at her age, and she’s somebody a lot of people will be able to learn a few things from. All in all, a fun video to watch – and a plan we’re sure lots of people will want to try recreating at home.
8. Build a PVC Chicken Tractor – Grit
When it comes to PVC chicken coops, there are more plans available for portable ones than fixed ones since PVC is such a suitable material for lightweight structures – and here’s one more. What’s good about this plan is the detailed steps it provides for replicating their idea – along with all the photos that show you how they did it. We love the way it looks at the end too, and we’re sure it does the job it was made for admirably.
9. How To Build a Geodesic Chook Dome
For anyone who doesn’t know, “chook” is Australian slang for “chicken”, and this post teaches you how to make a dome-shaped chicken tractor from PVC pipes that will allow you to rotate your chickens’ pasture with ease. It looks extremely impressive, but it’s actually fairly easy to make with the right plans – and fortunately, this blog post also has all the information you’ll need to make one of these for yourself.
10. Build a PVC Chicken Tractor – Mason Dixon Acres
The PVC chicken tractor these YouTubers make in their video shows exactly how simple but effective this technique can be. It’s a moderate-sized tractor that can house a medium flock of chickens, and it’s easy for one person to move around alone without the need to drag it with a vehicle. Sound like the kind of thing you’d like to make? Then check out their video and see if this is the plan for you.
11. How to Build a Chicken Coop with PVC Pipe – HomeSteady
If you want to make a permanent, fixed chicken coop from PVC rather than a moveable tractor, this plan should be of interest. It takes you through the steps of building the structure and then enclosing the coop in a series of well-explained steps. Unfortunately, there aren’t any photos or illustrations, which would have helped make it easier to understand, but we think the explanations are clear enough to make it simple enough for most people with even modest DIY skills to follow.
12. DIY PVC Chicken Coop – Becky’s Homestead
Here’s a plan for a basic PVC coop that could be used for chickens, but that could also easily be adapted for keeping ducks. There’s nothing complicated or sophisticated about this design, but if it does the job it was made for, then that hardly matters. The most important things are that it keeps the chickens where they belong – and that it’s cheap and easy to make. We think it checks all those boxes, so this plan gets a big thumbs-up from us.
13. My PVC Chicken Coop Project – BackYard Chickens
If you like a chicken coop plan that comes with lots of cute photos of kids holding chicks, this is one you’re sure to love. The PVC chicken coop it shows us how to make is seriously impressive too, though, so once you finish enjoying the cuteness of the pics, you’d better get your toolbox out – because this plan gives you a serious DIY project to get stuck into.
14. Building Our PVC Chicken Run: Time Lapse
Here’s another video that shows some YouTubers building a chicken run as opposed to a chicken coop from PVC, but it’s a short video and it’s fun to watch, so we thought we’d include it anyway. It’s also another impressive piece of PVC engineering, so we’re sure plenty of people will find inspiration in their design.
15. Easy to Move Around PVC Chicken Tractor – Your Projects@OBN
If you’re intrigued by the possibility of a mobile chicken tractor, this blog post will tell you all about the advantages of using one. Then, if you’re convinced this is something you’d like to try, it also provides you with a list of the materials you’ll need along with a link to a detailed plan for building this inexpensive tractor mainly using lengths of PVC pipe.
16. DIY PVC Chicken Tractor Good Hope Homestead
The fact that there are so many plans available for PVC chicken tractors suggests this is an idea that works well. However, some of the plans out there are better than others – and we think this is one of the good ones. We love the way skilled DIYers make everything seem obvious and easy, and the end result also looks highly impressive. As we said, if you want to build a PVC chicken tractor, there are many plans to choose from – but we think this one is well worth considering.
17. DIY PVC Coop – BackYard Chickens
Here’s a cute permanent coop based on PVC pipe and a few other bits and pieces that we really appreciate. Unfortunately, it doesn’t include detailed instructions for building it – and as one of the commenters mentions, it might not do well against determined predators either. However, if you want some inspiration for building a basic coop from PVC, this could be it.
18. How to make a PVC chicken fence – Screamin Piston
In this video, we get a tour of the new “fence” (more like a “run” we think) this YouTuber built to protect a flock of chickens. It’s a hoop-shaped construction made of PVC pipes that gives the chickens plenty of space to peck about while also being big enough for their keeper to go inside when necessary. It’s a simple design, but sometimes simple is best – and that’s the way we would describe this effort.
19. Narrow Portable Poultry Pen
If you’re the kind of person who likes extremely detailed plans when starting a new DIY project, this should be just the kind of thing for you. It has everything you’ll need for making a sturdy portable chicken coop mainly from PVC pipes, and it includes all the detailed measurements, so you’ll be able to replicate the model exactly. It’s an extremely well-thought-out design that we think should work perfectly, so if you’re up for a challenge, why not give it a go and see how it turns out?
20. DIY PVC Chicken Coop/Run – Missconduct044
Here’s an interesting video to watch and one that shows how good a material PVC can be to work with when you do it well. The backstory here is that PVC was never the preferred material for the coop these YouTubers wanted to build, but for one reason or another, it was what they ended up using. However, as this video taken one year on shows, the coop is still going strong, so perhaps others might be persuaded to consider PVC too as a result of their success with it.
21. Homemade PVC Chicken Run – Loomis Living
To finish, here’s one more tutorial for a run made of PVC pipe. As these bloggers write, when their chickens began to grow bigger, it became obvious that they were going to need a bit more space to run around in, and the obvious solution was to knock one together using a few lengths of PVC pipe. As you can see from the photo, the chickens in the run look more than happy with the result – and if you want to construct something similar, the post also contains all the details you’ll need to do it.
Plenty of great plans to help you get inspired
As we’ve seen, if you want to learn how to build a PVC chicken coop, there are so many great plans for you to copy, ranging from the simple to the much more creative and unique.
We’ve enjoyed collecting these plans for you, so we hope you’ve enjoyed reading and watching them all too. And above all, we hope we’ve helped you find the inspiration you needed to build a DIY PVC chicken coop of your own.
