I love keeping chickens in my backyard, and I’m not afraid to tell everyone I know about it.
But one thing that’s held a lot of friends back from getting chickens is space. If you don’t have the space for a run, can you even keep chickens?
The answer is yes, and the main solution is to build a fly pen.
A fly pen for chickens is a pen used to provide good exercise for chickens when you don’t have the ground space for a large enough run. In a fly pen, you build up instead of out. A fly pen is more common with roosters than chickens, but it works well for both.
Check out the rest of the articles for more details on this unique type of chicken cage.
Table of Contents
Why Use A Fly Pen For Chickens?
Fly pens aren’t the ideal type of pen.
Chickens are ground birds and do best when they can run and scratch on the ground and explore.
If you don’t have the space for a typical run, the chickens won’t get the exercise they need.
They’ll still probably produce some eggs, but they won’t live as long of a life.
In general, chickens need 8-10’ square feet of ground space in their run per chicken.
But a lot of homes don’t have this much space.
The solution is to build up instead of out.
A fly pen is a tall, fenced-in cage with pieces of wood or other material spread out horizontally at different heights.
This allows a place for chickens to fly up and roost, offering them space to get away from each other and a way to exercise when they can’t run.
Back when I worked at a YMCA camp during my college days, we kept a fly pen for our flock of around 8 chickens.
They did well in there and lived a long life.
In general, fly pens need to be at least 8’ feet high, but 10’ feet is better.
In many cases, the fly pen is connected to the normal coop.
Coops need 2-3’ square feet of space per chicken as well.
Check out our guide on helping you figure out how many chickens you need for your family.
How To Set Up A Fly Pen For Chickens
Here are some quick, general directions for building a fly pen.
Use these ideas to help you design and build the fly pen that works for your space.
Calculate Your Space
Look at what space you have available on the ground and how tall you have to go.
For a few chickens, you’ll be fine with a 10’x10’ foot space on the ground if you go up at least 8’ feet.
Figure what pieces you’ll need and how to connect them together and if you want to connect them to your chicken coop.
The one I helped make for my friends was pretty simple. We used 4 2x4x10’ foot boards spread out in a square.
We also used four 4x4x8’ foot posts for the vertical pieces.
Build Your Foundation And Vertical Posts
Connect your ground boards together to form a foundation. Some people are successful with large screws; I used threaded bolts and nuts after cutting each end at a 45-degree angle.
Now attach the four posts to give you your vertical space. Here, I also used a big threaded bolt with nuts.
Protip: Screw or clamp a small board to the post and angle it against the ground to help hold the post up at a 90-degree angle.
Connect Midway And Top Supports
Now, take your pieces to support the top and middle of the structure.
Connect the tops of the posts together with across, so it looks like a big cube or rectangular prism. Here, screws would be able to hold it all together.
I just use better connections on the bottom since it holds the whole thing together.
We also need to support the frame somewhere in the middle.
Since we’re going to use roosting posts, later on, it’s OK to keep it simple and just put 2x4x10’s cut to size between each vertical post halfway up the 4×4’s.
Again, screws will do the job here.
Assemble Door Frame
You’ll want a door frame somewhere on your design.
I keep it pretty simple and make it out of 2×4’s screwed together with pocket holes.
After doing the four sides, I’ll add one or two diagonal boards to hold it stable as needed.
Then I just buy some simple hinges and a couple of big eye hooks to keep it together and make sure the chickens don’t get out.
I wouldn’t put the door frame on yet, though.
Attach Chicken Wire
Cut and attach your chicken wire all around the exterior AND top of your chicken fly pen.
Wire cutters or tin snips make cutting the wiring simple, and you don’t need much more than a stapler to attach the wire.
Don’t forget to cover the door frame as well.
After, connect the door to the fly pen using hinges and whatever you’re using to keep the door closed.
Most hardware stores sell gate latches that’ll work just fine too.
Build Roosting Posts
After the whole fly pen is built, you need to build horizontal posts at a few different heights to give the chickens something to fly to and roost on.
I just use simple wood pieces stretched across from post to post.
Some people use metal rods or taut ropes.
Get creative, but don’t go too crazy. Keep one a couple of feet off the ground, another at 4’ feet, and one more at 6’ feet if you don’t know what you want.
This is what seemed to work for us.