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Don’t miss out on these egg-cellent options for your feathered friends.

Whether you’ve raised chickens for years or are just starting to spread your wings with your first flock, picking the right chicken coop is essential when it comes to keeping your feathered friends happy. We've rounded up the best chicken coops on the market, ranging from inexpensive models to veritable chicken palaces, each ideal for meeting the needs of everyone from urban farmers to rural hobbyists.

Raising backyard chickens is growing in popularity across the U.S., allowing people to produce their own food, reduce their household waste, and engage in more home-based hobbies. It’s estimated that upwards of 8 percent of households—about 13 million homeowners—have backyard chickens across the country. But before you start with a flock of your own, there are quite a few considerations to keep in mind.

Before you start looking into buying your first chicks or pullets (hens under a year old), make sure you can raise them where you live. Thankfully, for those interested in rearing chickens to produce eggs and fertilizer, the Department of Interior found in 2011 that 93 percent of the 150 most-populous cities in the U.S. allow backyard chickens. At about the same time, the Billings Backyard Hen Initiative ran a post about cities that allow hens, which you can check out here. However, local ordinances, like HOAs, may have chicken restrictions, so make sure you research the laws and regulations of your particular community before investing in your own chicken coop.

Once you know that you can get chickens for your property, it's time to decide how many chickens you want. While a single chicken can produce somewhere between 200 and 300 eggs a year, chickens are social animals and do better in groups, so it's wise to consider getting at least two or three birds.

When selecting chicks for your henhouse, you’ll want to get “sexed” chicks, or chicks that a hatchery has tried to ascertain the sex of. However, even the best hatcheries can only tell a chick’s sex about 90 percent of the time. While cities and townships might be okay with chickens, many are not so friendly towards roosters, so it’s a good idea to select female birds. While chickens are generally robust creatures, chicks do sometimes die, so it’s a smart idea to purchase a few extra chicks for your first brood.

When it comes to the size of your coop, consider that each standard-sized chicken needs at least 3 square feet of space, although smaller breeds like bantams can survive with just 2 square feet of coop space apiece. They also need access to at least 8 to 10 square feet of roaming space, which is a particularly important consideration when rearing chickens in an urban environment or other small space.

In colder climates, chickens will need coops with insulation and heat, and in places prone to freezing, they'll need more than just a perch. Of course it’s a bummer to find frozen, broken eggs in your coop, but it’s even sadder to find your chickens' feet frozen to their perch or damaged because of it. In colder climates, chickens need to be able to fully cover their feet when they sleep, so individuals living in colder areas should avoid chicken coops with a bar or rounded perch, opting instead for those with a flat wooden option.

In colder climates, insulation is needed, but ventilation is also vital. Chicken poop creates ammonia, which isn’t healthy for the chickens—or you—to breathe in. Adequate ventilation will also help keep your birds dryer and more comfortable.

Great coops are easy to clean. Easy-to-clean models typically include poop trays or removable floors beneath the roosting areas. Similarly, some coops feature nest boxes that pull out for easy cleaning.

There are tons of chicken coops and chicken coop plans out there. We researched available chicken coops and kits, looking at expert and customer reviews alike to determine which are the best and which spaces they work best for, from small patios to large backyards.

The Petsfit Weatherproof Outdoor Chicken Coop is ideal for first-timers and those who want a small flock of chickens for personal eggs. This well-priced, compact coop is made of fir, has easy access via both the nesting area and its two doors, one of which opens up as a set of stairs. Its floor panels are easy to remove for cleaning and all the access points are lockable, making it tough for predators to get in.

If you’re looking to feed the neighborhood with your eggs or sell them at the local farmer’s market, then consider the OverEZ Large Chicken Coop. With two roosts, it’ll easily house up to 15 full-sized chickens and has nesting room for five. The insulated ceiling helps keep chickens warm in the winter and the coop has two vents and windows that open for additional ventilation. The floor and sides are treated with a resin designed for moisture resistance.

The coop also has two doors: one chicken-sized, and one big enough for a human to enable easy cleaning.

If you’re looking for an all-in-one chicken coop with an enclosed roaming area, this Multi-Level Wooden Chicken Coop is an ideal choice. The coop is made of fir and metal, has enough space for up to five full-sized chickens, and has an included, enclosed chicken run, providing chickens enough space to roam in the day without having to chase them around the yard in the evening. The three access doors and removable tray make it easy to clean. However, this is not the sturdiest chicken coop out there, and you may want to add more robust hardware to the doors to keep wily predators like raccoons out.

Over time, chickens are likely to damage plant life in the area they’re roaming in, particularly when they have an enclosed chicken run.

While many coops can be picked up and moved by a few people, the Best Choice Products Mobile Wood Chicken Coop Tractor includes a handle and wheels, making it easy for one person to pick the coop up and relocate it to avoid undue damage to any section of your outdoor space. The coop has two doors, a nesting area with spots for chickens to lay eggs, a chicken ladder, and great ventilation.

The doors and pull-out tray in the roosting area make it easy to lean. The fenced-in roaming area has a plastic roof with UV-resistant plastic, which helps keep the chickens from getting too hot in the sun.

The SnapLock Chicken Cook is easier to assemble than practically any other chicken coop on the market; each plastic panel snaps into place easily with no tools. Being that it’s plastic, it’s also easier to clean than many other models, as most of it can be hosed down.

In addition, it has three movable roosting bars and two removable trays underneath them, which help make it even easier to clean. The coop also has two nesting areas, each with two nesting spots.

This isn’t technically a chicken coop, but this metal mesh enclosure gives chickens a safe place to mill about and helps keep them from roaming too far. You can buy a larger enclosure if you need, but this one should provide enough space for 15 or more full-size chickens to happily roam in. It’s tall enough for adults to stand upright in and the door is lockable. The mesh will help keep most predators out during the day and the enclosed construction also makes it easy to round up your chickens at night.

This chicken coop is essentially like having two hen houses put together. It has two nesting boxes that are elevated above a mesh enclosure, giving the chickens ample roaming space.

Both the enclosed roaming area and the fir chicken coops have multiple access points, making it easy for humans to get inside, and each hen house has a removable tray under the roosting area for easy cleaning.

If you’re looking for a more sustainable chicken coop, then look no further than this New Age Pet Jumbo Fontana Chicken Barn, which is made of recycled polymers and wood byproducts. The chicken barn can fit up to eight chickens, and has two roosting bars and three nesting areas.

The roof is removable and the Ecoflex material is easy to hose down. Assembly is easy and requires no tools.