Chicken Coops for Sale in Bear Creek, Alabama
Chicken Coops for Sale in Bear Creek, Alabama
Our Chicken Coop Design – Front Elevation (Part 2 of 3)
Okay, I lied. I had hoped to finish up writing on our chicken coop design with this post, but I ran out of time and markers…seriously – my gray marker ran out. So today I’m going to focus on the front elevation and next week I’ll wrap it up with the other 3 elevations.
Front Elevation of the Coop
When designing your coop you really need to think through ventilation for a number of reasons: respiratory health of the chickens; drying out the moisture and their manure keeps down the smells and the potential of the hens getting sick. I made ours super-ventilated by covering the entire front of our coop with hardware cloth. We may have gone overboard, but it’s better to err on the side of too much ventilation in a coop than too little…and because Atlanta has a fairly temperate climate, I think we’re good. That said, you do have to consider strong winds – particularly in the colder months. That’s why Britt and I crafted Roman shade-like curtains out of painter’s drop cloths for the front and the windows on the other 3 sides of the coop. It was quite inexpensive and fairly easy to do…particularly if you strategically use the hems already sewn in. These curtains will give our ladies a refuge from the cold winds – protecting the exposed areas of their bodies (combs, wattles, and feet).
Here are a few other things to note about the front elevation of our coop:
- Again, entire area is covered in hardware cloth. I could have used chicken wire on the top (bottom needs hardware cloth to keep out critters), but I had enough hardware cloth and I thought it looked better for the entire area to be consistent.
- The height of the walls are 6.5’…which is plenty high (for me at least) to be able to walk through the door…and there is plenty of height inside, since there is no ceiling (just the rafters and tin roof above).
- 24″ doors were constructed out of pressure-treated wood and painted the same color as the doors of our home.
- To clean things up a bit and to cover up where the pieces of hardware cloth met, I added 1″ trim on the outside of each 2×4 and painted it and the siding of the rest of the coop the same color gray as our house.
- We used gate latches as handles. If you do as well, make sure you make it so that you won’t get locked in when the doors close. To do that, I simply drilled a hole just above the latch and attached a long, thin chain that I threaded through the hole…allowing me to open the latch from inside. Don’t use string or twine…I found that out the hard way. String will wear out and break – leaving you stranded inside. Fortunately when it happened to me, one of my girls was within shouting distance.
- We were running out of hardware cloth when we were finishing the gable, so we simply filled in the middle space with a board and painted it gray. To make sense of this oddly proportioned space and to bring a little bit of character to the coop, I hung a set of antlers from a Mule Deer I shot several years ago with my dad in Wyoming.
So there’s the front elevation. We are really pleased with it…it’s done what we set out to do – make a more than livable space for our chickens (and bunny), while still being attractive. Now we may be a bit too particular, but I really think having an attractive coop in a nice setting has made raising chickens not only sustainable, but more enjoyable. So sure, you could build a coop that is purely functional, but if it looks like a hunk of junk, is that really something you want to see every day…sometimes several times? We thought not.
Next week I’ll wrap things up on our chicken coop design…but until then, please let me know if you have any other questions about our coop or raising chickens. I could perhaps work my answers into the next post.
Take care,
PS: Here are the links to and of Our Chicken Coop Design…and the link to .
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Chicken Coop Building Plans in Bear Creek, Alabama
A good place to start any search is the internet. Simply plugging in the phrase "chicken coops for sale in Bear Creek Alabama" into any one of the numerous search engines and a wealth of information will pop up. This information will provide links to other websites that will be informative and will provide the right direction for finding Bear Creek Alabama chicken coops. What to look for when buying a chicken coop in Bear Creek, Alabama With the huge rise in poultry maintaining there has been an equally huge increase in the array of poultry stuff on sale. Poultry real estate is a situation in factor. It's also a classic instance of the good old bandwagon being jumped on as numerous would-be chicken housing experts market an array of accommodation claiming to be the excellent solution to your chicken real estate needs. Commonly the price looks eye-catching, the house looks desirable, hell also the clean-cut family standing there feeding the chickens look eye-catching. Undoubtedly they know a high quality chicken house when they see one? There are lots of affordable and also nasty coops flooding the market. I understand this as I've examined a number of them in the field, and also seen a ewe run directly through one when the feed pail appeared. The outcome was just a costly pile of firewood as well as a tiny flock of bemused as well as currently homeless bantams.
Chicken Coop Cheap in Bear Creek, Alabama
Typically these mass produced models are built of fast grown timber - come the first decline of rainfall they swell, leaving you either defending a door that won't shut, or ripping the door furniture off in a vain effort to release the squawking occupants. The very first cozy day means the wood dries out and fractures, the really felt roof bubbles and also boils, as well as come nightfall the chickens choose not to go in. This is not because of their dissatisfaction at the decline of their when eye-catching commercial property but considering that the hovel is now a place for, as well as most likely abounding, the poultry keeper's bane, red mite. Add the fact that it stated on the blurb that it would suit 4 big chickens when that stocking thickness was based upon the Circle Line at 5pm on a Friday, and exactly what are you entrusted? A number of hinges and some kindling. A decent coop for thee to four birds must cost you approximately ₤ 300 though this can depend upon whether you elect for a complimentary standing house or one with a run attached. Presuming you are varying your birds in a big area and the pop hole doorway allows sufficient for the breed you maintain, after that the major demands of housing come down to three factors which will define the variety of birds your house will certainly hold; perches, nest boxes and also ventilation. Most breeds of chicken will certainly perch when they visit roost at night, this perch ought to preferably be 5-8cm vast with smoothed off sides so the foot sits easily on it. The perch should be above the nest box access as chickens will additionally naturally try to find the highest point to perch. A perch below that will certainly have the birds roosting in the nest box over night (which is incidentally when they create the most poo) resulting in stained eggs the following day. They shouldn't however be so high off the flooring of your house that leg injuries could possibly take place when the bird comes down in the early morning. Chickens need regarding 20cm of perch each (in small breeds this is obviously less), plus if more than one perch is installed in the house they should be more than 30cm apart. They will certainly hunker up with their next-door neighbors yet are not that keen on roosting with a beak in the bloomers of the bird in front. Preferably the house should have a the very least one nest box for every 3 birds and also these should be off the ground and in the darkest area of the house. Your home needs to have ample air flow: without it after that condensation will accumulate every night, also in the chilliest of weather. Realize, ventilation works on the concept of warm air leaving with a high space attracting cooler air in from a reduced gap - it's not a set of holes on opposite wall surfaces of your home and also at the same level, this is what's called a draft. If you have a house with a run attached then the factors above are still true, but you need to likewise think about the run size. The EU optimum legal equipping thickness for a free array bird is (and let's encounter it, one of the inspirations for maintaining some hens in your home is potentially improved or far better well-being) 2,500 birds each hectare, that's optimal one bird per 4m made even. Take a close look at several of the bargain houses - it could well be the house has the appropriate perches, proper air flow as well as ample nest boxes for a reasonable variety of birds, yet will each of the chickens have anything greater than an A4 sized piece of ground to spend the day on? And so as the saying goes, "you get just what you spend for". You may think you've got hold of a deal, however you and also your flock could possibly rue the day you did. Purchase the ideal house and it will certainly last for a few decades, if not longer provided the proper treatment. Ultimately your poultry and also your fowl keeping experience will be a lot the much better for it.plans build
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