Chicken Coops for Sale in Chelsea, Alabama
Chicken Coops for Sale in Chelsea, Alabama
The Small Property Chicken Coop
Raising chickens has been one of the most rewarding activities that we’ve done on our homestead. While we don’t raise them for meat due to the city’s limitations, we reap an abundance of benefits from the eggs and the friendship we get from our girls.
In this next installment of , I’ll be sharing how my husband Todd designed and built Lucy and Ethel’s chicken coop using his ingenuity and minimal square footage on our .18 of an acre.
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, I was so excited to finally be able to raise a couple of my own “girls” to gather eggs from and get to know. I’m an animal lover, and seem to be able to make friends with any animal that will allow me, so I knew that these two sweet little chicks and I would be the best of friends. , and since there were only two of them, there was plenty of space for them to grow.
After moving some things around to set up our ‘barn’ area, Todd got to work on the chicken coop. Being a handy guy, he decided that he could design and build one that would be cheaper than a prefab one, as well as be able to fit where we needed it to on our small property homestead.
He chose to use the back of one of our sheds as the back wall, and another of our sheds as the side wall, which would save us some money on hardware cloth. He framed the rest of the coop and door with 2x4s. He also extended the side of the shed so that it would serve as the left wall of the coop.
This is the shed that is being used as the back wall of the coop. You can see on the right side of the shed where the new section was added for the left wall of the coop.
Todd designed the girls’ coop to be multi-level, rather than sprawling. He used plywood and 2x4s for the levels, and built an access ladder to both. The girls had a hard time not slipping on the sleek wood between the “steps” on the ladder, so I added a few strips of to those sections, which worked beautifully.
Here is a current photo of the two levels (please excuse the “lived in” look, I apparently hadn’t taken photos of the two levels when it was new). This is the top level, where we keep the girls’ nesting boxes. The ladder with the comes up the right side of this level, and it’s easy for the girls to hop up to the top of their nesting boxes, where they like to sleep at night. Todd also built a roost for them, which is actually a few inches offset from the edge of the level so when they poop, most of it falls to the ground.
Here is the second level, where the girls usually eat their evening treats, and where I keep their oyster shell and water (water not pictured). You can see how the ladder passes the second level up to the top level, which makes it easy for the girls to hop to the second level at snack time.
We left the bottom level as dirt, and I have been using the , which has worked out well for the most part. We haven’t had any issues with large rodents, and any mice that dare step foot into the coop are met with two hungry beaks.
Todd lined the front of the coop with 1″ hardware cloth and it has worked very well for us; however, I have heard that if you have issues with raccoons, it’s best to go with 1/2″ hardware cloth.
Another Space Saving Coop Idea
A friend of mine, Nora from , and is based on Todd’s multilevel chicken coop design. Their family has around 8-10 girls, so this brooder was a very good fit for them. It can definitely be built outdoors and used as a space-saving chicken coop for 1-3 chickens, or built indoors to use as a brooder for a larger flock.
As you can see, building a chicken coop to fit your small property needs can be a much better prospect than purchasing a prefab chicken coop. While prefab coops are beautiful and promise ease, tailoring your chicken coop to fit in just the right place on your small property can be more affordable, and in the long run, more convenient for your homestead setup. As long as your chicken coop meets , you can build a chicken coop that meets your homestead’s needed requirements as well, which will make everyone happy!
For more great information on raising chickens, please visit Fresh Eggs Daily’s Ultimate Chicken Care Guide.
What size is your property? Do you use space-saving techniques?
Chicken Coop Pictures in Chelsea, Alabama
A good place to start any search is the internet. Simply plugging in the phrase "chicken coops for sale in Chelsea 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 Chelsea Alabama chicken coops. What to look for when buying a chicken coop in Chelsea, Alabama With the massive rise in poultry keeping there has actually been a similarly large surge in the variety of chicken materiel for sale. Chicken real estate is an instance in factor. It's additionally a classic example of the excellent old bandwagon being got on as various would-be chicken housing professionals peddle a selection of holiday accommodation declaring to be the excellent option to your chicken housing demands. Commonly the cost looks appealing, the house looks attractive, hell even the clean-cut family members standing there feeding the chickens look attractive. Surely they recognize a professional chicken house when they see one? There are lots of inexpensive and awful coops flooding the market. I know this as I've tested a number of them in the field, as well as seen a ewe run directly via one when the feed bucket showed up. The result was just a pricey pile of fire wood as well as a small group of bemused as well as now homeless bantams.
Chicken Coop Yard Design in Chelsea, Alabama
Generally these standardized versions are created of fast grown up timber - come the very first decrease of rain they swell, leaving you either barricading a door that will not shut, or ripping the door furnishings off in a vain attempt to release the squawking residents. The initial warm day implies the timber dries out as well as splits, the felt roof bubbles and boils, and also come nightfall the chickens choose not to go in. This is not due to their frustration at the decrease of their when attractive commercial property however due to the fact that the hovel is currently a haven for, and also probably crawling with, the poultry caretaker's nemesis, red mite. Add on the fact that it said on the blurb that it would certainly fit 4 huge chickens when that stocking density was based on the Circle Line at 5pm on a Friday, and also what are you left with? A number of joints and also some kindling. A respectable coop for thee to four birds should cost you in the region of ₤ 300 though this could depend on whether you choose for a totally free standing house or one with a run attached. Assuming you are varying your birds in a large room and also the pop opening doorway is big enough for the breed you maintain, after that the primary requirements of housing come down to 3 points which will certainly specify the variety of birds your home will certainly hold; perches, nest boxes and ventilation. Most breeds of chicken will perch when they go to roost at night, this perch needs to preferably be 5-8cm vast with smoothed off sides so the foot rests easily on it. The perch ought to be more than the nest box entrance as chickens will likewise normally seek the acme to perch. A perch less than that will have the birds roosting in the nest box overnight (which is by the way when they produce the most poo) bring about stained eggs the list below day. They should not however be so high off the flooring of your home that leg injuries can occur when the bird comes down in the morning. Chickens need regarding 20cm of perch each (in tiny breeds this is certainly less), plus if more than one perch is mounted in the house they ought to be more than 30cm apart. They will hunker up with their next-door neighbors however are not that crazy about roosting with a beak in the bloomers of the bird ahead. Preferably your home should have a least one nest box for every single 3 birds as well as these must be off the ground and also in the darkest location of the house. Your house ought to have adequate ventilation: without it after that condensation will certainly accumulate every evening, even in the chilliest of weather condition. Be aware, air flow deals with the concept of cozy air leaving with a high space attracting cooler air in from a reduced space - it's not a set of openings on other wall surfaces of the house and also at the very same level, this is what's known as a draught. If you have a house with a run affixed then the points above are still real, however you ought to additionally think about the run size. The EU optimum lawful stocking thickness for a totally free array bird is (and let's face it, among the motivations for keeping some chickens at home is perhaps improved or better well-being) 2,500 birds per hectare, that's optimal one bird per 4m squared. Take a close consider some of the bargain residences - it could well be the house has the ideal perches, right ventilation and also adequate nest boxes for an affordable variety of birds, however will each of the chickens have anything greater than an A4 sized piece of ground to invest the day on? Therefore as the saying goes, "you get just what you pay for". You may assume you've got a bargain, but you and also your group could rue the day you did. Purchase the ideal house as well as it will last for a few decades, if not longer given the correct therapy. Eventually your fowl and your poultry maintaining encounter will be considerably the far better for it.chicken build
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