Chicken Coops for Sale in Newton, Alabama
Chicken Coops for Sale in Newton, 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 Kits in Newton, Alabama
A good place to start any search is the internet. Simply plugging in the phrase "chicken coops for sale in Newton 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 Newton Alabama chicken coops. What to look for when buying a chicken coop in Newton, Alabama With the big rise in poultry keeping there has been a similarly huge rise in the range of poultry materiel for sale. Fowl real estate is a case in factor. It's likewise a traditional example of the good old bandwagon being got on as numerous potential fowl housing experts market an array of lodging asserting to be the perfect remedy to your chicken real estate requirements. Frequently the price looks attractive, the house looks desirable, heck also the clean-cut family standing there feeding the chickens look desirable. Undoubtedly they recognize a high quality chicken house when they see one? There are numerous economical as well as horrible cages swamping the marketplace. I know this as I've examined a number of them in the field, and also seen a ewe run directly via one when the feed bucket showed up. The outcome was nothing but a pricey pile of fire wood and also a small group of bemused and also currently homeless bantams.
Chicken Coop For Sale Near Me in Newton, Alabama
Most of the time these standardized models are built of fast grown lumber - come the first decline of rain they swell, leaving you either defending a doorway that will not shut, or tearing the doorway furniture off in a vain attempt to launch the squawking occupants. The initial warm and comfortable day means the wood dries as well as fractures, the really felt roof bubbles as well as boils, and also come nightfall the hens refuse to go in. This is not because of their disappointment at the decrease of their as soon as attractive home however since the hovel is now a haven for, as well as probably crawling with, the fowl keeper's nemesis, red mite. Add the fact that it stated on the blurb that it would certainly match 4 huge chickens when that stocking density was based upon the Circle Line at 5pm on a Friday, and exactly what are you left with? A couple of joints and some kindling. A decent coop for thee to 4 birds ought to 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. Thinking you are ranging your birds in a large space and also the pop hole door allows sufficient for the type you keep, after that the main demands of housing boil down to three points which will specify the variety of birds the house will hold; perches, nest boxes as well as air flow. The majority of types of chicken will perch when they visit roost in the evening, this perch must ideally be 5-8cm large with smoothed off edges so the foot rests conveniently on it. The perch ought to be more than the nest box entry as chickens will certainly likewise normally look for the highest point to perch. A perch less than that will have the birds roosting in the nest box overnight (which is by the way when they generate one of the most poo) leading to stained eggs the following day. They should not however be so high off the floor of your house that leg injuries might take place when the bird gets down in the morning. Chickens need about 20cm of perch each (in small types this is certainly less), plus if greater than one perch is set up in your home they should be greater than 30cm apart. They will certainly hunker up with their neighbors but are not that crazy about roosting with a beak in the bloomers of the bird in front. Preferably your home ought to have a the very least one nest box for every single three birds as well as these ought to be off the ground and in the darkest location of the house. The house needs to have appropriate air flow: without it after that condensation will certainly build up every evening, even in the chilliest of weather condition. Realize, ventilation deals with the principle of warm air leaving through a high gap attracting cooler air in from a reduced space - it's not a set of holes on other walls of your home and also at the same degree, this is just what's called a draft. If you have a house with a run attached after that the points above are still true, but you need to likewise take into consideration the run size. The EU optimum lawful stocking density for a totally free array bird is (and allow's face it, one of the inspirations for maintaining some hens at home is potentially improved or better welfare) 2,500 birds each hectare, that's optimal one bird each 4m squared. Take a close consider several of the bargain residences - it could well be the house has the ideal perches, appropriate air flow and also ample nest boxes for a practical number of birds, but will each of the chickens have anything more than an A4 sized item of ground to invest the day on? Therefore as the saying goes, "you obtain exactly what you pay for". You could believe you've grabbed a deal, but you and also your group could rue the day you did. Acquisition the right house and it will last for a few decades, otherwise longer offered the proper treatment. In the long run your chicken and your chicken maintaining encounter will certainly be a lot the much better for it.plan plans
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