Chicken Coops for Sale in Waverly, Alabama
Chicken Coops for Sale in Waverly, Alabama
Chicken coops for beginners – a primer!
Your chickens will need a safe dry and well ventilated place to roost at night or to be in bad weather. So here is a chicken coops for beginners primer!
Just cute chicks!
Chicken coops for beginners – things to consider!
We have had a variety of coops since we first started with chickens. We have had old wooden crates converted to a basic house through to our latest construction. We have learned much from each design and have tried to build a better coop for both the chickens and us each time we have had to reconstruct. The only reoccurring theme is that we have tried to use as many recycled items as we could….more to save costs than any other noble reason.
To get some inspiration, have a look at .
The chickens in the new coop
Here are the things that we now consider when we are designing our coops.
Safe Is the coop secure from other animals trying to get in? Here in the NE of the USA we worry about foxes, coyotes, raccoons etc. So it needs to be a design that can’t be broken into, ripped open, lifted up or turned over. In Australia I would be also trying to keep out snakes. Out coop lets in a chipmunk and a squirrel – they get a free feed but don’t do any other damage.
Airy Even in our cold climate, we have a well ventilated coop. Chickens seem to cope extremely well in the cold (ours did great in three months of very bitter winter when it did not get above freezing). So they don’t need a coop that is centrally heated. So good ventilation without being breezy on the birds is perfect.
Chickens on ice!
You don’t need it be be insulated and have central heating. On the really cold days and nights when the thermometer reading was way below freezing we run a red heating lamp to provide a little comfort.
Dry Damp chickens are not happy chickens…and will probably end up as sick chickens. Your coop needs to always be dry. So it has to be up off the ground, a roof to stop rain and/or snow dripping in and a way to open it up in case it does get damp inside. We have stopped providing drinking water in our coop unless its winter (with a water warmer) because the chickens just made a wet mess!
Roosting poles
Chickens need to be able to roost on a perch to sleep, just like all birds do at night (ok …emus don’t). Your chickens needs to have an old broom handle, tree branch or other item to settle on inside the coop. We have four feet of old curtain rod and all six adult birds are very happy. When we get more chickens (the coop could take another dozen) we will install more perches.The new coop’s roosting pole.
Nesting boxes Your girls will appreciate a place to lay their eggs. Some people like to build nesting boxes inside the coop. We found that having nesting boxes that have easy access for humans to collect eggs are great, however our free ranging girls like to lay in a spot in our barn rather than the nesting boxes. Inside our coop the nesting boxes are cut down plastic buckets and these are only used if we are late in letting them out and one girl just can’t wait.
The plastic nesting boxes
Easy to clean We use the deep litter method – which is just code for laying a deep pile of old hay onto the floor of the coop. We clean it out every few months and find that it works great. On past coops it was quite a chore to get into the coop and clean it. With our current design we made a flap on one wall so we have great access for cleaning. We also made the coop tall and added two cut down doors so we can get inside both from the outside and from inside the barn in winter.
Front of the coop – see the lower flap we can open to clean it out – now its a 5 min job!
Chicken coops for beginners – why do it!
Building the coop can be a great family affair. We collected materials from our dump for a few months and then built the structure as a lean-to off the barn. That way we could have a door to the inside of the barn so during winter the chickens could use the barn to roam around if they did not want to venture out into the snow. We also have a door on the outside of the coop and a window on the south side – so it gets loads of light and is easy to clean and air out.
The coop framed up
Coop finished
So far this chicken coop has been perfect! Easy for us to get into. Easy to clean. But most of all, the chickens seem happy to call it home! Using recycled materials has kept our costs low as well!
Jen and Madie ‘fancy up’ the coop with paint.
We hope this chicken coops for beginners primer will help you have happier and safer chickens!
Chicken Coop Door in Waverly, Alabama
A good place to start any search is the internet. Simply plugging in the phrase "chicken coops for sale in Waverly 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 Waverly Alabama chicken coops. What to look for when buying a chicken coop in Waverly, Alabama With the significant boost in chicken keeping there has actually been a similarly big surge in the array of poultry materiel for sale. Fowl housing is a situation in point. It's also a traditional instance of the good old bandwagon being jumped on as various potential fowl housing professionals market a variety of holiday accommodation declaring to be the suitable remedy to your chicken housing needs. Frequently the cost looks eye-catching, your house looks appealing, hell even the clean-cut household standing there feeding the chickens look appealing. Certainly they understand a professional chicken house when they see one? There are several inexpensive as well as unpleasant coops swamping the marketplace. I know this as I've tested a number of them in the area, and seen a ewe run straight through one when the feed pail appeared. The result was just a costly stack of fire wood as well as a little group of bemused and also now homeless bantams.
Chicken Coop You Can Walk In in Waverly, Alabama
Generally these standardized models are built of quick grown up timber - come the very first drop of rain they swell, leaving you either fortifying a door that will not shut, or ripping the door furnishings off in a vain effort to release the squawking residents. The first warm and comfortable day means the hardwood dries out as well as cracks, the felt roofing system bubbles as well as boils, and come nightfall the hens choose not to enter. This is not due to their disappointment at the decline of their when eye-catching residential property but because the hovel is currently a place for, and possibly abounding, the chicken keeper's nemesis, red mite. Add the fact that it said on the blurb that it would certainly match 4 big hens when that stocking density was based on the Circle Line at 5pm on a Friday, as well as what are you entrusted? A few hinges as well as some kindling. A respectable coop for thee to four birds must cost you approximately ₤ 300 though this can rely on whether you elect for a totally free standing house or one with a run affixed. Thinking you are ranging your birds in a huge space as well as the pop opening door allows enough for the type you maintain, then the primary demands of real estate come down to three points which will certainly specify the variety of birds your home will certainly hold; perches, nest boxes and also air flow. Many types of chicken will certainly perch when they visit roost in the evening, this perch needs to ideally be 5-8cm broad with smoothed off sides so the foot rests conveniently on it. The perch should be above the nest box access as chickens will also normally look for the highest point to perch. A perch below that will have the birds roosting in the nest box overnight (which is incidentally when they create the most poo) resulting in dirtied eggs the following day. They shouldn't nevertheless be so high off the floor of the house that leg injuries could take place when the bird gets down in the morning. Chickens require concerning 20cm of perch each (in little breeds this is undoubtedly much less), plus if more than one perch is installed in your home they ought to 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 must have a the very least one nest box for each three birds as well as these ought to be off the ground and also in the darkest location of the house. Your home must have sufficient air flow: without it then condensation will develop every night, even in the coldest of climate. Realize, ventilation deals with the concept of warm and comfortable air leaving with a high void drawing cooler air in from a lower space - it's not a collection of holes on contrary walls of your house and at the very same degree, this is exactly what's called a draught. If you have a house with a run attached after that the points above are still true, but you ought to also take into consideration the run dimension. The EU maximum legal stocking density for a free variety bird is (and allow's face it, among the inspirations for keeping some hens in the house is possibly boosted or better well-being) 2,500 birds per hectare, that's optimal one bird per 4m squared. Take a close check out several of the bargain houses - it could well be your home has the ideal perches, right air flow and ample nest boxes for a reasonable variety of birds, yet will each of the chickens have anything more than an A4 sized piece of ground to invest the day on? Therefore as the saying goes, "you obtain just what you pay for". You may assume you've got hold of a deal, but you and your group can rue the day you did. Purchase the best house as well as it will certainly last for a couple of decades, otherwise longer offered the correct therapy. In the end your poultry as well as your chicken keeping experience will be much the far better for it.for sale chickens
More Posts
Chicken Coops for Sale in Robertsdale, Alabama
Chicken Coops for Sale in Albertville, Alabama
Chicken Coops for Sale in Tuscumbia, Alabama
Chicken Coops for Sale in Glenwood, Alabama
Chicken Coops for Sale in Epes, Alabama