Chicken Coops for Sale in Greer, Arizona
Chicken Coops for Sale in Greer, Arizona
Chicken Coops — The Top 5 Requirements
Chicken Coops – What You Need
Happy, healthy chickens need proper housing, but knowing what you need may seem daunting. Don’t let choosing the house for your chickens intimidate you. Meeting the needs of your flock, whether building your own chicken castle or buying ready-made, is easy and should provide for four basic needs.
- Protection from the elements
- Protection from predators
- Place for laying eggs
- A roost at night
The Components of a Chicken Coop
As I wrote in my , chickens have an innate homing instinct, keeping your flock close to home. Our feathered kids are such home bodies that even free ranging, every night before sundown all our chickens are perched in the coop. I always recommend a protected place for your flock to come home and roost for the night, even when free ranging.
You don’t need a poultry castle for your chickens to come home to. come in many shapes, sizes, and designs, from fancy to plain. Believe it or not, your chickens won’t care what the coop looks like as long as it provides the above four basic needs.
With that said, before deciding what type of coop you are going to buy or build, you must determine what coop features are needed that most closely conform to a chicken’s natural behavior. Hopefully I can help you understand what you need in the design of your chicken coop.
The Basics
Let’s start with the basics. All chicken coops need 3 things; a roof, 4 walls, and a doorway for entering and leaving. The design and the materials used for the chicken coop is up to you. As long as it is mostly draft free (you still need healthy ventilation), your choices are endless.
Your coop space is based on the number of chickens you plan to house. A good rule of thumb is 4 square feet of floor space per large chicken and 3 square feet for the smaller bantam breeds. Also consider the ease of cleaning when choosing your coop design; you’ll be glad you did.
Security
Making a chicken coop predator free is the most important part of building a home for your flock. Your coop must be secure from the top, bottom, and all sides. When looking at any pre-made coop or chicken coop building plans, consider all angles for security. Not only should you consider the security of the coop itself, but the security of the yard and run as well.
When choosing the wire for your run and coop, we advise steering clear of standard chicken wire. While it works well for keeping your chickens contained it’s not entirely predator proof. Because the holes in standard chicken wire are large, coyotes, raccoons, and foxes can still reach through the mesh, causing harm to your chickens. Always use a small hole wire like hardware cloth with ½ inch openings.
Another consideration when building the chicken yard or run, is airborne predators like hawks. You must include covering the top of the run as well. Our chicken runs use the same size mesh fencing on the top as the sides.
Finally, there are predators from below, such as rats and mice. These critters are attracted to the feed and droppings and like to burrow under your coop. Protect your chickens by using a coop with a floor built into it or burying small mesh fencing below the coop and extending it about 12 inches out on all sides.
The Outside Run
All coops need a connecting chicken run or pen. Chickens need access to the outside to do all those “chicken things”, like dirt baths, catching bugs, scratching dirt, or just relaxing in the sunshine or shade.
Ideally, your chicken run should have 10 square feet of ground space per full size chicken. The smaller bantam breeds require less, about 7 square feet per chicken. If your chickens free range the majority of the day, you can get by with less space.
Laying Boxes
If you want eggs, you need laying boxes. These can be as fancy or as plain as you like, just as long as they are about 12” x 12” and raised off the ground a few inches. You need one box for every 4 laying hens. Boxes should comfortably fit the chicken and have low enough sides for the hens to step over. Be sure to keep your boxes lined with clean straw or other bedding.
Roosting Perches
All birds roost, including chickens. Your coop needs a roosting bar or something off the ground on which your chickens can perch. We strongly suggest having perches both inside the coop and outside in the run area.
When figuring roosting pole size, provide 5-10” of space per chicken and 10” of space between each pole if you are using more than one. Multiple poles also need grading like ladders so the farthest pole is several inches higher than the next.
There are many shapes, sizes, and styles of chicken coops to choose from. Making the right choice for your needs is important, and all coops need to contain all necessary elements.
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Chicken Coop Adelaide in Greer, Arizona
A good place to start any search is the internet. Simply plugging in the phrase "chicken coops for sale in Greer Arizona" 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 Greer Arizona chicken coops. What to look for when buying a chicken coop in Greer, Arizona With the substantial rise in chicken maintaining there has actually been a just as large increase in the variety of fowl paraphernalia for sale. Fowl real estate is a proceedings in point. It's likewise a traditional example of the excellent old bandwagon being jumped on as various potential chicken real estate experts pitch a range of holiday accommodation declaring to be the ideal option to your chicken housing needs. Typically the price looks appealing, your diy-chicken-coop-planshome looks attractive, heck even the clean-cut family members standing there feeding the chickens look eye-catching. Surely they know a high quality chicken house when they see one? There are lots of inexpensive as well as unpleasant coops swamping the marketplace. I know this as I've examined a variety of them in the area, and seen a ewe run directly via one when the feed bucket appeared. The outcome was nothing but an expensive heap of firewood as well as a small group of bemused as well as currently homeless bantams.
Chicken Coop Run in Greer, Arizona
Generally these mass produced versions are created of quick grown lumber - come the initial decrease of rainfall they swell, leaving you either fortifying a door that won't shut, or tearing the door furniture off in a vain attempt to release the squawking occupants. The first warm day indicates the timber dries and also splits, the felt roof covering bubbles as well as boils, and come nightfall the hens choose not to enter. This is not because of their frustration at the decrease of their as soon as eye-catching residential property yet since the hovel is currently a sanctuary for, and probably abounding, the fowl keeper's bane, red mite. Add the fact that it stated on the blurb that it would certainly match four large chickens when that stocking thickness was based on the Circle Line at 5pm on a Friday, as well as just what are you left with? A number of hinges and also some kindling. A decent coop for thee to 4 birds should cost you approximately ₤ 300 though this can depend on whether you elect for a cost-free standing house or one with a run attached. Assuming you are varying your birds in a large room as well as the pop hole door allows sufficient for the breed you keep, after that the main requirements of real estate boil down to three points which will certainly define the number of birds your home will hold; perches, nest boxes and ventilation. Most types of chicken will certainly perch when they go to roost during the night, this perch needs to preferably be 5-8cm large with smoothed off edges so the foot sits pleasantly on it. The perch ought to be higher than the nest box access as chickens will likewise normally search for the highest point to perch. A perch lower than that will have the birds roosting in the nest box overnight (which is incidentally when they generate one of the most poo) resulting in stained eggs the list below day. They should not nevertheless be so high off the flooring of the house that leg injuries could take place when the bird gets down in the morning. Chickens need regarding 20cm of perch each (in little breeds this is obviously less), plus if greater than one perch is mounted in the house they need to be more than 30cm apart. They will certainly hunker up with their neighbors yet are not that keen on roosting with a beak in the bloomers of the bird ahead. Ideally the house ought to have a least one nest box for every single 3 birds and also these must be off the ground and in the darkest area of your house. The house ought to have adequate air flow: without it then condensation will accumulate every evening, even in the chilliest of weather condition. Realize, ventilation deals with the principle of cozy air leaving with a high gap attracting cooler air in from a reduced void - it's not a collection of openings on contrary wall surfaces of your house as well as at the very same degree, this is exactly what's known as a draught. If you have a house with a run connected then the factors above are still real, but you need to additionally consider the run dimension. The EU maximum legal stocking density for a totally free array bird is (and also allow's encounter it, among the motivations for maintaining some chickens in the house is potentially boosted or much better well-being) 2,500 birds each hectare, that's optimal one bird each 4m squared. Take a close consider a few of the deal houses - it could well be the house has the best perches, right air flow as well as enough nest boxes for an affordable variety of birds, yet will each of the chickens have anything greater than an A4 sized item of ground to invest the day on? Therefore as the claiming goes, "you obtain what you spend for". You may think you've grabbed a bargain, but you as well as your group could possibly rue the day you did. Acquisition the right house as well as it will last for a few decades, otherwise longer offered the appropriate treatment. Ultimately your fowl and also your fowl keeping encounter will be a lot the better for it.for sale coop
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