Chicken Coops for Sale in Whelen Springs, Arkansas
Chicken Coops for Sale in Whelen Springs, Arkansas
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 And Run in Whelen Springs, Arkansas
A good place to start any search is the internet. Simply plugging in the phrase "chicken coops for sale in Whelen Springs Arkansas" 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 Whelen Springs Arkansas chicken coops. What to look for when buying a chicken coop in Whelen Springs, Arkansas With the substantial rise in chicken maintaining there has actually been a just as big surge in the array of fowl paraphernalia for sale. Chicken real estate is a case in factor. It's also a traditional instance of the good old bandwagon being jumped on as different potential fowl real estate specialists pitch a selection of lodging declaring to be the ideal option to your chicken real estate demands. Often the cost looks eye-catching, the house looks eye-catching, hell also the clean-cut family standing there feeding the chickens look attractive. Certainly they recognize a top quality chicken house when they see one? There are several inexpensive and horrible coops flooding the market. I understand this as I've tested a variety of them in the field, as well as seen a ewe run straight through one when the feed pail showed up. The outcome was just an expensive pile of firewood and a small group of bemused and also currently homeless bantams.
Chicken Coop Used in Whelen Springs, Arkansas
Most of the time these mass produced models are created of fast grown up wood - come the very first drop of rainfall they swell, leaving you either barricading a door that will not shut, or ripping the doorway furniture off in a vain attempt to release the squawking citizens. The initial warm day indicates the lumber dries and also cracks, the felt roof covering bubbles and also boils, and also come nightfall the chickens choose not to enter. This is not due to their dissatisfaction at the decline of their once appealing home however due to the fact that the hovel is now a haven for, as well as probably abounding, the poultry caretaker's nemesis, red mite. Add that it claimed on the blurb that it would certainly match 4 huge chickens when that equipping thickness was based upon the Circle Line at 5pm on a Friday, and also what are you left with? A few hinges and also some kindling. A decent coop for thee to four birds should cost you around ₤ 300 though this could depend on whether you elect for a complimentary standing house or one with a run affixed. Presuming you are ranging your birds in a huge area as well as the pop hole doorway allows enough for the breed you maintain, after that the main demands of housing boil down to three factors which will specify the number of birds the house will hold; perches, nest boxes and ventilation. The majority of breeds of chicken will perch when they go to roost during the night, this perch needs to preferably be 5-8cm vast with smoothed off sides so the foot rests comfortably on it. The perch needs to be higher than the nest box access as chickens will likewise naturally seek the highest point to perch. A perch lower than that will certainly have the birds roosting in the nest box over night (which is by the way when they produce the most poo) leading to soiled eggs the following day. They should not however be so high off the flooring of your house that leg injuries could possibly take place when the bird comes down in the morning. Chickens need regarding 20cm of perch each (in tiny types this is certainly much less), plus if greater than one perch is set up in your house they need to be more than 30cm apart. They will hunker up with their neighbors but are not that keen on roosting with a beak in the bloomers of the bird in front. Ideally your home ought to have a the very least one nest box for each 3 birds and these must be off the ground and also in the darkest location of your house. Your house should have adequate air flow: without it after that condensation will certainly accumulate every evening, also in the coldest of weather condition. Know, ventilation deals with the concept of cozy air leaving through a high void attracting cooler air in from a lower gap - it's not a collection of holes on other wall surfaces of the house and also at the same level, this is just what's called a draught. If you have a house with a run attached then the points above are still real, but you ought to additionally take into consideration the run dimension. The EU optimum lawful stocking thickness for a totally free range bird is (and also let's face it, one of the inspirations for maintaining some chickens in your home is potentially improved or far better well-being) 2,500 birds per hectare, that's optimal one bird each 4m squared. Take a close look at some of the deal residences - it could well be the house has the best perches, correct air flow and ample nest boxes for an affordable number of birds, however will each of the chickens have anything greater than an A4 sized item of ground to spend the day on? And so as the claiming goes, "you get what you spend for". You may believe you've got a bargain, however you and your group could rue the day you did. Purchase the right house as well as it will certainly last for a couple of years, if not longer provided the proper therapy. In the end your poultry and your fowl keeping experience will certainly be considerably the much better for it.chickens chickens
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