Chicken Coops for Sale in Kirkwood, California
Chicken Coops for Sale in Kirkwood, California
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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Baby Chicken in Kirkwood, California
A good place to start any search is the internet. Simply plugging in the phrase "chicken coops for sale in Kirkwood California" 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 Kirkwood California chicken coops. What to look for when buying a chicken coop in Kirkwood, California With the substantial rise in chicken keeping there has been a just as large surge in the array of poultry materiel on sale. Chicken real estate is a case in factor. It's likewise a traditional instance of the great old bandwagon being got on as numerous potential poultry housing professionals pitch an array of lodging asserting to be the perfect option to your chicken real estate demands. Typically the price looks desirable, your diy-chicken-coop-planshome looks attractive, heck also the clean-cut household standing there feeding the chickens look desirable. Definitely they understand a quality chicken house when they see one? There are lots of inexpensive and also unpleasant coops swamping the market. I recognize this as I've checked a number of them in the field, and also seen a ewe run straight through one when the feed pail showed up. The outcome was only a costly pile of fire wood and also a little group of bemused as well as currently homeless bantams.
Chicken Coop For Sale Near Me in Kirkwood, California
Usually these standardized designs are constructed of fast grown timber - come the first decline of rainfall they swell, leaving you either blockading a doorway that won't close, or ripping the doorway furnishings off in a vain effort to launch the squawking citizens. The first warm day implies the timber dries out as well as cracks, the really felt roofing bubbles and boils, and come nightfall the hens choose not to go in. This is not as a result of their frustration at the decline of their as soon as eye-catching home but since the hovel is now a place for, as well as possibly crawling with, the chicken caretaker's bane, red mite. Add the fact that it said on the blurb that it would match 4 huge chickens when that stocking density was based on the Circle Line at 5pm on a Friday, and what are you entrusted? A number of joints as well as some kindling. A good coop for thee to 4 birds must cost you around ₤ 300 though this can depend on whether you elect for a totally free standing house or one with a run connected. Thinking you are ranging your birds in a big room and the pop opening doorway allows sufficient for the type you keep, after that the main requirements of real estate come down to 3 factors which will certainly specify the variety of birds your home will certainly hold; perches, nest boxes and air flow. Most breeds of chicken will certainly perch when they go to roost during the night, this perch needs to ideally be 5-8cm large with smoothed off sides so the foot sits pleasantly on it. The perch ought to be above the nest box access as chickens will certainly also normally try to find the acme to perch. A perch below that will have the birds roosting in the nest box overnight (which is incidentally when they produce one of the most poo) leading to dirtied eggs the list below day. They should not nevertheless be so high off the floor of the house that leg injuries can occur when the bird comes down in the morning. Chickens require regarding 20cm of perch each (in small types this is clearly less), plus if more than one perch is installed in the house they must be more than 30cm apart. They will hunker up with their neighbors but are not that crazy about roosting with a beak in the bloomers of the bird in front. Preferably the house must have a least one nest box for every single three birds and also these ought to be off the ground and in the darkest area of your house. Your home should have sufficient ventilation: without it then condensation will certainly develop every evening, even in the coldest of weather. Be aware, ventilation works with the concept of warm and comfortable air leaving via a high space drawing cooler air in from a reduced space - it's not a collection of openings on opposite wall surfaces of your home as well as at the same degree, this is just what's referred to as a draught. If you have a house with a run affixed then the points above are still true, but you should also take into consideration the run size. The EU maximum legal equipping thickness for a free array bird is (as well as let's encounter it, among the motivations for maintaining some chickens in your home is potentially enhanced or much better well-being) 2,500 birds per hectare, that's optimal one bird each 4m made even. Take a close check out a few of the deal homes - it could well be your home has the appropriate perches, appropriate ventilation as well as adequate nest boxes for a sensible number of birds, however will each of the chickens have anything greater than an A4 sized item of ground to spend the day on? Therefore as the saying goes, "you get what you spend for". You might think you've got a deal, yet you and your group could possibly rue the day you did. Acquisition the best house and also it will certainly last for a few years, if not longer offered the right therapy. In the long run your chicken and your poultry keeping experience will be a lot the much better for it.diy plans
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