Chicken Coops for Sale in Fort Collins, Colorado
Chicken Coops for Sale in Fort Collins, Colorado
How to Choose the Right Chicken Coop
With Spring well underway, many of us are doing a little spring cleaning and preparing for some new chicks! Maybe it’s time for a new coop? Here are some basic tips for choosing the right coop for your flock and how to take care of it so you can be sure your chickens and other fowl are happy and healthy.
A chicken coop can have many purposes. It can be as simple as a place to roost at night if your flock is free range, or, if you prefer to keep your flock in one place, serves as their all-inclusive home with room for roosting, exercise, feeding, and laying eggs. There are many different designs and layouts to choose from when picking out a coop. You can buy one pre-made, or find instructions for building your own. Here are some factors to consider when choosing your flock’s home:
- Key Features There are a few basic features you’ll want for any chicken coop:
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Roosting bars don’t have to be fancy, and they’ll give your hens a safe place to sleep at night. Like most birds, chickens, turkeys, and other types of fowl prefer sleeping in an elevated area in order to stay safe from predators. Roosting bars will provide a place for your hens to perch at night so they can sleep soundly.
- A nesting box is a great way to encourage your hens to lay their eggs in a specific spot. If the coop you own doesn’t have built-in boxes, milk crates are a great substitute!
- Dispensers are useful for keeping food and water clean. There are plenty of styles you can buy, or you can make them yourself. Keep food and water dispensers slightly elevated, a few inches off the ground, in order to prevent dirt from getting in. If you have young chicks in your coop, remember to make sure the food and water are accessible, and that they are not at risk of getting caught in the water dish and drowning.
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- Space
Our ladies are free range during the day, so they don’t need much space in their coop. Having enough space is important for your coop if you want to avoid fighting. The average recommendation is a minimum of 1-2 square feet per bird, and much more if your flock remains in the coop 24/7. If your flock is not given enough space, it won’t be long before you notice the signs. Look for birds pecking at one another and birds with missing feathers. Bullying is a common side effect when there isn’t enough room to go around. If you do notice signs of bullying in your flock, separate the bullied birds until they are better and increase the amount of space in your coop.
- Safety There are a number of things that might affect your flock’s safety, whether it’s predators or the elements. Protect your flock from extreme temperatures by ensuring that your coop is well insulated and also well ventilated to allow proper airflow. There are a number of things you can do each year to prepare your flock for winter, and in the summer months they need access to fresh air and water in order to keep cool. As for predators, a properly enclosed coop will keep out larger animals, and roosting bars will allow your birds to stay at a safe height while they sleep.
- Convenience There are plenty of things to think about for your hens when choosing the right coop, but don’t forget about yourself! A good coop will be easily accessible so that you can gather eggs, change out food and water, and clean the coop without much hassle. Many coops will have larger doors or hatches that allow you better access inside the coop, and can be locked up when you are finished.
Basic Coop Care Once you’ve chosen the right coop, maintaining it is your next step. Be sure to place your coop in an area that will stay dry so you and your flock won’t have to deal with mud and puddles after some wet weather. Give your hens a supply of hay or straw so they can keep warm and build nests, and provide an area with clean dust or sand that will allow your birds to clean themselves and prevent mites. Change out dirty straw regularly, and clean out any droppings before they build up too much. Many coops are designed so that droppings can be removed easily, but in our lean-to coop we use a rake to pull them out. Cleaning up droppings and old food and keeping the coop dry will prevent mold and keep out bugs and other pests.
The right coop will ensure the health and safety of your backyard flock!
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Chicken Coop Reviews in Fort Collins, Colorado
A good place to start any search is the internet. Simply plugging in the phrase "chicken coops for sale in Fort Collins Colorado" 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 Fort Collins Colorado chicken coops. What to look for when buying a chicken coop in Fort Collins, Colorado With the big increase in chicken keeping there has been an equally large rise in the array of fowl paraphernalia for sale. Poultry housing is a proceedings in point. It's likewise a timeless example of the good old bandwagon being got on as various prospective chicken real estate professionals pitch a selection of lodging claiming to be the suitable solution to your chicken real estate needs. Often the cost looks desirable, your diy-chicken-coop-planshome looks attractive, heck even the clean-cut family members standing there feeding the chickens look attractive. Certainly they understand a quality chicken house when they see one? There are many economical and also awful cages flooding the marketplace. I know this as I've tested a variety of them in the area, and also seen a ewe run directly with one when the feed container showed up. The result was only a costly heap of firewood and also a little flock of bemused and also currently homeless bantams.
Chicken Coop in Fort Collins, Colorado
Generally these standardized versions are constructed of rapid grown up timber - come the first drop of rainfall they swell, leaving you either blockading a door that will not shut, or ripping the doorway furniture off in a vain effort to release the squawking occupants. The first warm day suggests the lumber dries as well as cracks, the really felt roofing bubbles and also boils, as well as come nightfall the hens choose not to enter. This is not as a result of their frustration at the decline of their as soon as appealing commercial property yet due to the fact that the hovel is currently a place for, as well as probably crawling with, the poultry caretaker's nemesis, red mite. Add on the fact that it said on the blurb that it would suit 4 big hens when that equipping density was based on the Circle Line at 5pm on a Friday, and just what are you left with? A few joints as well as some kindling. A respectable coop for thee to four birds should cost you in the region of ₤ 300 though this can depend on whether you elect for a cost-free standing house or one with a run attached. Presuming you are varying your birds in a huge room as well as the pop hole doorway is big sufficient for the breed you maintain, after that the primary requirements of housing boil down to 3 factors which will specify the number of birds the house will certainly hold; perches, nest boxes as well as air flow. The majority of breeds of chicken will certainly perch when they go to roost in the evening, this perch must preferably be 5-8cm large with smoothed off sides so the foot rests comfortably on it. The perch needs to be higher than the nest box entry as chickens will likewise naturally look for the highest point to perch. A perch lower than that will have the birds roosting in the nest box overnight (which is by the way when they create one of the most poo) resulting in dirtied eggs the list below day. They shouldn't nonetheless be so high off the flooring of your home that leg injuries might occur when the bird comes down in the early morning. Chickens require concerning 20cm of perch each (in tiny types this is obviously much less), plus if more than one perch is set up in the house they should be more than 30cm apart. They will certainly hunker up with their neighbors yet are not that crazy about roosting with a beak in the bloomers of the bird in front. Preferably your house must have a the very least one nest box for each 3 birds and also these need to be off the ground and also in the darkest area of the house. Your home ought to have ample air flow: without it after that condensation will accumulate every evening, also in the chilliest of weather. Understand, air flow works on the principle of warm and comfortable air leaving via a high gap attracting cooler air in from a lower void - it's not a collection of holes on contrary wall surfaces of your house 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 after that the factors above are still real, yet you should also think about the run dimension. The EU maximum legal stocking thickness for a cost-free array bird is (and also allow's encounter it, among the motivations for keeping some hens in your home is potentially improved or far better welfare) 2,500 birds per hectare, that's optimal one bird per 4m settled. Take a close look at a few of the deal residences - it could well be your house has the ideal perches, right ventilation and enough nest boxes for an affordable 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 stating goes, "you get exactly what you pay for". You could assume you've grabbed a deal, however you and also your group might rue the day you did. Purchase the appropriate house and it will last for a couple of years, if not longer given the appropriate therapy. Ultimately your poultry as well as your fowl maintaining experience will certainly be considerably the much better for it.plan diy
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