Chicken Coops for Sale in Nocatee, Florida
Chicken Coops for Sale in Nocatee, Florida
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 Blueprints in Nocatee, Florida
A good place to start any search is the internet. Simply plugging in the phrase "chicken coops for sale in Nocatee Florida" 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 Nocatee Florida chicken coops. What to look for when buying a chicken coop in Nocatee, Florida With the massive rise in chicken maintaining there has actually been a similarly huge rise in the variety of chicken paraphernalia for sale. Poultry housing is a proceedings in point. It's also a traditional example of the good old bandwagon being jumped on as numerous potential fowl housing professionals peddle a variety of accommodation claiming to be the ideal solution to your chicken real estate demands. Usually the rate looks desirable, the house looks eye-catching, hell even the clean-cut family standing there feeding the chickens look desirable. Certainly they understand a top quality chicken house when they see one? There are numerous cheap and awful coops swamping the market. I know this as I've checked 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 only an expensive pile of fire wood as well as a little group of bemused and also currently homeless bantams.
Chicken Coop Kits in Nocatee, Florida
Most of the time these mass produced models are constructed of fast grown timber - come the first drop of rainfall they swell, leaving you either blockading a door that won't close, or ripping the door furnishings off in a vain effort to launch the squawking citizens. The very first cozy day indicates the timber dries out and fractures, the felt roof bubbles and boils, as well as come nightfall the hens choose not to go in. This is not as a result of their disappointment at the decline of their when desirable property yet since the hovel is currently a place for, and most likely crawling with, the poultry keeper's nemesis, red mite. Add on the fact that it stated on the blurb that it would certainly match 4 huge hens when that stocking density was based upon the Circle Line at 5pm on a Friday, as well as what are you entrusted? A number of hinges and also some kindling. A decent coop for thee to 4 birds must cost you around ₤ 300 though this could depend on whether you elect for a totally free standing house or one with a run attached. Presuming you are ranging your birds in a large room and also the pop opening doorway allows enough for the type you maintain, after that the main requirements of real estate come down to 3 points which will certainly specify the variety of birds your house will hold; perches, nest boxes and also ventilation. Most breeds of chicken will certainly perch when they go to roost at night, this perch should preferably be 5-8cm vast with smoothed off edges so the foot rests pleasantly on it. The perch ought to be more than the nest box entry as chickens will certainly likewise naturally search for the highest point to perch. A perch lower than that will have the birds roosting in the nest box over night (which is incidentally when they create the most poo) bring about soiled eggs the list below day. They should not however be so high off the flooring of the house that leg injuries might occur when the bird gets down in the early morning. Chickens need concerning 20cm of perch each (in little breeds this is clearly less), plus if greater than one perch is mounted in the house they need to be more than 30cm apart. They will hunker up with their neighbors yet are not that keen on roosting with a beak in the bloomers of the bird ahead. Preferably the house must have a the very least one nest box for every three birds as well as these must be off the ground and also in the darkest location of your home. The house ought to have sufficient ventilation: without it after that condensation will accumulate every evening, also in the coldest of weather. Understand, air flow works on the principle of cozy air leaving through a high void attracting cooler air in from a reduced gap - it's not a collection of openings on other wall surfaces of your home and also at the same degree, this is just what's known as a draft. If you have a house with a run connected then the factors above are still real, yet you must also take into consideration the run size. The EU maximum legal stocking thickness for a complimentary range bird is (and also let's face it, one of the motivations for keeping some hens in your home is possibly boosted or better well-being) 2,500 birds per hectare, that's maximum one bird each 4m squared. Take a close look at a few of the deal residences - it could well be your home has the right perches, right air flow and sufficient nest boxes for a reasonable number 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 exactly what you spend for". You could assume you've got a deal, but you and also your flock could possibly rue the day you did. Purchase the best house and it will last for a few decades, if not longer offered the correct therapy. Eventually your poultry as well as your poultry keeping encounter will certainly be a lot the better for it.build chicken
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