Chicken Coops for Sale in Snellville, Georgia
Chicken Coops for Sale in Snellville, Georgia
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 Small in Snellville, Georgia
A good place to start any search is the internet. Simply plugging in the phrase "chicken coops for sale in Snellville Georgia" 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 Snellville Georgia chicken coops. What to look for when buying a chicken coop in Snellville, Georgia With the massive rise in poultry maintaining there has actually been an equally huge rise in the range of poultry stuff for sale. Poultry real estate is an instance in factor. It's additionally a classic example of the excellent old bandwagon being jumped on as numerous prospective chicken real estate experts peddle a range of accommodation asserting to be the perfect remedy to your chicken housing requirements. Typically the rate looks appealing, your house looks appealing, heck also the clean-cut household standing there feeding the chickens look appealing. Surely they recognize a high quality chicken house when they see one? There are many affordable and awful cages flooding the market. I recognize this as I've examined a number of them in the field, and seen a ewe run directly via one when the feed pail appeared. The result was nothing but a pricey pile of firewood and also a little flock of bemused and now homeless bantams.
Chicken Coop Plans Pdf in Snellville, Georgia
Most of the time these mass produced models are created of rapid grown lumber - come the first decline of rainfall they swell, leaving you either blockading a doorway that will not shut, or tearing the doorway furnishings off in a vain attempt to launch the squawking residents. The first warm and comfortable day means the timber dries and also splits, the really felt roofing bubbles as well as boils, as well as come nightfall the chickens choose not to enter. This is not because of their disappointment at the decline of their once attractive residential property but 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 that it claimed on the blurb that it would certainly fit four large hens when that stocking thickness was based on the Circle Line at 5pm on a Friday, and also exactly what are you left with? A couple of hinges and some kindling. A good coop for thee to four birds ought to cost you in the region of ₤ 300 though this could depend on whether you elect for a free standing house or one with a run attached. Thinking you are varying your birds in a big area and also the pop hole door allows enough for the breed you keep, then the major demands of real estate come down to three points which will define the number of birds the house will hold; perches, nest boxes and air flow. Most types of chicken will certainly perch when they visit roost during the night, this perch should preferably be 5-8cm large with smoothed off edges so the foot rests easily on it. The perch needs to be higher than the nest box entry as chickens will additionally normally try to find the acme to perch. A perch lower than that will certainly have the birds roosting in the nest box overnight (which is by the way when they generate one of the most poo) bring about stained eggs the list below day. They shouldn't nonetheless be so high off the flooring of your home that leg injuries might take place when the bird comes down in the morning. Chickens require about 20cm of perch each (in tiny types this is obviously much less), plus if more than one perch is set up in your house they ought to be greater than 30cm apart. They will certainly hunker up with their next-door neighbors but are not that keen on roosting with a beak in the bloomers of the bird in front. Preferably your home needs to have a the very least one nest box for every three birds and these must be off the ground and in the darkest area of your house. Your house must have appropriate ventilation: without it after that condensation will certainly accumulate every evening, even in the coldest of weather condition. Be aware, air flow works on the principle of cozy air leaving through a high gap attracting cooler air in from a lower void - it's not a set of openings on other walls of the house and at the very same level, 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, yet you need to also 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, among the inspirations for keeping some chickens in the house is possibly enhanced or better welfare) 2,500 birds each hectare, that's maximum one bird each 4m settled. Take a close look at a few of the bargain residences - it could well be your house has the right perches, correct ventilation as well as enough nest boxes for a sensible number of birds, however will each of the chickens have anything greater than an A4 sized piece of ground to invest the day on? And so as the stating goes, "you get exactly what you pay for". You may believe you've got a deal, but you and your flock can rue the day you did. Acquisition the right house and also it will certainly last for a few decades, otherwise longer offered the proper treatment. Ultimately your chicken as well as your poultry keeping encounter will certainly be considerably the far better for it.chicken coops
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