Chicken Coops for Sale in Elgin, Illinois
Chicken Coops for Sale in Elgin, Illinois
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 For Sale Near Me in Elgin, Illinois
A good place to start any search is the internet. Simply plugging in the phrase "chicken coops for sale in Elgin Illinois" 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 Elgin Illinois chicken coops. What to look for when buying a chicken coop in Elgin, Illinois With the massive rise in chicken maintaining there has been an equally huge surge in the range of fowl materiel on sale. Chicken housing is an instance in factor. It's additionally a classic instance of the excellent old bandwagon being got on as numerous prospective chicken housing professionals pitch a variety of accommodation asserting to be the excellent solution to your chicken real estate requirements. Frequently the price looks eye-catching, your diy-chicken-coop-planshome looks appealing, heck also the clean-cut family standing there feeding the chickens look eye-catching. Definitely they recognize a top quality chicken house when they see one? There are lots of economical and awful 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 with one when the feed container showed up. The outcome was just a costly pile of fire wood and a little group of bemused as well as now homeless bantams.
Chicken Coop Pictures in Elgin, Illinois
Generally these mass produced designs are built of quick grown lumber - come the first decrease of rainfall they swell, leaving you either defending a doorway that will not close, or ripping the door furnishings off in a vain effort to release the squawking inhabitants. The very first cozy day implies the timber dries out as well as cracks, the really felt roofing bubbles as well as boils, and come nightfall the chickens refuse to enter. This is not as a result of their frustration at the decrease of their once desirable building however due to the fact that the hovel is now a haven for, and possibly abounding, the poultry keeper's bane, red mite. Add on the fact that it said on the blurb that it would certainly suit four huge chickens when that stocking thickness was based on the Circle Line at 5pm on a Friday, and also just what are you entrusted? A number of hinges and some kindling. A respectable coop for thee to 4 birds need to cost you in the region of ₤ 300 though this could rely on whether you choose for a cost-free standing house or one with a run attached. Thinking you are varying your birds in a huge area and also the pop hole doorway allows enough for the breed you maintain, after that the primary requirements of housing come down to 3 factors which will certainly define the variety of birds your home will hold; perches, nest boxes and also air flow. Many breeds of chicken will perch when they visit roost in the evening, this perch must ideally be 5-8cm large with smoothed off edges so the foot sits conveniently on it. The perch should be higher than the nest box entrance as chickens will certainly likewise normally look for the highest point to perch. A perch below that will certainly have the birds roosting in the nest box overnight (which is by the way when they produce the most poo) resulting in stained eggs the following day. They shouldn't nevertheless be so high off the floor of the house that leg injuries could possibly happen when the bird comes down in the early morning. Chickens require regarding 20cm of perch each (in tiny types this is clearly less), plus if more than one perch is installed in the house they must be greater than 30cm apart. They will hunker up with their next-door neighbors however are not that keen on roosting with a beak in the bloomers of the bird ahead. Preferably your house must have a the very least one nest box for each three birds and these ought to be off the ground and in the darkest area of your home. Your house ought to have ample ventilation: without it then condensation will certainly build up every night, also in the coldest of weather. Understand, ventilation works on the concept of warm air leaving with a high void attracting cooler air in from a lower void - it's not a collection of holes on opposite walls of your home and at the exact same level, this is just what's referred to as a draught. If you have a house with a run affixed after that the points above are still true, however you must additionally think about the run dimension. The EU optimum legal equipping density for a totally free range bird is (and also let's encounter it, among the motivations for maintaining some chickens at home is potentially enhanced or better welfare) 2,500 birds per hectare, that's optimal one bird each 4m settled. Take a close look at a few of the deal houses - it could well be your home has the best perches, proper air flow and ample nest boxes for a practical number of birds, yet will each of the chickens have anything more than an A4 sized item of ground to spend the day on? And so as the stating goes, "you obtain just what you pay for". You may think you've grabbed a bargain, yet you and your group might rue the day you did. Purchase the right house as well as it will last for a couple of decades, if not longer provided the proper therapy. Eventually your fowl and also your chicken maintaining experience will certainly be a lot the far better for it.chicken plan
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