Chicken Coops for Sale in Kankakee, Illinois
Chicken Coops for Sale in Kankakee, Illinois
The Small Property Chicken Coop
Raising chickens has been one of the most rewarding activities that we’ve done on our homestead. While we don’t raise them for meat due to the city’s limitations, we reap an abundance of benefits from the eggs and the friendship we get from our girls.
In this next installment of , I’ll be sharing how my husband Todd designed and built Lucy and Ethel’s chicken coop using his ingenuity and minimal square footage on our .18 of an acre.
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, I was so excited to finally be able to raise a couple of my own “girls” to gather eggs from and get to know. I’m an animal lover, and seem to be able to make friends with any animal that will allow me, so I knew that these two sweet little chicks and I would be the best of friends. , and since there were only two of them, there was plenty of space for them to grow.
After moving some things around to set up our ‘barn’ area, Todd got to work on the chicken coop. Being a handy guy, he decided that he could design and build one that would be cheaper than a prefab one, as well as be able to fit where we needed it to on our small property homestead.
He chose to use the back of one of our sheds as the back wall, and another of our sheds as the side wall, which would save us some money on hardware cloth. He framed the rest of the coop and door with 2x4s. He also extended the side of the shed so that it would serve as the left wall of the coop.
This is the shed that is being used as the back wall of the coop. You can see on the right side of the shed where the new section was added for the left wall of the coop.
Todd designed the girls’ coop to be multi-level, rather than sprawling. He used plywood and 2x4s for the levels, and built an access ladder to both. The girls had a hard time not slipping on the sleek wood between the “steps” on the ladder, so I added a few strips of to those sections, which worked beautifully.
Here is a current photo of the two levels (please excuse the “lived in” look, I apparently hadn’t taken photos of the two levels when it was new). This is the top level, where we keep the girls’ nesting boxes. The ladder with the comes up the right side of this level, and it’s easy for the girls to hop up to the top of their nesting boxes, where they like to sleep at night. Todd also built a roost for them, which is actually a few inches offset from the edge of the level so when they poop, most of it falls to the ground.
Here is the second level, where the girls usually eat their evening treats, and where I keep their oyster shell and water (water not pictured). You can see how the ladder passes the second level up to the top level, which makes it easy for the girls to hop to the second level at snack time.
We left the bottom level as dirt, and I have been using the , which has worked out well for the most part. We haven’t had any issues with large rodents, and any mice that dare step foot into the coop are met with two hungry beaks.
Todd lined the front of the coop with 1″ hardware cloth and it has worked very well for us; however, I have heard that if you have issues with raccoons, it’s best to go with 1/2″ hardware cloth.
Another Space Saving Coop Idea
A friend of mine, Nora from , and is based on Todd’s multilevel chicken coop design. Their family has around 8-10 girls, so this brooder was a very good fit for them. It can definitely be built outdoors and used as a space-saving chicken coop for 1-3 chickens, or built indoors to use as a brooder for a larger flock.
As you can see, building a chicken coop to fit your small property needs can be a much better prospect than purchasing a prefab chicken coop. While prefab coops are beautiful and promise ease, tailoring your chicken coop to fit in just the right place on your small property can be more affordable, and in the long run, more convenient for your homestead setup. As long as your chicken coop meets , you can build a chicken coop that meets your homestead’s needed requirements as well, which will make everyone happy!
For more great information on raising chickens, please visit Fresh Eggs Daily’s Ultimate Chicken Care Guide.
What size is your property? Do you use space-saving techniques?
Baby Chick Hatching in Kankakee, Illinois
A good place to start any search is the internet. Simply plugging in the phrase "chicken coops for sale in Kankakee 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 Kankakee Illinois chicken coops. What to look for when buying a chicken coop in Kankakee, Illinois With the huge rise in chicken maintaining there has been a similarly huge rise in the variety of chicken stuff on sale. Poultry real estate is a case in point. It's also a classic instance of the good old bandwagon being jumped on as numerous potential fowl housing professionals market a range of lodging asserting to be the perfect option to your chicken real estate requirements. Typically the rate looks desirable, your diy-chicken-coop-planshome looks eye-catching, heck also the clean-cut family members standing there feeding the chickens look appealing. Definitely they recognize a top quality chicken house when they see one? There are several affordable as well as nasty coops swamping the market. I know this as I've tested a variety of them in the field, as well as seen a ewe run straight through one when the feed container showed up. The outcome was just an expensive heap of firewood and a little group of bemused and also now homeless bantams.
Chicken Coop On Wheels Designs in Kankakee, Illinois
Most of the time these mass produced models are constructed of quick grown up wood - come the initial decrease of rain they swell, leaving you either defending a door that will not shut, or ripping the doorway furniture off in a vain attempt to release the squawking occupants. The first cozy day implies the lumber dries out as well as fractures, the felt roofing system bubbles and boils, and come nightfall the hens refuse to go in. This is not due to their disappointment at the decline of their when desirable commercial property but considering that the hovel is currently a place for, and also probably crawling with, the fowl caretaker's bane, red mite. Add the fact that it claimed on the blurb that it would match 4 huge hens when that stocking thickness was based upon the Circle Line at 5pm on a Friday, and just what are you left with? A few hinges and also some kindling. A respectable coop for thee to four birds should cost you in the region of ₤ 300 though this could depend on whether you choose for a cost-free standing house or one with a run attached. Assuming you are ranging your birds in a big area and also the pop hole doorway allows sufficient for the type you maintain, then the primary requirements of real estate boil down to three points which will define the number of birds your house will certainly hold; perches, nest boxes as well as air flow. Many types of chicken will perch when they visit roost at night, this perch needs to ideally be 5-8cm broad with smoothed off edges so the foot sits easily on it. The perch should be above the nest box entry as chickens will certainly also normally seek the highest point to perch. A perch lower than that will certainly have the birds roosting in the nest box overnight (which is incidentally when they generate the most poo) leading to dirtied eggs the list below day. They should not nonetheless be so high off the floor of your house that leg injuries could possibly happen when the bird comes down in the early morning. Chickens require about 20cm of perch each (in little types this is undoubtedly much less), plus if greater than one perch is installed in the house they should be greater than 30cm apart. They will certainly hunker up with their next-door neighbors yet are not that crazy about roosting with a beak in the bloomers of the bird in front. Ideally your house should have a the very least one nest box for every three birds and also these ought to be off the ground and in the darkest area of the house. Your home needs to have sufficient ventilation: without it after that condensation will certainly build up every evening, even in the coldest of climate. Know, ventilation works on the concept 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 opposite walls of your house and at the exact same level, this is what's called a draft. If you have a house with a run affixed then the factors above are still real, yet you should likewise consider the run dimension. The EU optimum lawful equipping density for a complimentary range bird is (as well as let's encounter it, among the inspirations for keeping some chickens in the house is possibly enhanced or better well-being) 2,500 birds each hectare, that's optimal one bird each 4m made even. Take a close take a look at a few of the deal residences - it could well be the house has the right perches, appropriate ventilation and sufficient nest boxes for an affordable number of birds, however will each of the chickens have anything more than an A4 sized piece of ground to invest the day on? And so as the claiming goes, "you obtain just what you spend for". You might think you've got hold of a bargain, however you and also your flock might rue the day you did. Acquisition the best house and it will certainly last for a couple of years, otherwise longer given the appropriate treatment. In the long run your poultry as well as your poultry keeping experience will be considerably the far better for it.build coop
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