Chicken Coops for Sale in Malta, Illinois
Chicken Coops for Sale in Malta, 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 Ideas Diy in Malta, Illinois
A good place to start any search is the internet. Simply plugging in the phrase "chicken coops for sale in Malta 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 Malta Illinois chicken coops. What to look for when buying a chicken coop in Malta, Illinois With the substantial boost in chicken maintaining there has actually been an equally large surge in the variety of chicken stuff for sale. Chicken real estate is an instance in factor. It's also a traditional instance of the excellent old bandwagon being jumped on as numerous would-be poultry real estate professionals peddle a selection of lodging asserting to be the optimal remedy to your chicken housing requirements. Frequently the cost looks attractive, your diy-chicken-coop-planshome looks attractive, heck also the clean-cut family standing there feeding the chickens look attractive. Definitely they know a professional chicken house when they see one? There are numerous inexpensive and also horrible cages swamping the market. I recognize this as I've tested a variety of them in the area, as well as seen a ewe run directly via one when the feed container appeared. The outcome was nothing but a costly pile of firewood and also a little group of bemused as well as currently homeless bantams.
Chicken Coop Yard Ideas in Malta, Illinois
Most of the time these mass produced models are constructed of fast grown hardwood - come the very first drop of rainfall they swell, leaving you either defending a door that won't close, or ripping the door furniture off in a vain effort to release the squawking occupants. The first cozy day means the timber dries as well as splits, the felt roof covering bubbles and boils, and also come nightfall the chickens choose not to go in. This is not as a result of their frustration at the decline of their when eye-catching residential property but due to the fact that the hovel is now a place for, and also possibly crawling with, the fowl keeper's nemesis, red mite. Add the fact that it claimed on the blurb that it would match four large hens when that stocking density was based upon the Circle Line at 5pm on a Friday, and also exactly what are you entrusted? A few joints and some kindling. A good coop for thee to 4 birds need to cost you approximately ₤ 300 though this could rely on whether you elect for a free standing house or one with a run affixed. Presuming you are ranging your birds in a huge area and the pop opening doorway allows enough for the type you maintain, after that the primary needs of real estate boil down to three points which will certainly specify the number of birds your home will hold; perches, nest boxes and air flow. The majority of breeds of chicken will certainly perch when they go to roost in the evening, this perch needs to ideally be 5-8cm vast with smoothed off edges so the foot sits conveniently on it. The perch ought to be more than the nest box entry as chickens will certainly also normally seek the highest point to perch. A perch less than that will certainly have the birds roosting in the nest box over night (which is incidentally when they create one of the most poo) causing dirtied eggs the following day. They shouldn't nevertheless be so high off the flooring of your home that leg injuries could possibly happen when the bird comes down in the early morning. Chickens need regarding 20cm of perch each (in tiny breeds this is undoubtedly less), plus if more than one perch is mounted in the house they need to be more than 30cm apart. They will certainly 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 home must have a the very least one nest box for every single 3 birds as well as these should be off the ground and in the darkest area of your home. Your house should have appropriate ventilation: without it then condensation will certainly develop every night, also in the chilliest of weather. Know, air flow works on the principle of warm air leaving with 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 level, this is what's known as a draft. If you have a house with a run attached after that the factors above are still true, but you ought to additionally think about the run size. The EU maximum lawful equipping thickness for a free array bird is (as well as allow's face it, one of the inspirations for keeping some hens at home is possibly enhanced or better well-being) 2,500 birds each hectare, that's optimal one bird per 4m squared. Take a close check out a few of the deal residences - it could well be the house has the appropriate perches, right air flow and ample nest boxes for a reasonable variety of birds, however will each of the chickens have anything more than an A4 sized item of ground to invest the day on? Therefore as the claiming goes, "you get what you spend for". You could believe you've grabbed a bargain, yet you and also your group can rue the day you did. Acquisition the ideal house and also it will last for a few years, if not longer given the proper treatment. Eventually your chicken and also your poultry keeping encounter will certainly be considerably the far better for it.diy chick
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