Chicken Coops for Sale in Oreana, Illinois
Chicken Coops for Sale in Oreana, Illinois
Our Chicken Coop Design – Front Elevation (Part 2 of 3)
Okay, I lied. I had hoped to finish up writing on our chicken coop design with this post, but I ran out of time and markers…seriously – my gray marker ran out. So today I’m going to focus on the front elevation and next week I’ll wrap it up with the other 3 elevations.
Front Elevation of the Coop
When designing your coop you really need to think through ventilation for a number of reasons: respiratory health of the chickens; drying out the moisture and their manure keeps down the smells and the potential of the hens getting sick. I made ours super-ventilated by covering the entire front of our coop with hardware cloth. We may have gone overboard, but it’s better to err on the side of too much ventilation in a coop than too little…and because Atlanta has a fairly temperate climate, I think we’re good. That said, you do have to consider strong winds – particularly in the colder months. That’s why Britt and I crafted Roman shade-like curtains out of painter’s drop cloths for the front and the windows on the other 3 sides of the coop. It was quite inexpensive and fairly easy to do…particularly if you strategically use the hems already sewn in. These curtains will give our ladies a refuge from the cold winds – protecting the exposed areas of their bodies (combs, wattles, and feet).
Here are a few other things to note about the front elevation of our coop:
- Again, entire area is covered in hardware cloth. I could have used chicken wire on the top (bottom needs hardware cloth to keep out critters), but I had enough hardware cloth and I thought it looked better for the entire area to be consistent.
- The height of the walls are 6.5’…which is plenty high (for me at least) to be able to walk through the door…and there is plenty of height inside, since there is no ceiling (just the rafters and tin roof above).
- 24″ doors were constructed out of pressure-treated wood and painted the same color as the doors of our home.
- To clean things up a bit and to cover up where the pieces of hardware cloth met, I added 1″ trim on the outside of each 2×4 and painted it and the siding of the rest of the coop the same color gray as our house.
- We used gate latches as handles. If you do as well, make sure you make it so that you won’t get locked in when the doors close. To do that, I simply drilled a hole just above the latch and attached a long, thin chain that I threaded through the hole…allowing me to open the latch from inside. Don’t use string or twine…I found that out the hard way. String will wear out and break – leaving you stranded inside. Fortunately when it happened to me, one of my girls was within shouting distance.
- We were running out of hardware cloth when we were finishing the gable, so we simply filled in the middle space with a board and painted it gray. To make sense of this oddly proportioned space and to bring a little bit of character to the coop, I hung a set of antlers from a Mule Deer I shot several years ago with my dad in Wyoming.
So there’s the front elevation. We are really pleased with it…it’s done what we set out to do – make a more than livable space for our chickens (and bunny), while still being attractive. Now we may be a bit too particular, but I really think having an attractive coop in a nice setting has made raising chickens not only sustainable, but more enjoyable. So sure, you could build a coop that is purely functional, but if it looks like a hunk of junk, is that really something you want to see every day…sometimes several times? We thought not.
Next week I’ll wrap things up on our chicken coop design…but until then, please let me know if you have any other questions about our coop or raising chickens. I could perhaps work my answers into the next post.
Take care,
PS: Here are the links to and of Our Chicken Coop Design…and the link to .
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A good place to start any search is the internet. Simply plugging in the phrase "chicken coops for sale in Oreana 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 Oreana Illinois chicken coops. What to look for when buying a chicken coop in Oreana, Illinois With the huge rise in poultry keeping there has been an equally huge increase in the range of poultry paraphernalia on sale. Fowl real estate is a case in factor. It's likewise a classic example of the good old bandwagon being jumped on as numerous potential fowl housing experts pitch a selection of lodging declaring to be the excellent option to your chicken housing needs. Often the cost looks appealing, your diy-chicken-coop-planshome looks eye-catching, hell also the clean-cut family standing there feeding the chickens look appealing. Undoubtedly they understand a professional chicken house when they see one? There are numerous cheap and also horrible coops swamping the marketplace. I know this as I've tested a number of them in the field, as well as seen a ewe run straight via one when the feed bucket appeared. The outcome was only a pricey heap of fire wood and a tiny group of bemused as well as currently homeless bantams.
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Generally these mass produced designs are constructed of rapid grown timber - come the initial decrease of rainfall they swell, leaving you either barricading a doorway that won't close, or ripping the doorway furnishings off in a vain attempt to launch the squawking inhabitants. The initial warm and comfortable day implies the lumber dries out and also fractures, the felt roofing system bubbles and also boils, as well as come nightfall the chickens choose not to go in. This is not because of their frustration at the decrease of their once attractive residential property but considering that the hovel is currently a haven for, and possibly crawling with, the fowl caretaker's nemesis, red mite. Add the fact that it said on the blurb that it would certainly fit four big hens when that stocking density was based on the Circle Line at 5pm on a Friday, as well as exactly what are you entrusted? A number of hinges as well as some kindling. A decent coop for thee to four birds ought to cost you around ₤ 300 though this can rely on whether you choose for a complimentary standing house or one with a run attached. Thinking you are varying your birds in a huge space and the pop hole doorway allows enough for the type you keep, then the main requirements of housing come down to 3 points which will certainly specify the number of birds your house will hold; perches, nest boxes and air flow. Many types of chicken will certainly perch when they go to roost in the evening, this perch needs to ideally be 5-8cm broad with smoothed off edges so the foot sits comfortably on it. The perch must be higher than the nest box entry as chickens will certainly likewise naturally search for the acme to perch. A perch less than that will have the birds roosting in the nest box overnight (which is incidentally when they produce the most poo) bring about stained eggs the list below day. They should not however be so high off the floor of your home that leg injuries could occur when the bird comes down in the early morning. Chickens need concerning 20cm of perch each (in small types this is undoubtedly much less), plus if greater than one perch is set up in your house they need to be more than 30cm apart. They will hunker up with their neighbors however are not that crazy about roosting with a beak in the bloomers of the bird in front. Ideally your home ought to have a least one nest box for every single 3 birds and also these should be off the ground and in the darkest location of your home. The house needs to have ample ventilation: without it then condensation will certainly accumulate every evening, even in the coldest of weather condition. Realize, air flow works on the principle of warm air leaving with a high gap drawing cooler air in from a lower space - it's not a collection of openings on other walls of your house and also at the exact same level, this is just what's referred to as a draft. If you have a house with a run connected after that the points above are still true, but you need to additionally take into consideration the run size. The EU optimum legal stocking thickness for a cost-free array bird is (and allow's encounter it, one of the inspirations for maintaining some hens in your home is possibly boosted or much better well-being) 2,500 birds each hectare, that's optimal one bird each 4m squared. Take a close check out some of the bargain houses - it could well be your house has the right perches, appropriate ventilation as well as adequate nest boxes for a sensible number of birds, but will each of the chickens have anything more than an A4 sized piece of ground to spend the day on? And so as the claiming goes, "you get exactly what you spend for". You may think you've grabbed a deal, however you and your group can rue the day you did. Acquisition the appropriate house and it will certainly last for a few decades, otherwise longer provided the proper treatment. In the end your fowl as well as your fowl keeping experience will be a lot the much better for it.coop chicken
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