Chicken Coops for Sale in Charlottesville, Indiana
Chicken Coops for Sale in Charlottesville, Indiana
Build Your Own Chicken Coop – A story of chickens
So WAY back in March…Josh and I had a talk with the boys and we decided as a family that we would get some chickens. We were all pretty excited about this new adventure and couldn’t wait to get started! At the beginning of April we headed over to to figure out what we would need and how many chickens we wanted. They had a very helpful employee who told us everything we would need to know about taking care of our chickens. Also, lucky for us we had Housewife Gena available to answer any questions we might have!
The boys were excited to help pick out the chickens and were even more excited when the IFA staff told us the chicks needed to be held lots and lots so they would be used to the kids. 🙂� After about an hour there we came home with…
Six adorable chicks! Because we are a family of five we decided to get two chickens that are said to lay daily and four chickens that lay 3-4 times a week. We figured that would be plenty of eggs for us!
A couple weeks later, IFA did an Easter Egg Hunt. Now being a farm supply store, they don’t give away just candy in their eggs, they also give away…you guessed it CHICKENS! (And bunnies and ducks and turkeys) Housewife Jenn’s kids ended up with four leghorn chicks! Another family in our ward decided they didn’t need any extra chickens and gave Jenn’s family another two chicks! Since we were already building a coop for our chicks, we offered to let Jenn’s family’s chicks live with ours.
So here are the little chicks! Happy under their heat lamp and eating away! 🙂�
While our chicks were perfectly happy in the garage, in their tote…it quickly got too small for 12 chicks. As soon as they were ready, we transferred them to the backyard to a makeshift coop. I did not take a picture of the makeshift coop because…well it was pretty sad. It served it’s purpose and the chickens loved it but it was not anything you’d want to show off! With that in mind, Josh began the process of building a coop for our chickens. We saw a coop at IFA that we thought looked great! However, it was $600.00. As much as we liked our chickens…we didn’t $600.00 like them!
So Josh took a few measurements and we sketched out what we wanted for our chickens, using the IFA coop as inspiration. We took a trip to Lowe’s to price out our materials. We were lucky enough that we had left over wood, Jenn’s family had left over wood and a family a few houses down from us reroofed their house and donated their left over roofing supplies to us! It was our goal to use as many materials as we already had and keep the cost as low as possible!
Let me say now…Josh and I have never “built” anything. Really. This was quite an adventure for us (mostly Josh since he did almost all of the work) and I’m so happy with how it all turned out!
He started with the base for the coop itself. We wanted to make sure that there was enough clearance for the chickens to use under the coop as part of the chicken run.
He used four 3″ screws in each post to make sure it was nice and sturdy.
Wall framing almost done!
Look what happens when you start building a coop…your chickens start laying eggs! 🙂� (So far Jenn’s chickens are the only ones laying. Lucky for us, our chickens are DUAL chickens so if they don’t get to laying…they going to get to frying!)
The framing completed from two angles.
Up go the walls!
Putting in the hinged door for collecting eggs.
Getting the eggs out will be a breeze! 🙂�
A few angles of the walls all up and the plywood for the roof up. As you can see, our coop has skylights…that’s how we roll.
First coat of paint and the tar paper on the roof. You may wonder why we chose this color for the coop. Well to be completely honest, we picked colors we wanted to paint our house and figured the coop would be the perfect guinea pig to see if we like the colors! 🙂� The coop is Valspar’s Royal Gray. (I know, it looks blue to me too!)
For the door we chose Valspar’s Kettle Black. It has blue undertones so it goes really well with the Royal Gray.
The roof complete with the windows in. I’ve seen lots of super cute coops with real glass windows. It was less expensive ($1.29 a pane) to just use plexiglass. And it worked perfectly!
The coop with the final coat of paint, windows/hardware on and trim put up.
The door on the coop. We chose to put a large door on the side to make it easier to clean out for us. And I have to say that it makes it look way cuter! 🙂�
The Roosting bar inside the coop.
Trim all painted and mesh put around the bottom of the coop.
The nesting boxes. The only thing I didn’t get a picture of was the peel and stick tiles that we put on the bottom of the coop. They were only $0.02 a tile! I think we ended up using about 14 tiles.
The finished product with the happy chickens inside!
Another angle. After the coop itself was completed. Josh used 2 x 2’s and 2 x 3’s to build the frame for the yard and another, outdoor roosting bar. We also added in the ramp for the chickens to get into the coop. I’m super proud of Josh for all of his hard work and I’m really excited for how amazing it turned out!! Our total cost for the entire coop…every last nail, hinge, can of paint, everything was about $290.00. And the best part is the chicken coop and run are significantly bigger than the one at IFA. 🙂� So HUGE round of applause for Josh and the coop!
UPDATE: Hello dear readers!!! This has been a long time coming, but this post is going to get a HUGE revamp! With having babies and life getting in the way, I’ve neglected this post and getting out the information that I should. I am going to be working on updating this post with as much information on the building and materials as I can. We didn’t keep super great track of all the materials we used, but I will do the best I can to give you as much info as possible! Thank you all again for loving this project!
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Chicken Coop Pinterest in Charlottesville, Indiana
A good place to start any search is the internet. Simply plugging in the phrase "chicken coops for sale in Charlottesville Indiana" 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 Charlottesville Indiana chicken coops. What to look for when buying a chicken coop in Charlottesville, Indiana With the massive increase in chicken maintaining there has actually been a just as large rise in the variety of chicken stuff for sale. Poultry housing is an instance in factor. It's likewise a timeless instance of the excellent old bandwagon being jumped on as various prospective chicken housing professionals peddle an array of cottage asserting to be the optimal remedy to your chicken real estate needs. Usually the price looks eye-catching, your diy-chicken-coop-planshome looks desirable, hell also the clean-cut household standing there feeding the chickens look attractive. Certainly they recognize a professional chicken house when they see one? There are lots of affordable as well as horrible coops swamping the market. I understand this as I've examined a variety of them in the area, and also seen a ewe run directly via one when the feed bucket showed up. The result was only an expensive stack of fire wood and also a little flock of bemused as well as currently homeless bantams.
Baby Chickens For Sale in Charlottesville, Indiana
Most of the time these mass produced versions are constructed of quick grown up hardwood - come the very first decrease of rainfall they swell, leaving you either barricading a door that won't shut, or ripping the door furnishings off in a vain effort to launch the squawking residents. The first cozy day indicates the wood dries as well as fractures, the really felt roof covering bubbles and boils, and come nightfall the hens refuse to enter. This is not as a result of their disappointment at the decrease of their as soon as eye-catching property but due to the fact that the hovel is currently a sanctuary for, and most likely crawling with, the poultry caretaker's bane, red mite. Add on the fact that it said on the blurb that it would suit four huge hens when that equipping thickness was based upon the Circle Line at 5pm on a Friday, and exactly what are you entrusted? A few joints as well as some kindling. A decent coop for thee to 4 birds must cost you in the region of ₤ 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 large space and the pop opening door is big enough for the breed you keep, after that the primary needs of housing come down to three points which will specify the variety of birds your home will certainly hold; perches, nest boxes as well as ventilation. The majority of types of chicken will perch when they go to roost at night, this perch should preferably be 5-8cm vast with smoothed off edges so the foot sits pleasantly on it. The perch ought to be above the nest box access as chickens will certainly additionally naturally look for the highest point to perch. A perch lower than that will have the birds roosting in the nest box overnight (which is by the way when they create one of the most poo) leading to stained eggs the following day. They should not nonetheless be so high off the flooring of your house that leg injuries can take place when the bird gets down in the morning. Chickens need about 20cm of perch each (in small breeds this is clearly less), plus if greater than one perch is mounted in your home they ought to be more than 30cm apart. They will certainly hunker up with their next-door neighbors yet are not that keen on roosting with a beak in the bloomers of the bird in front. Ideally your home must have a least one nest box for every single 3 birds and also these should be off the ground as well as in the darkest area of your house. The house should have sufficient ventilation: without it then condensation will develop every evening, also in the chilliest of climate. Realize, air flow works on the principle of warm air leaving via a high void drawing cooler air in from a reduced gap - it's not a collection of openings on contrary wall surfaces of your house and also at the exact same level, this is what's called a draft. If you have a house with a run connected after that the factors above are still true, however you must likewise think about the run size. The EU maximum legal equipping density for a free variety bird is (and let's face it, one of the motivations for maintaining some hens in the house is possibly enhanced or much better welfare) 2,500 birds each hectare, that's maximum one bird each 4m squared. Take a close consider some of the bargain residences - it could well be the house has the best perches, appropriate ventilation and adequate 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 spend the day on? And so as the stating goes, "you obtain just what you spend for". You could believe you've grabbed a deal, however you and your flock might rue the day you did. Purchase the ideal house as well as it will last for a few decades, if not longer provided the correct therapy. In the long run your chicken as well as your poultry keeping encounter will be a lot the much better for it.coop chick
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