Chicken Coops for Sale in Ragsdale, Indiana
Chicken Coops for Sale in Ragsdale, Indiana
Eggs! Raise Your Own Hens In A Chicken Coop Built From Scrap
From a long line of egg farmers in Holland, Karin’s dad finally builds her a chicken coop
Where bylaws allow, or can be bypassed, I highly recommend building your own chicken coop. Imagine getting fresh, free-range organic eggs every day? When my parents came to visit me in Jaffa a few months ago, Dad found himself bored. Back in Holland, my family the Van Der Meers were one of the biggest egg producers in the country before the Depression. So you could say, eggs are in our genes. With Dad nothing to do for a few weeks, I brought up the idea of having him build me a chicken coop. That got him kind of excited. He foraged for wood in my backyard and came up with a coop that resembles a bus stop. The Chicken Express? Step right up and I’ll tell you how to build a coop in a few easy steps. And no you don’t have to invest much, unless you want to make your coop designer.
In warm climates very little is needed to keep your hens happy – basically a roof over their heads, a lengthwise pole for curling their toes around when they sleep at night (you might want to raise it high where feral cats might stalk your chickens), and some fencing to keep them from, well, flying the coop.
Here are our chickens before we bought them.
As it turns out, Bedouin chickens which we bought in the Negev Desert, are very agile creatures and even sleep in our blackberry tree some nights. The fencing doesn’t help them that much, but it does keep them contained somewhat, and out of the mouth of our crazy dog.
Here’s what you’ll need to build the coop:
- A corner on your roof, garden, or backyard for the chicken coop, a couple meters by a couple meters at least
- An old door or piece of plywood for a roof
- Some plywood for the sides
- Chicken wire, if you want to contain the chickens outside the coop (they eat weeds so consider letting them run loose)
- A wooden pole
- Some boxes, or crates for roosting. Throw in something soft.
- Feed
Find a corner to build against, saving yourself the need to build 2 extra walls. Be lazy. Make sure there’s a roof for the chickens to protect them against the sun, and rain, and in the winter if it gets cold, you can throw a carpet over the sides to keep the cold wind out. Make sure they have three walls.
We built a 2 meter or so pole, installed horizontally, down low about 50 cm off the ground but noticed some street cats were preying on our hens and raised the pole to about 1.5 meters off the ground. Most chickens can fly to this height but see what works for yours. It really doesn’t take much to make your chickens happy. But they do need a pole to sleep on at night.
What you feed your chickens:
- A basic seed/corn meal
- Compost – can include eggshells (ours really love labane cheese – could be because they are Bedouin hens)
- Garden weeds and greens (let them go wild!)
- Worms and bugs (they feed themselves while aerating the ground)
- Endless supply of water
Chickens do need basic feed, that which can be bought at a feedlot. Some inquiring around on where to find chickens and feed might be in order. Animal markets for livestock might be your best bet. Ask around in places like that. We bought a huge drum of feed consisting of corn meal and other seeds, and feed our chickens a regular diet of all the vegetable-based compost that would otherwise be composted. But don’t worry. Chicken doo makes an excellent compost too. One of my friends can’t eat eggs unless they are free-range and fed with organic oats. So it’s really up to you to decide how to feed your chickens, depending on your health needs and sensitivities.
We have five chickens and one rooster. The rooster is just for the fun of it. You don’t need one if you have neighbors nearby who will complain about the noise. And roosters DO make noise, waking us up as early as 1:30 am.
Bedouin women (crouching like crows) selling “bede” hens at the market
Unlike commercially-raised chickens, our hens don’t get “sunshine” 24 hours a day. Some parts of the year the chickens won’t lay. They will molt and take a break. And not every chicken will lay every day once she starts. We bought young chickens and it took them a couple of months to start laying. Now three of the five are laying, but like I said, not every day.
See a video interview with my dad about chickens
We bought our chickens at a Bedouin market (for about $10 each) because it was important for my husband that we have a “wild” variety – chickens that haven’t been genetically manipulated. Our eggs are on the small to medium size, the yolks absolutely huge compared to the white. One hen is laying eggs with the most delightful little beige specks on them.
Dad (left), the closest link to my family of egg people is determined that next time he comes to visit me in the Middle East he’ll be smuggling in white hen eggs – “the real good layers” – from Canada. He keeps asking me about building an incubator for these eggs to become hatchlings. Hopefully it will happen and when it does, I’ll report it here on Green Prophet.
Meanwhile, I am dreaming about how many eggs I will collect tomorrow. And how exciting it will be for my little baby daughter, when she gets bigger, to go out and collect them like I did when I was a little girl (that’s me in the top photo). My family had a coop in a suburban town outside Toronto until our evil neighbour complained and we had to get rid of it.
Before the complaints, I would go out and collect our eggs and sell them to our neighbors for a dollar a dozen, to cover the price of feed. Seriously, it was so much fun. If this blogger, and lazy environmentalist who is addicted to the computer can start a coop, you can too. Get cracking and join the new movement of urban farming.
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Chicken Coop With Run in Ragsdale, Indiana
A good place to start any search is the internet. Simply plugging in the phrase "chicken coops for sale in Ragsdale 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 Ragsdale Indiana chicken coops. What to look for when buying a chicken coop in Ragsdale, Indiana With the substantial increase in poultry keeping there has been an equally big surge in the range of chicken stuff on sale. Chicken real estate is a case in factor. It's also a classic example of the excellent old bandwagon being jumped on as various prospective chicken real estate experts peddle a range of cottage asserting to be the excellent remedy to your chicken housing demands. Typically the rate looks appealing, the house looks appealing, hell even the clean-cut family members standing there feeding the chickens look attractive. Certainly they understand a professional chicken house when they see one? There are several inexpensive and awful coops flooding the market. I understand this as I've tested a variety of them in the area, and seen a ewe run straight with one when the feed pail appeared. The outcome was nothing but a pricey heap of fire wood and a small flock of bemused and also now homeless bantams.
Chicken Coop And Run Plans in Ragsdale, Indiana
Usually these standardized versions are built of rapid grown lumber - come the initial drop of rainfall they swell, leaving you either barricading a doorway that won't shut, or tearing the door furnishings off in a vain attempt to launch the squawking occupants. The first warm and comfortable day indicates the lumber dries as well as splits, the really felt roof covering bubbles and also boils, as well as come nightfall the chickens choose not to enter. This is not due to their disappointment at the decrease of their as soon as desirable building yet considering that the hovel is now a haven for, and most likely crawling with, the chicken caretaker's nemesis, red mite. Add on the fact that it claimed on the blurb that it would match 4 huge chickens when that equipping density 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 decent coop for thee to 4 birds must cost you in the region of ₤ 300 though this can depend on whether you elect for a complimentary standing house or one with a run connected. Presuming you are varying your birds in a large area as well as the pop hole doorway allows enough for the breed you maintain, after that the major needs of housing come down to three factors which will certainly define the number of birds the house will hold; perches, nest boxes and also ventilation. Many breeds of chicken will perch when they visit roost during the night, this perch must preferably be 5-8cm large with smoothed off sides so the foot rests conveniently on it. The perch ought to be higher than the nest box access as chickens will certainly additionally normally try to find the acme to perch. A perch less 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 nevertheless be so high off the floor of the house that leg injuries could possibly happen when the bird comes down in the morning. Chickens require about 20cm of perch each (in tiny types this is obviously much less), plus if more than one perch is set up in your house they should be greater than 30cm apart. They will hunker up with their next-door neighbors but are not that crazy about roosting with a beak in the bloomers of the bird in front. Ideally the house needs to have a least one nest box for each three birds and these ought to be off the ground and also in the darkest area of the house. Your home needs to have sufficient air flow: without it after that condensation will certainly develop every evening, even in the coldest of weather condition. Be aware, ventilation works with the principle of cozy air leaving with a high gap drawing cooler air in from a reduced space - it's not a collection of openings on contrary walls of your home and at the same degree, this is just what's referred to as a draft. If you have a house with a run connected then the points above are still real, however you should also take into consideration the run size. The EU maximum lawful stocking density for a cost-free range bird is (and let's face it, one of the motivations for maintaining some hens in the house is potentially boosted or much better welfare) 2,500 birds each hectare, that's optimal one bird per 4m made even. Take a close take a look at some of the bargain houses - it could well be the house has the appropriate perches, appropriate air flow and ample nest boxes for a sensible variety of birds, yet will each of the chickens have anything greater than an A4 sized item of ground to spend the day on? And so as the claiming goes, "you get just what you spend for". You might think you've grabbed a deal, yet you and your group can rue the day you did. Acquisition the best house as well as it will last for a few decades, if not longer given the proper treatment. Ultimately your chicken as well as your fowl keeping experience will certainly be considerably the far better for it.coop coop
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