Chicken Coops for Sale in Royal, Iowa
Chicken Coops for Sale in Royal, Iowa
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.
**This post contains affiliate links. Please see for more information.
, 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?
Chicken Coop Used in Royal, Iowa
A good place to start any search is the internet. Simply plugging in the phrase "chicken coops for sale in Royal Iowa" 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 Royal Iowa chicken coops. What to look for when buying a chicken coop in Royal, Iowa With the substantial boost in poultry maintaining there has actually been a similarly big increase in the array of fowl stuff for sale. Poultry real estate is a case in factor. It's likewise a classic instance of the excellent old bandwagon being jumped on as different potential fowl real estate specialists pitch a variety of lodging declaring to be the optimal remedy to your chicken housing requirements. Usually the price looks attractive, the house looks desirable, hell also the clean-cut family standing there feeding the chickens look attractive. Undoubtedly they understand a professional chicken house when they see one? There are several economical as well as awful coops flooding the market. I recognize this as I've tested a number of them in the area, as well as seen a ewe run straight through one when the feed container appeared. The outcome was just an expensive stack of firewood and also a little flock of bemused as well as now homeless bantams.
Chicken Coop Supplies in Royal, Iowa
Most of the time these standardized models are built of quick grown up timber - come the initial decline of rain they swell, leaving you either blockading a doorway that will not shut, or ripping the door furnishings off in a vain effort to release the squawking citizens. The first warm and comfortable day suggests the lumber dries and fractures, the felt roof covering bubbles and also boils, as well as come nightfall the hens refuse to go in. This is not because of their disappointment at the decline of their as soon as eye-catching property but because the hovel is currently a sanctuary for, as well as most likely abounding, the chicken keeper's bane, red mite. Add on that it claimed on the blurb that it would certainly match 4 large hens when that stocking density was based on the Circle Line at 5pm on a Friday, and also what are you left with? A couple of joints and also some kindling. A decent coop for thee to four birds ought to cost you approximately ₤ 300 though this can depend on whether you choose for a complimentary standing house or one with a run connected. Thinking you are varying your birds in a huge space and also the pop hole door allows enough for the breed you maintain, after that the main needs of housing come down to 3 factors which will certainly specify the number of birds your home will hold; perches, nest boxes and air flow. A lot of breeds of chicken will certainly perch when they go to roost at night, this perch ought to preferably be 5-8cm vast with smoothed off edges so the foot rests pleasantly on it. The perch ought to be above the nest box access as chickens will certainly also naturally look for the highest point to perch. A perch less than that will certainly have the birds roosting in the nest box over night (which is by the way when they generate the most poo) resulting in dirtied eggs the following day. They shouldn't nonetheless be so high off the flooring of your house that leg injuries could happen when the bird gets down in the morning. Chickens require about 20cm of perch each (in tiny types this is obviously much less), plus if greater than one perch is mounted in the house they ought to be greater than 30cm apart. They will hunker up with their next-door neighbors but are not that keen on roosting with a beak in the bloomers of the bird ahead. Preferably your home ought to have a least one nest box for every three birds as well as these ought to be off the ground and in the darkest location of your house. The house should have adequate air flow: without it then condensation will develop every night, also in the chilliest of weather. Realize, ventilation deals with the principle of warm and comfortable air leaving with a high space attracting cooler air in from a reduced space - it's not a set of openings on other walls of the house and also at the same level, this is just what's called a draft. If you have a house with a run connected after that the points above are still real, but you ought to likewise take into consideration the run dimension. The EU optimum lawful stocking density for a free range bird is (and allow's encounter it, one of the motivations for keeping some hens in the house is perhaps improved or better well-being) 2,500 birds per hectare, that's maximum one bird each 4m settled. Take a close consider several of the bargain houses - it could well be your house has the right perches, appropriate air flow as well as sufficient nest boxes for a reasonable number of birds, but will each of the chickens have anything more than an A4 sized piece of ground to spend the day on? Therefore as the saying goes, "you get what you pay for". You could believe you've got hold of a deal, but you and your group might rue the day you did. Purchase the right house and it will certainly last for a couple of years, if not longer given the proper treatment. Ultimately your chicken as well as your chicken keeping experience will be considerably the far better for it.coop for sale
More Posts
Chicken Coops for Sale in Lake View, Iowa
Chicken Coops for Sale in Prescott, Iowa
Chicken Coops for Sale in Mineola, Iowa
Chicken Coops for Sale in Masonville, Iowa
Chicken Coops for Sale in Grand Junction, Iowa