Chicken Coops for Sale in Thurman, Iowa
Chicken Coops for Sale in Thurman, Iowa
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 And Run in Thurman, Iowa
A good place to start any search is the internet. Simply plugging in the phrase "chicken coops for sale in Thurman 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 Thurman Iowa chicken coops. What to look for when buying a chicken coop in Thurman, Iowa With the significant increase in chicken keeping there has been an equally big increase in the array of chicken paraphernalia for sale. Fowl housing is a proceedings in point. It's additionally a classic example of the excellent old bandwagon being jumped on as various potential poultry real estate professionals market a selection of lodging declaring to be the optimal option to your chicken housing demands. Commonly the cost looks appealing, the house looks desirable, heck also the clean-cut family standing there feeding the chickens look appealing. Surely they recognize a quality chicken house when they see one? There are numerous low-cost and awful coops swamping the marketplace. I know this as I've tested a number of them in the area, as well as seen a ewe run directly through one when the feed container showed up. The outcome was just a pricey heap of fire wood as well as a small flock of bemused and also now homeless bantams.
Chicken Coop Basics in Thurman, Iowa
Usually these standardized versions are built of rapid grown wood - come the very first decrease of rain they swell, leaving you either defending a door that will not close, or ripping the door furnishings off in a vain attempt to release the squawking occupants. The very first warm and comfortable day indicates the hardwood dries and also cracks, the felt roofing bubbles as well as boils, and also come nightfall the hens choose not to enter. This is not because of their dissatisfaction at the decline of their when attractive commercial property but due to the fact that the hovel is now a sanctuary for, and probably abounding, the fowl keeper's bane, red mite. Add on that it claimed on the blurb that it would certainly suit 4 large hens when that stocking density was based upon the Circle Line at 5pm on a Friday, and also just what are you entrusted? A number of joints as well as some kindling. A suitable coop for thee to 4 birds ought to cost you approximately ₤ 300 though this can depend upon whether you choose for a free standing house or one with a run connected. Presuming you are varying your birds in a huge space and the pop hole door is big sufficient for the type you maintain, after that the main demands of housing come down to 3 factors which will specify the number of birds your house will certainly hold; perches, nest boxes and air flow. The majority of breeds of chicken will perch when they go to roost in the evening, this perch must preferably be 5-8cm wide with smoothed off edges so the foot rests pleasantly on it. The perch needs to be more than the nest box access as chickens will certainly additionally naturally try to find the acme to perch. A perch below that will have the birds roosting in the nest box overnight (which is by the way when they produce one of the most poo) bring about dirtied eggs the following day. They should not however be so high off the floor of the house that leg injuries can happen when the bird comes down in the early morning. Chickens need concerning 20cm of perch each (in tiny types this is obviously less), plus if more than one perch is mounted in your house they need to be more than 30cm apart. They will certainly hunker up with their next-door neighbors yet are not that crazy about roosting with a beak in the bloomers of the bird ahead. Preferably the house should have a the very least one nest box for every single three birds as well as these need to be off the ground as well as in the darkest area of the house. The house should have adequate ventilation: without it then condensation will certainly develop every evening, even in the coldest of weather. Be aware, ventilation works with the principle of warm air leaving via a high space drawing cooler air in from a reduced gap - it's not a set of openings on contrary wall surfaces of your house and also at the same degree, this is what's called a draught. If you have a house with a run affixed after that the factors above are still true, but you should likewise take into consideration the run dimension. The EU optimum legal stocking density for a cost-free variety bird is (and allow's face it, among the inspirations for maintaining some chickens in your home is potentially boosted or far better welfare) 2,500 birds per hectare, that's optimal one bird each 4m squared. Take a close consider some of the deal homes - it could well be the house has the right perches, right air flow and also adequate nest boxes for a sensible number of birds, however 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 obtain just what you pay for". You might assume you've got hold of a bargain, but you and your group could possibly rue the day you did. Acquisition the ideal house and it will last for a couple of decades, if not longer offered the appropriate treatment. In the long run your fowl and your fowl keeping experience will certainly be a lot the better for it.chickens chick
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