Chicken Coops for Sale in Zenda, Kansas
Chicken Coops for Sale in Zenda, Kansas
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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Chicken Coop Reviews in Zenda, Kansas
A good place to start any search is the internet. Simply plugging in the phrase "chicken coops for sale in Zenda Kansas" 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 Zenda Kansas chicken coops. What to look for when buying a chicken coop in Zenda, Kansas With the massive rise in chicken maintaining there has been a just as large rise in the range of chicken materiel for sale. Fowl housing is a situation in point. It's also a traditional example of the excellent old bandwagon being got on as numerous prospective fowl real estate experts peddle a variety of accommodation asserting to be the excellent option to your chicken real estate needs. Usually the rate looks desirable, your diy-chicken-coop-planshome looks appealing, hell even the clean-cut household standing there feeding the chickens look appealing. Certainly they know a top quality chicken house when they see one? There are several cheap and also unpleasant cages swamping the marketplace. I understand this as I've checked a variety of them in the area, as well as seen a ewe run straight with one when the feed container showed up. The outcome was just a costly heap of firewood as well as a small group of bemused as well as now homeless bantams.
Baby Chicken in Zenda, Kansas
Usually these mass produced versions are constructed of fast grown up lumber - come the initial drop of rainfall they swell, leaving you either blockading a doorway that will not shut, or ripping the door furniture off in a vain effort to release the squawking occupants. The first warm day implies the lumber dries out and also cracks, the really felt roof covering bubbles as well as boils, as well as come nightfall the chickens refuse to go in. This is not because of their disappointment at the decline of their when appealing property however because the hovel is now a sanctuary for, and probably crawling with, the chicken caretaker's nemesis, red mite. Add that it said on the blurb that it would suit four huge chickens when that stocking thickness was based on the Circle Line at 5pm on a Friday, and exactly what are you entrusted? A number of hinges and also some kindling. A respectable coop for thee to four birds need to cost you around ₤ 300 though this can rely on whether you elect for a cost-free standing house or one with a run connected. Thinking you are varying your birds in a large area and the pop hole door is big enough for the breed you maintain, then the major needs of real estate boil down to three factors which will specify the number of birds your home will certainly hold; perches, nest boxes as well as air flow. Many breeds of chicken will certainly perch when they go to roost in the evening, this perch must preferably be 5-8cm broad with smoothed off sides so the foot rests conveniently on it. The perch needs to be more than the nest box entry as chickens will also naturally look for the acme to perch. A perch below that will certainly have the birds roosting in the nest box over night (which is by the way when they produce one of the most poo) bring about dirtied eggs the list below day. They shouldn't however be so high off the flooring of the house that leg injuries can occur when the bird comes down in the early morning. Chickens require about 20cm of perch each (in little types this is clearly less), plus if more than one perch is installed in your home they need to be greater than 30cm apart. They will hunker up with their next-door neighbors however are not that crazy about roosting with a beak in the bloomers of the bird in front. Preferably the house ought to have a least one nest box for every three birds as well as these ought to be off the ground and also in the darkest area of your house. The house ought to have appropriate ventilation: without it then condensation will certainly develop every night, also in the coldest of climate. Know, air flow works on the concept of warm and comfortable air leaving via a high gap drawing cooler air in from a reduced space - it's not a set of openings on other walls of the house and at the same degree, this is just what's known as a draft. If you have a house with a run attached then the factors above are still real, however you should also take into consideration the run size. The EU optimum legal stocking density for a free range bird is (and allow's encounter it, among the inspirations for keeping some hens at home is potentially improved or much better well-being) 2,500 birds per hectare, that's optimal one bird each 4m made even. Take a close look at a few of the deal homes - it could well be the house has the ideal perches, right ventilation as well as adequate nest boxes for a reasonable variety of birds, but will each of the chickens have anything greater than an A4 sized piece of ground to invest the day on? And so as the saying goes, "you obtain what you pay for". You could believe you've got a bargain, but you and your flock could rue the day you did. Acquisition the ideal house and also it will certainly last for a few decades, if not longer given the correct therapy. Ultimately your fowl and your fowl maintaining experience will be a lot the far better for it.chicken chickens
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