Chicken Coops for Sale in Cub Run, Kentucky
Chicken Coops for Sale in Cub Run, Kentucky
Chicken Coops — The Top 5 Requirements
Chicken Coops – What You Need
Happy, healthy chickens need proper housing, but knowing what you need may seem daunting. Don’t let choosing the house for your chickens intimidate you. Meeting the needs of your flock, whether building your own chicken castle or buying ready-made, is easy and should provide for four basic needs.
- Protection from the elements
- Protection from predators
- Place for laying eggs
- A roost at night
The Components of a Chicken Coop
As I wrote in my , chickens have an innate homing instinct, keeping your flock close to home. Our feathered kids are such home bodies that even free ranging, every night before sundown all our chickens are perched in the coop. I always recommend a protected place for your flock to come home and roost for the night, even when free ranging.
You don’t need a poultry castle for your chickens to come home to. come in many shapes, sizes, and designs, from fancy to plain. Believe it or not, your chickens won’t care what the coop looks like as long as it provides the above four basic needs.
With that said, before deciding what type of coop you are going to buy or build, you must determine what coop features are needed that most closely conform to a chicken’s natural behavior. Hopefully I can help you understand what you need in the design of your chicken coop.
The Basics
Let’s start with the basics. All chicken coops need 3 things; a roof, 4 walls, and a doorway for entering and leaving. The design and the materials used for the chicken coop is up to you. As long as it is mostly draft free (you still need healthy ventilation), your choices are endless.
Your coop space is based on the number of chickens you plan to house. A good rule of thumb is 4 square feet of floor space per large chicken and 3 square feet for the smaller bantam breeds. Also consider the ease of cleaning when choosing your coop design; you’ll be glad you did.
Security
Making a chicken coop predator free is the most important part of building a home for your flock. Your coop must be secure from the top, bottom, and all sides. When looking at any pre-made coop or chicken coop building plans, consider all angles for security. Not only should you consider the security of the coop itself, but the security of the yard and run as well.
When choosing the wire for your run and coop, we advise steering clear of standard chicken wire. While it works well for keeping your chickens contained it’s not entirely predator proof. Because the holes in standard chicken wire are large, coyotes, raccoons, and foxes can still reach through the mesh, causing harm to your chickens. Always use a small hole wire like hardware cloth with ½ inch openings.
Another consideration when building the chicken yard or run, is airborne predators like hawks. You must include covering the top of the run as well. Our chicken runs use the same size mesh fencing on the top as the sides.
Finally, there are predators from below, such as rats and mice. These critters are attracted to the feed and droppings and like to burrow under your coop. Protect your chickens by using a coop with a floor built into it or burying small mesh fencing below the coop and extending it about 12 inches out on all sides.
The Outside Run
All coops need a connecting chicken run or pen. Chickens need access to the outside to do all those “chicken things”, like dirt baths, catching bugs, scratching dirt, or just relaxing in the sunshine or shade.
Ideally, your chicken run should have 10 square feet of ground space per full size chicken. The smaller bantam breeds require less, about 7 square feet per chicken. If your chickens free range the majority of the day, you can get by with less space.
Laying Boxes
If you want eggs, you need laying boxes. These can be as fancy or as plain as you like, just as long as they are about 12” x 12” and raised off the ground a few inches. You need one box for every 4 laying hens. Boxes should comfortably fit the chicken and have low enough sides for the hens to step over. Be sure to keep your boxes lined with clean straw or other bedding.
Roosting Perches
All birds roost, including chickens. Your coop needs a roosting bar or something off the ground on which your chickens can perch. We strongly suggest having perches both inside the coop and outside in the run area.
When figuring roosting pole size, provide 5-10” of space per chicken and 10” of space between each pole if you are using more than one. Multiple poles also need grading like ladders so the farthest pole is several inches higher than the next.
There are many shapes, sizes, and styles of chicken coops to choose from. Making the right choice for your needs is important, and all coops need to contain all necessary elements.
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Chicken Coop For 10 Chickens in Cub Run, Kentucky
A good place to start any search is the internet. Simply plugging in the phrase "chicken coops for sale in Cub Run Kentucky" 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 Cub Run Kentucky chicken coops. What to look for when buying a chicken coop in Cub Run, Kentucky With the huge increase in poultry keeping there has been a just as huge surge in the range of chicken paraphernalia on sale. Chicken housing is a situation in factor. It's also a timeless instance of the good old bandwagon being got on as numerous prospective chicken real estate specialists pitch a selection of holiday accommodation claiming to be the perfect option to your chicken housing requirements. Frequently the price looks appealing, your house looks attractive, heck also the clean-cut household standing there feeding the chickens look attractive. Certainly they recognize a high quality chicken house when they see one? There are numerous low-cost and awful coops flooding the marketplace. I understand this as I've tested a number of them in the area, and also seen a ewe run straight via one when the feed container showed up. The outcome was only an expensive pile of firewood and also a small flock of bemused and also currently homeless bantams.
Chicken Coop Pictures in Cub Run, Kentucky
More often than not these mass produced versions are created of quick grown up hardwood - come the first decrease of rain they swell, leaving you either fortifying a doorway that won't shut, or tearing the door furniture off in a vain effort to release the squawking inhabitants. The initial warm day means the timber dries out and cracks, the felt roof covering bubbles and boils, and also come nightfall the chickens choose not to enter. This is not due to their dissatisfaction at the decline of their as soon as eye-catching apartment however considering that the hovel is now a place for, and possibly crawling with, the poultry keeper's nemesis, red mite. Add on that it stated on the blurb that it would certainly fit 4 big chickens when that stocking thickness was based upon the Circle Line at 5pm on a Friday, as well as what are you entrusted? A number of joints and some kindling. A good coop for thee to 4 birds ought to cost you in the region of ₤ 300 though this can rely on whether you elect for a free standing house or one with a run affixed. Assuming you are ranging your birds in a large area and the pop opening door is big enough for the breed you maintain, then the major needs of housing boil down to 3 factors which will certainly specify the variety of birds your house will hold; perches, nest boxes and air flow. Many breeds of chicken will certainly perch when they go to roost at night, this perch ought to preferably be 5-8cm broad with smoothed off edges so the foot sits pleasantly on it. The perch ought to be more than the nest box entry as chickens will likewise normally seek the highest point to perch. A perch lower than that will have the birds roosting in the nest box overnight (which is incidentally when they create the most poo) resulting in stained eggs the list below day. They shouldn't however be so high off the flooring of your home that leg injuries can happen when the bird comes down in the morning. Chickens need about 20cm of perch each (in little types this is clearly much less), plus if more than one perch is set up in the house they need to be greater than 30cm apart. They will certainly hunker up with their neighbors yet are not that crazy about roosting with a beak in the bloomers of the bird in front. Preferably your home should have a least one nest box for every three birds and these must be off the ground and also in the darkest area of your home. Your home ought to have adequate air flow: without it then condensation will develop every night, even in the chilliest of weather. Be aware, ventilation deals with the concept of warm and comfortable air leaving with a high void drawing cooler air in from a reduced void - it's not a set of openings on opposite walls of your house as well as at the very same degree, this is what's called a draught. If you have a house with a run connected after that the factors above are still real, however you ought to additionally take into consideration the run dimension. The EU optimum legal equipping density for a free variety bird is (and also let's encounter it, among the inspirations for maintaining some hens at home is possibly improved or much better well-being) 2,500 birds per hectare, that's optimal one bird per 4m settled. Take a close take a look at several of the deal houses - it could well be your home has the appropriate perches, correct ventilation and enough nest boxes for an affordable 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 stating goes, "you get just what you pay for". You could assume you've got hold of a deal, yet you and also your group could possibly rue the day you did. Purchase the right house and also it will certainly last for a couple of decades, if not longer given the correct treatment. In the end your poultry as well as your fowl maintaining experience will be a lot the much better for it.coop coops
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