Chicken Coops for Sale in Falcon, Kentucky
Chicken Coops for Sale in Falcon, Kentucky
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 Pinterest in Falcon, Kentucky
A good place to start any search is the internet. Simply plugging in the phrase "chicken coops for sale in Falcon 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 Falcon Kentucky chicken coops. What to look for when buying a chicken coop in Falcon, Kentucky With the massive rise in poultry maintaining there has actually been a just as large rise in the variety of chicken stuff for sale. Poultry real estate is a proceedings in point. It's additionally a timeless example of the good old bandwagon being got on as different prospective poultry real estate professionals peddle an array of accommodation claiming to be the suitable solution to your chicken real estate needs. Commonly the cost looks appealing, your diy-chicken-coop-planshome looks attractive, hell even the clean-cut household standing there feeding the chickens look eye-catching. Undoubtedly they know a top quality chicken house when they see one? There are lots of economical and also horrible cages swamping the marketplace. I recognize this as I've checked a variety of them in the area, as well as seen a ewe run directly with one when the feed pail appeared. The result was only an expensive pile of firewood and also a tiny group of bemused and also currently homeless bantams.
Chicken Coop Plans Free in Falcon, Kentucky
More often than not these mass produced models are constructed of quick grown lumber - come the very first decrease of rain they swell, leaving you either barricading a door that will not shut, or tearing the doorway furniture off in a vain effort to launch the squawking occupants. The initial warm and comfortable day suggests the lumber dries out and cracks, the really felt roofing system bubbles as well as boils, and come nightfall the chickens choose not to go in. This is not because of their disappointment at the decrease of their once appealing home but because the hovel is currently a haven for, and possibly crawling with, the chicken keeper's bane, red mite. Add that it stated on the blurb that it would fit four huge chickens when that stocking density was based on the Circle Line at 5pm on a Friday, and just what are you left with? A few hinges and also some kindling. A good coop for thee to 4 birds should cost you around ₤ 300 though this could depend upon whether you choose for a totally free standing house or one with a run attached. Assuming you are varying your birds in a large room and also the pop opening doorway allows enough for the type you keep, after that the primary demands of housing boil down to 3 factors which will specify the variety of birds your house will hold; perches, nest boxes and also ventilation. Most types of chicken will certainly perch when they go to roost during the night, this perch must preferably be 5-8cm vast with smoothed off edges so the foot rests easily on it. The perch must be more than the nest box access as chickens will certainly likewise normally try to find the acme to perch. A perch less than that will certainly have the birds roosting in the nest box over night (which is incidentally when they create one of the most poo) leading to dirtied eggs the following day. They should not nevertheless be so high off the flooring of your house that leg injuries could possibly happen when the bird comes down in the early morning. Chickens require concerning 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 ought to be greater than 30cm apart. They will hunker up with their neighbors yet are not that keen on roosting with a beak in the bloomers of the bird ahead. Preferably the house needs to have a the very least one nest box for each three birds and these should be off the ground as well as in the darkest location of your home. Your house must have adequate air flow: without it then condensation will develop every night, even in the chilliest of weather condition. Know, air flow works on the concept of warm air leaving through a high void attracting cooler air in from a reduced space - it's not a collection of openings on contrary walls of your home as well as at the same degree, this is exactly what's referred to as a draft. If you have a house with a run affixed then the factors above are still real, however you should additionally consider the run dimension. The EU maximum legal stocking thickness for a free array bird is (as well as let's face it, among the inspirations for keeping some hens at home is possibly enhanced or much better welfare) 2,500 birds each hectare, that's maximum one bird each 4m squared. Take a close check out a few of the deal homes - it could well be your home has the ideal perches, right air flow and also adequate nest boxes for a practical number of birds, but will each of the chickens have anything greater than an A4 sized item of ground to spend the day on? Therefore as the saying goes, "you obtain what you pay for". You could believe you've got a bargain, but you and your flock might rue the day you did. Purchase the best house and also it will certainly last for a few years, if not longer given the right therapy. In the long run your fowl and your chicken maintaining encounter will be much the much better for it.chicken coops
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