Chicken Coops for Sale in Carville, Louisiana
Chicken Coops for Sale in Carville, Louisiana
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 Near Me in Carville, Louisiana
A good place to start any search is the internet. Simply plugging in the phrase "chicken coops for sale in Carville Louisiana" 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 Carville Louisiana chicken coops. What to look for when buying a chicken coop in Carville, Louisiana With the substantial rise in chicken keeping there has actually been an equally big increase in the range of fowl materiel for sale. Fowl real estate is a proceedings in point. It's additionally a classic example of the good old bandwagon being jumped on as various potential poultry real estate professionals peddle a range of lodging declaring to be the perfect option to your chicken housing demands. Often the cost looks desirable, your diy-chicken-coop-planshome looks desirable, hell also the clean-cut household standing there feeding the chickens look appealing. Certainly they know a high quality chicken house when they see one? There are numerous economical and horrible cages flooding the marketplace. I understand this as I've examined a number of them in the field, as well as seen a ewe run straight via one when the feed bucket showed up. The result was just a pricey stack of fire wood and also a small flock of bemused and also currently homeless bantams.
Chicken Coop Pictures in Carville, Louisiana
Typically these standardized versions are constructed of rapid grown timber - come the first decrease of rain they swell, leaving you either blockading a door that will not shut, or tearing the doorway furnishings off in a vain attempt to release the squawking citizens. The very first cozy day indicates the timber dries as well as cracks, the felt roofing system bubbles and also boils, and come nightfall the hens choose not to go in. This is not as a result of their dissatisfaction at the decrease of their when appealing commercial property yet since the hovel is currently a haven for, as well as most likely crawling with, the chicken keeper's bane, red mite. Add on that it claimed on the blurb that it would certainly fit four huge hens when that stocking density was based upon the Circle Line at 5pm on a Friday, and also just what are you entrusted? A few hinges and also some kindling. A suitable coop for thee to 4 birds should cost you approximately ₤ 300 though this could rely on whether you choose for a cost-free standing house or one with a run attached. Thinking you are ranging your birds in a large area as well as the pop opening door allows enough for the type you maintain, after that the main demands of real estate boil down to 3 factors which will specify the number of birds your house will hold; perches, nest boxes as well as air flow. Many types of chicken will certainly perch when they visit roost during the night, this perch needs to preferably be 5-8cm broad with smoothed off sides so the foot rests comfortably on it. The perch ought to be more than the nest box entrance as chickens will certainly likewise naturally seek the highest point to perch. A perch less than that will have the birds roosting in the nest box overnight (which is incidentally when they produce one of the most poo) resulting in stained eggs the following day. They shouldn't however be so high off the flooring of your home that leg injuries could take place when the bird gets down in the early morning. Chickens require regarding 20cm of perch each (in little breeds this is obviously much less), plus if greater than one perch is installed in your house they should be greater than 30cm apart. They will certainly hunker up with their next-door neighbors however are not that keen on roosting with a beak in the bloomers of the bird ahead. Ideally your house needs to have a least one nest box for every single 3 birds as well as these must be off the ground as well as in the darkest location of the house. Your house needs to have appropriate ventilation: without it after that condensation will certainly develop every evening, also in the chilliest of climate. Realize, ventilation 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 collection of holes on opposite walls of your home as well as at the very same degree, this is exactly what's referred to as a draft. If you have a house with a run attached then the factors above are still real, yet you ought to additionally consider the run size. The EU optimum lawful stocking thickness for a cost-free range bird is (and allow's encounter it, among the inspirations for keeping some hens at home is perhaps boosted or much better welfare) 2,500 birds per hectare, that's optimal one bird each 4m settled. Take a close look at several of the deal houses - it could well be your house has the appropriate perches, right air flow and also ample nest boxes for a practical variety of birds, however will each of the chickens have anything more than an A4 sized item of ground to spend the day on? And so as the saying goes, "you obtain exactly what you pay for". You could think you've grabbed a deal, yet you as well as your group might rue the day you did. Acquisition the appropriate house as well as it will certainly last for a few decades, otherwise longer provided the right therapy. Eventually your poultry and your fowl keeping experience will be a lot the much better for it.coops chicken
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