Chicken Coops for Sale in Saint James, Louisiana
Chicken Coops for Sale in Saint James, 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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Baby Chicks in Saint James, Louisiana
A good place to start any search is the internet. Simply plugging in the phrase "chicken coops for sale in Saint James 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 Saint James Louisiana chicken coops. What to look for when buying a chicken coop in Saint James, Louisiana With the substantial increase in poultry maintaining there has been a just as big surge in the variety of poultry materiel on sale. Fowl real estate is a case in factor. It's additionally a timeless example of the great old bandwagon being got on as various potential poultry real estate experts peddle an array of lodging claiming to be the ideal solution to your chicken housing demands. Typically the price looks appealing, the house looks appealing, hell also the clean-cut household standing there feeding the chickens look eye-catching. Undoubtedly they know a quality chicken house when they see one? There are numerous cheap as well as unpleasant cages flooding the market. I recognize this as I've tested a variety of them in the field, and also seen a ewe run straight via one when the feed container appeared. The outcome was only an expensive heap of fire wood and also a tiny group of bemused and currently homeless bantams.
Chicken Coop For 10 Chickens in Saint James, Louisiana
Most of the time these mass produced versions are created of rapid grown lumber - come the initial decline of rain they swell, leaving you either defending a doorway that won't shut, or ripping the door furniture off in a vain attempt to release the squawking residents. The first warm day means the timber dries and splits, the really felt roofing bubbles and also boils, as well as come nightfall the hens refuse to enter. This is not due to their disappointment at the decrease of their as soon as desirable apartment but due to the fact that the hovel is currently a haven for, and also probably abounding, the poultry caretaker's bane, red mite. Add on that it stated on the blurb that it would suit four large hens when that equipping density was based on the Circle Line at 5pm on a Friday, as well as what are you left with? A couple of hinges and some kindling. A good coop for thee to four birds need to cost you approximately ₤ 300 though this can depend upon whether you elect for a totally free standing house or one with a run connected. Assuming you are ranging your birds in a huge room and the pop hole doorway is big enough for the breed you maintain, then the major requirements of real estate boil down to 3 points which will define the variety of birds your home will certainly hold; perches, nest boxes as well as air flow. Most breeds of chicken will certainly perch when they visit roost in the evening, this perch must preferably be 5-8cm broad with smoothed off edges so the foot rests easily on it. The perch should be higher than the nest box entry as chickens will certainly additionally naturally look for the acme to perch. A perch lower than that will certainly have the birds roosting in the nest box over night (which is by the way when they create one of the most poo) causing stained eggs the list below day. They should not however be so high off the floor of the house that leg injuries might happen when the bird gets down in the early morning. Chickens require about 20cm of perch each (in small types this is undoubtedly much less), plus if more than one perch is installed in your home they must be more than 30cm apart. They will hunker up with their next-door neighbors yet are not that keen on roosting with a beak in the bloomers of the bird in front. Ideally the house ought to have a the very least one nest box for each 3 birds as well as these need to be off the ground as well as in the darkest area of the house. Your home should have adequate air flow: without it after that condensation will accumulate every evening, also in the chilliest of weather condition. Understand, air flow deals with the principle of cozy air leaving through a high gap drawing cooler air in from a lower gap - it's not a collection of holes on contrary walls of your house and at the very same degree, this is what's called a draught. If you have a house with a run affixed then the factors above are still true, yet you ought to likewise think about the run dimension. The EU maximum legal stocking thickness for a complimentary array bird is (and let's encounter it, among the motivations for maintaining some chickens at home is possibly boosted or much better welfare) 2,500 birds per hectare, that's optimal one bird per 4m settled. Take a close consider a few of the bargain residences - it could well be the house has the ideal perches, proper air flow and sufficient nest boxes for a sensible variety of birds, however will each of the chickens have anything more than an A4 sized piece of ground to invest the day on? And so as the saying goes, "you obtain just what you pay for". You may think you've got hold of a bargain, but you as well as your group might rue the day you did. Purchase the best house and also it will last for a few decades, if not longer provided the correct treatment. In the long run your chicken and your fowl maintaining experience will certainly be a lot the better for it.coop for sale
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