Chicken Coops for Sale in Bingham, Maine
Chicken Coops for Sale in Bingham, Maine
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 Run Ideas in Bingham, Maine
A good place to start any search is the internet. Simply plugging in the phrase "chicken coops for sale in Bingham Maine" 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 Bingham Maine chicken coops. What to look for when buying a chicken coop in Bingham, Maine With the big increase in chicken keeping there has actually been a similarly huge increase in the range of fowl stuff on sale. Chicken real estate is a situation in factor. It's also a traditional instance of the great old bandwagon being jumped on as different prospective chicken housing specialists pitch a selection of cottage claiming to be the excellent option to your chicken real estate needs. Often the price looks appealing, the house looks eye-catching, heck even the clean-cut family standing there feeding the chickens look appealing. Definitely they understand a professional chicken house when they see one? There are several inexpensive and also unpleasant coops flooding the market. I recognize this as I've tested a variety of them in the area, as well as seen a ewe run directly through one when the feed container appeared. The outcome was nothing but a pricey stack of fire wood and a little group of bemused and now homeless bantams.
Chicken Coop Pinterest in Bingham, Maine
Typically these mass produced models are created of quick grown up hardwood - come the first drop of rainfall they swell, leaving you either blockading a door that will not close, or tearing the doorway furniture off in a vain attempt to launch the squawking inhabitants. The very first warm and comfortable day means the timber dries and also cracks, the felt roof bubbles as well as boils, as well as come nightfall the chickens choose not to go in. This is not because of their dissatisfaction at the decrease of their as soon as eye-catching property however since the hovel is currently a sanctuary for, and probably crawling with, the poultry keeper's bane, red mite. Add on the fact that it claimed on the blurb that it would certainly fit 4 big chickens when that equipping thickness was based on the Circle Line at 5pm on a Friday, as well as what are you entrusted? A couple of hinges and some kindling. A respectable coop for thee to 4 birds must cost you around ₤ 300 though this can rely on whether you choose for a cost-free standing house or one with a run attached. Assuming you are ranging your birds in a large room as well as the pop hole doorway allows sufficient for the breed you keep, after that the main requirements of real estate come down to 3 points which will specify the number of birds your home will hold; perches, nest boxes and also air flow. Most types of chicken will certainly perch when they go to roost in the evening, this perch should preferably be 5-8cm large with smoothed off edges so the foot rests pleasantly on it. The perch ought to be higher than the nest box entrance as chickens will certainly also naturally look for the acme to perch. A perch less than that will have the birds roosting in the nest box over night (which is by the way when they produce one of the most poo) causing soiled eggs the following day. They should not however be so high off the flooring of your house that leg injuries could possibly take place when the bird gets down in the early morning. Chickens need about 20cm of perch each (in little types this is obviously much less), plus if greater than one perch is mounted in the house they must be greater than 30cm apart. They will certainly hunker up with their next-door neighbors yet are not that crazy about roosting with a beak in the bloomers of the bird in front. Preferably the house ought to have a the very least one nest box for every single 3 birds and also these must be off the ground as well as in the darkest area of your house. Your home must have ample air flow: without it then condensation will accumulate every night, also in the coldest of climate. Know, ventilation works with the principle of cozy air leaving with a high void drawing cooler air in from a reduced space - it's not a set of openings on contrary wall surfaces of the house and at the exact same level, this is just what's referred to as a draft. If you have a house with a run affixed then the factors above are still true, yet you should likewise consider the run dimension. The EU optimum lawful equipping density for a cost-free array bird is (and allow's face it, among the motivations for keeping some chickens in the house is possibly improved or far better welfare) 2,500 birds each hectare, that's maximum one bird per 4m squared. Take a close consider some of the bargain residences - it could well be the house has the ideal perches, appropriate air flow as well as ample nest boxes for a reasonable number of birds, however will each of the chickens have anything greater than an A4 sized item of ground to invest the day on? And so as the saying goes, "you get just what you pay for". You may believe you've got a deal, yet you and your flock could rue the day you did. Purchase the best house and also it will certainly last for a few years, if not longer provided the correct treatment. Eventually your chicken and your chicken keeping encounter will be considerably the much better for it.coop plan
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