Chicken Coops for Sale in East Parsonfield, Maine
Chicken Coops for Sale in East Parsonfield, Maine
Free range eggs at home – chicken coop
Home chicken coop
| More Information |
Ever thought about having a few hens at home, just enough to keep your family in eggs? If you have 5 people in your family – and you each wanted an egg for breakfast every morning you would need 7 hens. Free range hens require very little care – food and water everyday and cleaning the coop periodically. With the right chicken coop having fresh eggs every morning is a breeze. The picture below is a design for a small garden chicken shed. Excuse the modeling of the chickens – my Solidworks skill set is just not up to that standard. It has an automatic bell drinker for water (this will need some kind of tank – am still working on that), and a manual tube feeder.
Picture of a small hen house for the back garden – can hold up to 15 free range hens
Feeding
The tube feeder is big enough for 30 birds – this gets filled from the top and then allows food into the tray as the birds eat. This will be layer pellets – they will supplement their diet with bugs, foliage and any veggies and table scraps you give them. And I would put some kind of feeder outside – I am thinking a galvanised trough which could be topped up when needed. If the birds are encouraged outside you will have very happy birds.
Drinking
The drinker is automatic – meaning once it is attached to a tank it will fill as the birds drink. Only maintenance is regular cleaning. It is called a bell drinker because of it’s shape. Medication will be added to the tank – if any is needed. This is a commercial unit and is actually enough for 30 birds – so 8 hens are going to have plenty of water. I would also put a font outside (this is a manual drinker) to keep them outside as much as possible.
Nest box
There is a nest box attached so the hens have a place to lay, and opposite are the perches where the hens will sleep at night. The design means you can take the eggs without disturbing the birds or opening the chicken house. There is space in the nest boxes for 15 birds – hens don’t mind sharing – and each will lay as they need and move out. The next hen will just add to the egg pile. These usually have straw or sawdust in them to make your hens comfortable, and to stop the eggs from rolling and cracking.
Nest for free range hens
This commercial nest box would go in a larger free range house or a breeding house. Each bay will allow for up to 8 laying hens to lay eggs. As the birds do not all lay at the same time they are quite happy to share – they will just add their egg to any eggs already in the bay. Usually eggs are collected at 10am and again at 3pm. Collecting twice a day makes sure that the eggs stay clean.
The chicken house
I have designed it to be movable – this is so that you do not let the birds kill one area of your garden off – you can wheel it to a new spot every few weeks and this means your hens will have fresh grass and range. The whole structure is painted steel and galvanised steel. I purposely stayed away from wood so it will last – and help with disease control – wood just holds onto disease whereas steel you can clean with strong chemicals and use a high pressure water sprayer. Some kind of fence will need to be put up if you have hen eating dogs – and it will have to be movable as well. I am thinking of “hammer in stakes” and then using bird netting to fence it. If you have predator birds in your area you may have to put some bird netting above the enclosure as well.
The floor will be welded mesh – so as to allow the litter to easily dry – and to keep out vermin – snakes and rats. It will be covered with straw or wood shavings – whatever you can easily get your hands on. The sides will be clad in IBR, like the roof. This will keep them cosy at night and dark during the day – hens love cosy dark and safe! One side will swing open on a hinge for easy cleaning, and to cool the house on those hot summers days. The hens will access the house through a pop hole at the top of the ladder. This can be closed at night if you concerned – but usually this is not necessary.
As I have not actually built this structure yet I am sure I will come up with some more innovative ideas, and get rid of a few badly thought out wrinkles. Usually the structures I build are for 3000 plus birds. This project is an effort to get people growing their own eggs – it is really very easy. I have 500 free range birds at home – ok – that is a bit more difficult – but not really. A structure that holds 360 broilers is what the picture below depicts – not nearly so cottagy and cute. It is not a free range house – to convert it is quite simple.
broiler house for raising chicken to eat – drawing in solid works
Instead of having steel sides I would place free range flaps – these would allow the birds access to the outside. The curtains are winched to allow air into the house. These houses can be built for up 3000 birds – broilers or layers – that is commercial farming. The most you could place in our largest house if you were free ranging would be 2100 – and the structure would be 30 meters long by 7 meters wide. Again – you may be thinking that it would be a lot of work – not nearly as much as you think. If this were a free range layer house I would use the same technique for the nest boxes – and have them running the length of the walls – but not the whole way – I would need to leave space for the pop holes.
One would think with all the banting diets going around people would be jumping to to have chickens at home – fresh free range eggs are great for those who bant – nothing like a fresh egg in your bullet proof coffee! If you can see any improvements I can make to the small chicken house I would like to hear from you. Or if you have some designs of your own I will post them – Good luck with your hens at home project.
Chicken Coop For 6 Chickens in East Parsonfield, Maine
A good place to start any search is the internet. Simply plugging in the phrase "chicken coops for sale in East Parsonfield 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 East Parsonfield Maine chicken coops. What to look for when buying a chicken coop in East Parsonfield, Maine With the significant boost in chicken keeping there has actually been an equally large surge in the variety of poultry stuff on sale. Poultry real estate is a proceedings in point. It's also a traditional example of the good old bandwagon being jumped on as various would-be fowl real estate experts pitch a range of accommodation asserting to be the perfect remedy to your chicken housing needs. Usually the price looks attractive, your diy-chicken-coop-planshome looks desirable, heck also the clean-cut family members standing there feeding the chickens look desirable. Definitely they recognize a high quality chicken house when they see one? There are several cheap and nasty cages swamping the market. I recognize this as I've checked a number of them in the area, and seen a ewe run straight with one when the feed pail appeared. The result was just a costly heap of fire wood and a small group of bemused as well as now homeless bantams.
Chicken Coop And Run Plans in East Parsonfield, Maine
Generally these standardized models are built of fast grown up lumber - come the initial decline of rain they swell, leaving you either blockading a door that won't close, or ripping the doorway furnishings off in a vain attempt to release the squawking residents. The very first cozy day suggests the timber dries out and fractures, the felt roof covering bubbles as well as boils, as well as come nightfall the chickens choose not to enter. This is not due to their disappointment at the decrease of their once appealing residential property yet considering that the hovel is currently a place for, and most likely abounding, the poultry keeper's nemesis, red mite. Add the fact that it said on the blurb that it would certainly suit 4 large hens when that stocking thickness was based upon the Circle Line at 5pm on a Friday, as well as just what are you left with? A few joints as well as some kindling. A decent coop for thee to four birds ought to cost you approximately ₤ 300 though this could depend upon whether you choose for a cost-free standing house or one with a run attached. Assuming you are ranging your birds in a big area and the pop opening doorway is big enough for the breed you keep, then the main demands of real estate come down to 3 factors which will certainly define the variety of birds the house will certainly hold; perches, nest boxes and ventilation. The majority of breeds of chicken will certainly perch when they go to roost during the night, this perch needs to preferably be 5-8cm broad with smoothed off edges so the foot sits easily on it. The perch needs to be above the nest box access as chickens will certainly also naturally look for the highest point to perch. A perch lower than that will certainly have the birds roosting in the nest box overnight (which is by the way when they generate the most poo) resulting in stained eggs the following day. They shouldn't nevertheless be so high off the floor of the house that leg injuries could possibly happen when the bird comes down in the morning. Chickens require concerning 20cm of perch each (in little types this is obviously less), plus if greater than one perch is mounted in the house they should be more 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 in front. Ideally the house should have a the very least one nest box for each 3 birds and these need to be off the ground and also in the darkest location of the house. Your house should have ample ventilation: without it then condensation will develop every evening, even in the coldest of climate. Realize, ventilation deals with the concept of cozy air leaving with a high gap drawing cooler air in from a lower void - it's not a set of holes on contrary walls of your house as well as at the exact same degree, this is exactly what's called a draught. If you have a house with a run attached after that the points above are still real, however you ought to likewise consider the run dimension. The EU optimum legal equipping thickness for a complimentary variety bird is (and also let's encounter it, among the inspirations for maintaining some hens in your home is possibly enhanced or much better welfare) 2,500 birds each hectare, that's maximum one bird each 4m made even. Take a close look at several of the deal homes - it could well be your house has the appropriate perches, appropriate air flow and adequate nest boxes for a sensible number of birds, yet will each of the chickens have anything more than an A4 sized piece of ground to spend the day on? And so as the claiming goes, "you obtain exactly what you pay for". You may think you've got a bargain, however you as well as your flock could possibly rue the day you did. Acquisition the appropriate house as well as it will certainly last for a couple of decades, otherwise longer offered the appropriate therapy. In the long run your chicken as well as your fowl keeping encounter will be considerably the better for it.chicken chickens
More Posts
Chicken Coops for Sale in Cherryfield, Maine
Chicken Coops for Sale in China, Maine
Chicken Coops for Sale in Bristol, Maine
Chicken Coops for Sale in Augusta, Maine
Chicken Coops for Sale in Caratunk, Maine