Chicken Coops for Sale in Springfield, Maine
Chicken Coops for Sale in Springfield, 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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Baby Chicks For Sale in Springfield, Maine
A good place to start any search is the internet. Simply plugging in the phrase "chicken coops for sale in Springfield 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 Springfield Maine chicken coops. What to look for when buying a chicken coop in Springfield, Maine With the significant rise in poultry maintaining there has been an equally huge surge in the array of fowl stuff on sale. Poultry real estate is a situation in factor. It's likewise a traditional instance of the great old bandwagon being got on as various prospective poultry real estate experts market a selection of holiday accommodation declaring to be the ideal option to your chicken housing needs. Typically the rate looks desirable, your house looks desirable, hell also the clean-cut family members standing there feeding the chickens look eye-catching. Undoubtedly they know a high quality chicken house when they see one? There are numerous cheap and also horrible coops swamping the marketplace. I know this as I've examined a number of them in the field, and seen a ewe run directly through one when the feed container showed up. The outcome was just an expensive heap of firewood and also a small group of bemused as well as currently homeless bantams.
Chicken Coop Small in Springfield, Maine
Most of the time these standardized versions are constructed of fast grown timber - come the first decrease of rainfall they swell, leaving you either defending a door that won't shut, or tearing the doorway furnishings off in a vain effort to release the squawking occupants. The first cozy day suggests the hardwood dries and splits, the really felt roofing bubbles and also 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 attractive home but considering that the hovel is currently a place for, and also most likely abounding, the poultry keeper's bane, red mite. Add the fact that it said on the blurb that it would suit four big chickens when that stocking thickness was based on the Circle Line at 5pm on a Friday, and also exactly what are you left with? A number of hinges as well as some kindling. A decent coop for thee to four birds should cost you in the region of ₤ 300 though this can rely on whether you choose for a free standing house or one with a run attached. Assuming you are ranging your birds in a big area as well as the pop hole doorway is big sufficient for the type you maintain, then the primary demands of housing boil down to 3 points which will define the number of birds your house will certainly hold; perches, nest boxes as well as ventilation. Many types of chicken will certainly perch when they visit roost during the night, this perch needs to ideally be 5-8cm broad with smoothed off sides so the foot sits easily on it. The perch needs to be higher than the nest box entry as chickens will certainly additionally normally seek the acme to perch. A perch below that will have the birds roosting in the nest box overnight (which is incidentally when they produce the most poo) bring about dirtied eggs the following day. They shouldn't however be so high off the floor of your house that leg injuries might occur when the bird gets down in the early morning. Chickens require concerning 20cm of perch each (in small breeds this is clearly 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 neighbors yet are not that crazy about roosting with a beak in the bloomers of the bird ahead. Ideally your home should have a least one nest box for every 3 birds as well as these should be off the ground and also in the darkest area of your house. Your house ought to have appropriate air flow: without it after that condensation will certainly develop every evening, also in the coldest of climate. Be aware, air flow works with the concept of warm and comfortable air leaving with a high gap attracting cooler air in from a lower gap - it's not a collection of openings on contrary wall surfaces of your home and at the exact same level, this is exactly what's known as a draft. If you have a house with a run affixed after that the points above are still real, yet you need to likewise take into consideration the run size. The EU maximum lawful equipping thickness for a free array bird is (as well as allow's face it, one of the inspirations for maintaining some hens at home is perhaps enhanced or better welfare) 2,500 birds each hectare, that's optimal one bird per 4m settled. Take a close consider several of the deal houses - it could well be your house has the ideal perches, right air flow as well as enough nest boxes for an affordable variety of birds, but will each of the chickens have anything greater than an A4 sized piece of ground to invest the day on? And so as the claiming goes, "you obtain just what you spend for". You may think you've got a deal, but you and also your group can rue the day you did. Acquisition the best house and it will last for a couple of decades, otherwise longer given the appropriate therapy. Eventually your fowl as well as your fowl maintaining experience will be a lot the far better for it.coop chicken
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