Chicken Coops for Sale in Park Hall, Maryland
Chicken Coops for Sale in Park Hall, Maryland
Our Chicken Coop Design – Front Elevation (Part 2 of 3)
Okay, I lied. I had hoped to finish up writing on our chicken coop design with this post, but I ran out of time and markers…seriously – my gray marker ran out. So today I’m going to focus on the front elevation and next week I’ll wrap it up with the other 3 elevations.
Front Elevation of the Coop
When designing your coop you really need to think through ventilation for a number of reasons: respiratory health of the chickens; drying out the moisture and their manure keeps down the smells and the potential of the hens getting sick. I made ours super-ventilated by covering the entire front of our coop with hardware cloth. We may have gone overboard, but it’s better to err on the side of too much ventilation in a coop than too little…and because Atlanta has a fairly temperate climate, I think we’re good. That said, you do have to consider strong winds – particularly in the colder months. That’s why Britt and I crafted Roman shade-like curtains out of painter’s drop cloths for the front and the windows on the other 3 sides of the coop. It was quite inexpensive and fairly easy to do…particularly if you strategically use the hems already sewn in. These curtains will give our ladies a refuge from the cold winds – protecting the exposed areas of their bodies (combs, wattles, and feet).
Here are a few other things to note about the front elevation of our coop:
- Again, entire area is covered in hardware cloth. I could have used chicken wire on the top (bottom needs hardware cloth to keep out critters), but I had enough hardware cloth and I thought it looked better for the entire area to be consistent.
- The height of the walls are 6.5’…which is plenty high (for me at least) to be able to walk through the door…and there is plenty of height inside, since there is no ceiling (just the rafters and tin roof above).
- 24″ doors were constructed out of pressure-treated wood and painted the same color as the doors of our home.
- To clean things up a bit and to cover up where the pieces of hardware cloth met, I added 1″ trim on the outside of each 2×4 and painted it and the siding of the rest of the coop the same color gray as our house.
- We used gate latches as handles. If you do as well, make sure you make it so that you won’t get locked in when the doors close. To do that, I simply drilled a hole just above the latch and attached a long, thin chain that I threaded through the hole…allowing me to open the latch from inside. Don’t use string or twine…I found that out the hard way. String will wear out and break – leaving you stranded inside. Fortunately when it happened to me, one of my girls was within shouting distance.
- We were running out of hardware cloth when we were finishing the gable, so we simply filled in the middle space with a board and painted it gray. To make sense of this oddly proportioned space and to bring a little bit of character to the coop, I hung a set of antlers from a Mule Deer I shot several years ago with my dad in Wyoming.
So there’s the front elevation. We are really pleased with it…it’s done what we set out to do – make a more than livable space for our chickens (and bunny), while still being attractive. Now we may be a bit too particular, but I really think having an attractive coop in a nice setting has made raising chickens not only sustainable, but more enjoyable. So sure, you could build a coop that is purely functional, but if it looks like a hunk of junk, is that really something you want to see every day…sometimes several times? We thought not.
Next week I’ll wrap things up on our chicken coop design…but until then, please let me know if you have any other questions about our coop or raising chickens. I could perhaps work my answers into the next post.
Take care,
PS: Here are the links to and of Our Chicken Coop Design…and the link to .
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Chicken Coop Run Plans in Park Hall, Maryland
A good place to start any search is the internet. Simply plugging in the phrase "chicken coops for sale in Park Hall Maryland" 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 Park Hall Maryland chicken coops. What to look for when buying a chicken coop in Park Hall, Maryland With the huge increase in poultry maintaining there has been an equally big rise in the array of chicken materiel on sale. Poultry real estate is an instance in point. It's likewise a traditional instance of the good old bandwagon being got on as various prospective chicken housing experts pitch a range of cottage declaring to be the ideal option to your chicken housing needs. Typically the cost looks attractive, the house looks eye-catching, heck even the clean-cut family members standing there feeding the chickens look attractive. Certainly they recognize a professional chicken house when they see one? There are lots of low-cost as well as unpleasant cages swamping the market. I understand this as I've examined a variety of them in the field, and seen a ewe run straight through one when the feed container showed up. The result was nothing but an expensive pile of fire wood and a little group of bemused as well as now homeless bantams.
Chicken Coop Roost Ideas in Park Hall, Maryland
Generally these mass produced designs are built of fast grown wood - come the first decline of rain they swell, leaving you either defending a doorway that won't close, or ripping the doorway furniture off in a vain effort to launch the squawking occupants. The very first warm day implies the wood dries out and also fractures, the felt roof bubbles as well as boils, and come nightfall the hens refuse to go in. This is not due to their frustration at the decrease of their once appealing apartment yet since the hovel is currently a haven for, and also most likely crawling with, the fowl keeper's bane, red mite. Add the fact that it claimed on the blurb that it would certainly match 4 big hens when that equipping thickness was based upon the Circle Line at 5pm on a Friday, and what are you left with? A number of joints and some kindling. A decent coop for thee to four birds need to cost you around ₤ 300 though this can rely on whether you choose for a cost-free standing house or one with a run affixed. Assuming you are varying your birds in a big space as well as the pop hole doorway is big sufficient for the breed you maintain, after that the major demands of real estate come down to 3 points which will certainly define the variety of birds your home will certainly hold; perches, nest boxes as well as ventilation. Most types of chicken will certainly perch when they visit roost at night, this perch should preferably be 5-8cm vast with smoothed off edges so the foot sits easily on it. The perch must be more than the nest box entry 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 one of the most poo) bring about stained eggs the list below day. They should not however be so high off the floor of your home that leg injuries can take place when the bird gets down in the morning. Chickens need regarding 20cm of perch each (in little types this is obviously much less), plus if greater than one perch is set up in your home they must be greater 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. Preferably the house needs to have a least one nest box for each three birds and these ought to be off the ground and in the darkest area of your home. Your home needs to have adequate air flow: without it after that condensation will build up every evening, even in the chilliest of climate. Know, ventilation works on the concept of warm air leaving with a high gap drawing cooler air in from a reduced space - it's not a set of openings on contrary walls of your home as well as at the same level, this is just what's referred to as a draught. If you have a house with a run attached after that the points above are still real, yet you ought to likewise consider the run size. The EU maximum legal equipping thickness for a complimentary variety bird is (and also let's encounter it, one of the motivations for maintaining some chickens in your home is potentially boosted or much better well-being) 2,500 birds each hectare, that's optimal one bird per 4m made even. Take a close check out a few of the bargain houses - it could well be your house has the best perches, right ventilation as well as enough nest boxes for a sensible number of birds, but will each of the chickens have anything greater than an A4 sized item of ground to invest the day on? Therefore as the saying goes, "you get what you pay for". You could believe you've grabbed a deal, however you and also your group could possibly rue the day you did. Purchase the appropriate house and it will certainly last for a few decades, if not longer given the correct therapy. In the long run your chicken as well as your fowl keeping encounter will be much the better for it.diy plans
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