Chicken Coops for Sale in South Lancaster, Massachusetts
Chicken Coops for Sale in South Lancaster, Massachusetts
How to Choose the Right Chicken Coop
With Spring well underway, many of us are doing a little spring cleaning and preparing for some new chicks! Maybe it’s time for a new coop? Here are some basic tips for choosing the right coop for your flock and how to take care of it so you can be sure your chickens and other fowl are happy and healthy.
A chicken coop can have many purposes. It can be as simple as a place to roost at night if your flock is free range, or, if you prefer to keep your flock in one place, serves as their all-inclusive home with room for roosting, exercise, feeding, and laying eggs. There are many different designs and layouts to choose from when picking out a coop. You can buy one pre-made, or find instructions for building your own. Here are some factors to consider when choosing your flock’s home:
- Key Features There are a few basic features you’ll want for any chicken coop:
-
Roosting bars don’t have to be fancy, and they’ll give your hens a safe place to sleep at night. Like most birds, chickens, turkeys, and other types of fowl prefer sleeping in an elevated area in order to stay safe from predators. Roosting bars will provide a place for your hens to perch at night so they can sleep soundly.
- A nesting box is a great way to encourage your hens to lay their eggs in a specific spot. If the coop you own doesn’t have built-in boxes, milk crates are a great substitute!
- Dispensers are useful for keeping food and water clean. There are plenty of styles you can buy, or you can make them yourself. Keep food and water dispensers slightly elevated, a few inches off the ground, in order to prevent dirt from getting in. If you have young chicks in your coop, remember to make sure the food and water are accessible, and that they are not at risk of getting caught in the water dish and drowning.
-
- Space
Our ladies are free range during the day, so they don’t need much space in their coop. Having enough space is important for your coop if you want to avoid fighting. The average recommendation is a minimum of 1-2 square feet per bird, and much more if your flock remains in the coop 24/7. If your flock is not given enough space, it won’t be long before you notice the signs. Look for birds pecking at one another and birds with missing feathers. Bullying is a common side effect when there isn’t enough room to go around. If you do notice signs of bullying in your flock, separate the bullied birds until they are better and increase the amount of space in your coop.
- Safety There are a number of things that might affect your flock’s safety, whether it’s predators or the elements. Protect your flock from extreme temperatures by ensuring that your coop is well insulated and also well ventilated to allow proper airflow. There are a number of things you can do each year to prepare your flock for winter, and in the summer months they need access to fresh air and water in order to keep cool. As for predators, a properly enclosed coop will keep out larger animals, and roosting bars will allow your birds to stay at a safe height while they sleep.
- Convenience There are plenty of things to think about for your hens when choosing the right coop, but don’t forget about yourself! A good coop will be easily accessible so that you can gather eggs, change out food and water, and clean the coop without much hassle. Many coops will have larger doors or hatches that allow you better access inside the coop, and can be locked up when you are finished.
Basic Coop Care Once you’ve chosen the right coop, maintaining it is your next step. Be sure to place your coop in an area that will stay dry so you and your flock won’t have to deal with mud and puddles after some wet weather. Give your hens a supply of hay or straw so they can keep warm and build nests, and provide an area with clean dust or sand that will allow your birds to clean themselves and prevent mites. Change out dirty straw regularly, and clean out any droppings before they build up too much. Many coops are designed so that droppings can be removed easily, but in our lean-to coop we use a rake to pull them out. Cleaning up droppings and old food and keeping the coop dry will prevent mold and keep out bugs and other pests.
The right coop will ensure the health and safety of your backyard flock!
Share this:
Chicken Coop Building Plans in South Lancaster, Massachusetts
A good place to start any search is the internet. Simply plugging in the phrase "chicken coops for sale in South Lancaster Massachusetts" 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 South Lancaster Massachusetts chicken coops. What to look for when buying a chicken coop in South Lancaster, Massachusetts With the big boost in poultry maintaining there has actually been an equally huge rise in the array of poultry paraphernalia for sale. Poultry housing is an instance in point. It's likewise a timeless example of the excellent old bandwagon being got on as numerous would-be fowl real estate experts market a variety of cottage asserting to be the perfect solution to your chicken real estate demands. Frequently the cost looks eye-catching, the house looks desirable, hell also the clean-cut family standing there feeding the chickens look attractive. Undoubtedly they know a quality chicken house when they see one? There are several cheap as well as nasty coops flooding the marketplace. I understand this as I've checked a variety of them in the area, and also seen a ewe run straight via one when the feed pail appeared. The result was just a pricey stack of fire wood and also a tiny flock of bemused as well as now homeless bantams.
Chicken Coop For Sale Near Me in South Lancaster, Massachusetts
More often than not these standardized models are built of quick grown lumber - come the first decline of rain they swell, leaving you either fortifying a door that will not shut, or tearing the doorway furnishings off in a vain effort to launch the squawking occupants. The very first warm day indicates the wood dries and fractures, the felt roof covering bubbles as well as boils, as well as come nightfall the chickens refuse to enter. This is not due to their dissatisfaction at the decrease of their as soon as appealing building however considering that the hovel is currently a haven for, and probably abounding, the poultry keeper's nemesis, red mite. Add that it claimed on the blurb that it would match 4 big chickens when that equipping thickness was based on the Circle Line at 5pm on a Friday, and also just what are you left with? A few joints and also some kindling. A good coop for thee to four birds ought to cost you around ₤ 300 though this can rely on whether you elect for a totally free standing house or one with a run attached. Thinking you are varying your birds in a big room and the pop hole doorway is big sufficient for the type you maintain, then the main requirements of real estate boil down to 3 points which will specify the variety of birds your home will certainly hold; perches, nest boxes as well as air flow. A lot of types of chicken will perch when they visit roost during the night, this perch should ideally be 5-8cm broad with smoothed off edges so the foot sits easily on it. The perch needs to be more than the nest box access as chickens will likewise naturally seek the highest point to perch. A perch lower than that will certainly have the birds roosting in the nest box over night (which is incidentally when they generate the most poo) causing stained eggs the following day. They shouldn't nevertheless be so high off the flooring of the house that leg injuries can occur when the bird comes down in the early morning. Chickens need about 20cm of perch each (in little types this is certainly much less), plus if more than one perch is set up in your house they must be more than 30cm apart. They will hunker up with their next-door neighbors however are not that keen on roosting with a beak in the bloomers of the bird ahead. Ideally your home must have a the very least one nest box for each 3 birds and these must be off the ground as well as in the darkest area of the house. Your home must have adequate ventilation: without it after that condensation will accumulate every evening, also in the chilliest of climate. Realize, air flow works with the concept of warm air leaving via a high void attracting cooler air in from a reduced space - it's not a set of openings on other walls of the house and at the very same degree, this is just what's called a draught. If you have a house with a run affixed after that the factors above are still real, yet you must additionally think about the run dimension. The EU maximum lawful stocking thickness for a complimentary range bird is (and allow's encounter it, among the motivations for keeping some chickens at home is potentially enhanced or much better welfare) 2,500 birds each hectare, that's optimal one bird each 4m made even. Take a close look at a few of the deal houses - it could well be your home has the best perches, right ventilation as well as sufficient nest boxes for a practical number of birds, yet 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 spend for". You could believe you've got a deal, however you as well as your flock can rue the day you did. Acquisition the ideal house as well as it will last for a few years, otherwise longer offered the correct therapy. In the end your fowl as well as your fowl keeping experience will certainly be considerably the far better for it.chick chickens
More Posts
Chicken Coops for Sale in Somerset, Massachusetts
Chicken Coops for Sale in Acushnet, Massachusetts
Chicken Coops for Sale in East Taunton, Massachusetts
Chicken Coops for Sale in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts
Chicken Coops for Sale in Braintree, Massachusetts