Chicken Coops for Sale in Hudsonville, Michigan
Chicken Coops for Sale in Hudsonville, Michigan
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:
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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.
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- 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!
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Chicken Coop Enclosures in Hudsonville, Michigan
A good place to start any search is the internet. Simply plugging in the phrase "chicken coops for sale in Hudsonville Michigan" 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 Hudsonville Michigan chicken coops. What to look for when buying a chicken coop in Hudsonville, Michigan With the huge boost in poultry maintaining there has actually been an equally big rise in the array of chicken stuff on sale. Chicken housing is a situation in factor. It's likewise a timeless instance of the great old bandwagon being jumped on as numerous potential fowl housing specialists pitch a variety of cottage claiming to be the ideal option to your chicken real estate needs. Usually the price looks attractive, your house looks desirable, heck even the clean-cut family members standing there feeding the chickens look attractive. Certainly they understand a quality chicken house when they see one? There are several inexpensive and horrible coops swamping the marketplace. I know this as I've checked a number of them in the field, as well as seen a ewe run directly with one when the feed pail appeared. The outcome was just a costly stack of fire wood as well as a tiny flock of bemused and now homeless bantams.
Chicken Coops For Sale in Hudsonville, Michigan
Usually these standardized designs are constructed of fast grown up lumber - come the first decrease of rainfall they swell, leaving you either blockading a doorway that won't shut, or ripping the doorway furniture off in a vain attempt to release the squawking occupants. The first cozy day means the timber dries and also fractures, the felt roofing bubbles and also boils, as well as come nightfall the chickens refuse to go in. This is not due to their frustration at the decline of their when appealing commercial property but since the hovel is now a sanctuary for, as well as most likely crawling with, the fowl keeper's bane, red mite. Add the fact that it claimed on the blurb that it would match four large hens when that stocking thickness was based on the Circle Line at 5pm on a Friday, and exactly what are you entrusted? A couple of joints and some kindling. A good coop for thee to 4 birds need to cost you approximately ₤ 300 though this could depend upon whether you elect for a cost-free standing house or one with a run affixed. Presuming you are ranging your birds in a large area and also the pop hole doorway allows enough for the type you maintain, then the major demands of housing come down to three factors 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 visit roost in the evening, this perch must ideally be 5-8cm wide with smoothed off sides so the foot sits easily on it. The perch ought to be higher than the nest box entry as chickens will certainly additionally naturally try to find the acme to perch. A perch less than that will certainly have the birds roosting in the nest box over night (which is incidentally when they produce the most poo) bring about dirtied eggs the following day. They shouldn't nevertheless be so high off the floor of your home that leg injuries can occur when the bird gets down in the morning. Chickens need regarding 20cm of perch each (in small types this is obviously less), plus if more than one perch is installed in the house they need to be greater than 30cm apart. They will certainly hunker up with their next-door neighbors but are not that keen on roosting with a beak in the bloomers of the bird in front. Ideally the house needs to have a the very least one nest box for every 3 birds as well as these must be off the ground and also in the darkest area of your home. Your home should have sufficient air flow: without it after that condensation will build up every night, also in the coldest of climate. Realize, air flow works on the concept of warm air leaving through a high gap drawing cooler air in from a reduced space - it's not a collection of openings on opposite wall surfaces of your house and at the exact same level, this is just what's known as a draft. If you have a house with a run attached after that the factors above are still real, however you need to additionally think about the run size. The EU maximum lawful stocking density for a complimentary array bird is (and let's encounter it, among the motivations for keeping some hens at home is perhaps improved or better well-being) 2,500 birds each hectare, that's optimal one bird each 4m squared. Take a close take a look at several of the deal homes - it could well be your house has the ideal perches, proper ventilation and also ample 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 spend the day on? Therefore as the stating goes, "you obtain just what you spend for". You could think you've got hold of a deal, but you and also your group might rue the day you did. Purchase the right house and it will certainly last for a few years, if not longer given the correct therapy. In the end your chicken as well as your poultry maintaining encounter will be a lot the better for it.for sale plan
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