Chicken Coops for Sale in Lambertville, Michigan
Chicken Coops for Sale in Lambertville, Michigan
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 Quality in Lambertville, Michigan
A good place to start any search is the internet. Simply plugging in the phrase "chicken coops for sale in Lambertville 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 Lambertville Michigan chicken coops. What to look for when buying a chicken coop in Lambertville, Michigan With the huge boost in poultry keeping there has been an equally large surge in the array of fowl materiel on sale. Fowl real estate is a situation in factor. It's also a traditional example of the excellent old bandwagon being got on as numerous potential fowl housing professionals peddle a range of lodging claiming to be the perfect solution to your chicken real estate demands. Often the rate looks eye-catching, your diy-chicken-coop-planshome looks appealing, hell also the clean-cut household standing there feeding the chickens look desirable. Undoubtedly they know a quality chicken house when they see one? There are many low-cost as well as unpleasant cages swamping the market. I recognize this as I've checked a number of them in the area, as well as seen a ewe run directly with one when the feed bucket appeared. The result was just an expensive pile of fire wood as well as a small flock of bemused as well as currently homeless bantams.
Chicken Coop Enclosures in Lambertville, Michigan
Most of the time these mass produced versions are created of rapid grown wood - come the initial drop of rainfall they swell, leaving you either blockading a door that will not shut, or ripping the doorway furniture off in a vain attempt to release the squawking inhabitants. The very first cozy day suggests the timber dries out as well as cracks, the felt roofing system bubbles and boils, as well as come nightfall the hens refuse to enter. This is not as a result of their dissatisfaction at the decrease of their as soon as eye-catching home yet because the hovel is now a sanctuary for, and also most likely crawling with, the poultry keeper's bane, red mite. Add on the fact that it claimed on the blurb that it would fit four big chickens when that stocking density was based upon the Circle Line at 5pm on a Friday, as well as just what are you entrusted? A few joints and some kindling. A respectable coop for thee to 4 birds ought to cost you approximately ₤ 300 though this could depend on whether you choose for a totally free standing house or one with a run attached. Presuming you are ranging your birds in a huge space and the pop hole doorway is big enough for the type you keep, then the main requirements of real estate come down to 3 points which will define the variety of birds your home will hold; perches, nest boxes as well as air flow. Many types of chicken will certainly perch when they go to roost during the night, this perch needs to preferably be 5-8cm vast with smoothed off edges so the foot rests comfortably on it. The perch should be higher than the nest box entrance as chickens will additionally naturally try to find the acme to perch. A perch below that will certainly have the birds roosting in the nest box overnight (which is incidentally when they produce one of the most poo) bring about stained eggs the following day. They should not however be so high off the floor of your home that leg injuries might happen when the bird gets down in the early morning. Chickens require about 20cm of perch each (in small breeds this is undoubtedly much less), plus if more than one perch is installed in your house they must be greater than 30cm apart. They will certainly hunker up with their next-door neighbors however are not that keen on roosting with a beak in the bloomers of the bird in front. Preferably your house ought to have a least one nest box for every single 3 birds and these should be off the ground as well as in the darkest area of the house. Your home should have ample ventilation: without it after that condensation will certainly build up every night, also in the chilliest of weather condition. Understand, air flow works on the concept of warm air leaving with a high space drawing cooler air in from a lower space - it's not a collection of holes on opposite walls of the house and at the exact same level, this is just what's referred to as a draft. If you have a house with a run attached then the points above are still true, however you need to additionally think about the run size. The EU maximum legal stocking thickness for a cost-free array bird is (and allow's encounter it, among the motivations for keeping some chickens in the house is potentially boosted or much better welfare) 2,500 birds each hectare, that's maximum one bird each 4m squared. Take a close check out a few of the deal houses - it could well be your home has the ideal perches, right air flow and also ample nest boxes for a reasonable variety 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 assume you've got a deal, yet you and your group could rue the day you did. Purchase the best house as well as it will last for a few years, if not longer offered the proper therapy. In the long run your fowl and also your chicken maintaining encounter will be considerably the far better for it.chicken chicken
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