Chicken Coops for Sale in Decatur, Mississippi
Chicken Coops for Sale in Decatur, Mississippi
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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Chicken Coop On Wheels Designs in Decatur, Mississippi
A good place to start any search is the internet. Simply plugging in the phrase "chicken coops for sale in Decatur Mississippi" 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 Decatur Mississippi chicken coops. What to look for when buying a chicken coop in Decatur, Mississippi With the big boost in chicken keeping there has been a just as large increase in the variety of chicken paraphernalia for sale. Poultry housing is a proceedings in factor. It's also a classic example of the great old bandwagon being got on as different potential chicken housing professionals peddle an array of lodging declaring to be the ideal remedy to your chicken housing needs. Typically the rate looks appealing, your house looks attractive, hell also the clean-cut family members standing there feeding the chickens look attractive. Surely they know a high quality chicken house when they see one? There are several affordable and also nasty coops flooding the market. I know this as I've checked a variety of them in the field, as well as seen a ewe run directly through one when the feed container showed up. The result was just an expensive pile of fire wood and also a small flock of bemused as well as now homeless bantams.
Chicken Coop Quality in Decatur, Mississippi
More often than not these standardized designs are created of quick grown wood - come the very first drop of rainfall they swell, leaving you either fortifying a door that won't shut, or ripping the doorway furniture off in a vain effort to release the squawking occupants. The very first warm day indicates the lumber dries and fractures, the really felt roof bubbles and also boils, and come nightfall the chickens refuse to go in. This is not due to their dissatisfaction at the decrease of their as soon as eye-catching home however considering that the hovel is currently a haven for, and also probably crawling with, the fowl keeper's nemesis, red mite. Add on that it said on the blurb that it would certainly fit four large chickens when that equipping thickness was based upon the Circle Line at 5pm on a Friday, and also what are you left with? A couple of joints and some kindling. A good coop for thee to four birds must cost you in the region of ₤ 300 though this could depend on whether you elect for a complimentary standing house or one with a run connected. Thinking you are ranging your birds in a big room as well as the pop opening doorway is big enough for the breed you keep, then the major needs of housing boil down to three points which will certainly specify the variety of birds your house will certainly hold; perches, nest boxes and also ventilation. Many breeds of chicken will perch when they visit roost during the night, this perch ought to ideally be 5-8cm wide with smoothed off sides so the foot sits conveniently on it. The perch should be more than the nest box entry as chickens will certainly likewise normally search for the acme to perch. A perch lower than that will certainly have the birds roosting in the nest box overnight (which is incidentally when they generate one of the most poo) causing soiled eggs the list below day. They shouldn't nevertheless be so high off the floor of your home that leg injuries can happen when the bird gets down in the morning. Chickens require concerning 20cm of perch each (in little types this is clearly less), plus if more than one perch is set up in the house they ought to be more than 30cm apart. They will certainly hunker up with their neighbors yet are not that keen on roosting with a beak in the bloomers of the bird in front. Ideally your home ought to have a the very least one nest box for every single 3 birds as well as these must be off the ground as well as in the darkest area of your house. Your home should have ample air flow: without it then condensation will certainly develop every evening, even in the coldest of weather condition. Understand, air flow works on the principle of cozy air leaving with a high space drawing cooler air in from a reduced space - it's not a set of holes on contrary wall surfaces of your home and also at the very same degree, this is just what's called a draught. If you have a house with a run connected after that the factors above are still real, however you need to additionally take into consideration the run dimension. The EU maximum legal stocking thickness for a cost-free variety bird is (and also let's face it, one of the motivations for keeping some hens in the house is potentially improved or better welfare) 2,500 birds each hectare, that's optimal one bird per 4m squared. Take a close consider some of the bargain residences - it could well be the house has the appropriate perches, appropriate ventilation and also sufficient nest boxes for an affordable number of birds, however will each of the chickens have anything more than an A4 sized piece of ground to spend the day on? Therefore as the saying goes, "you get just what you pay for". You may believe you've got hold of a bargain, but you and your flock could rue the day you did. Purchase the best house as well as it will last for a couple of years, if not longer given the correct therapy. In the end your poultry as well as your fowl maintaining experience will be considerably the better for it.chickens build
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