Chicken Coops for Sale in Holly Bluff, Mississippi
Chicken Coops for Sale in Holly Bluff, Mississippi
Eggs! Raise Your Own Hens In A Chicken Coop Built From Scrap
From a long line of egg farmers in Holland, Karin’s dad finally builds her a chicken coop
Where bylaws allow, or can be bypassed, I highly recommend building your own chicken coop. Imagine getting fresh, free-range organic eggs every day? When my parents came to visit me in Jaffa a few months ago, Dad found himself bored. Back in Holland, my family the Van Der Meers were one of the biggest egg producers in the country before the Depression. So you could say, eggs are in our genes. With Dad nothing to do for a few weeks, I brought up the idea of having him build me a chicken coop. That got him kind of excited. He foraged for wood in my backyard and came up with a coop that resembles a bus stop. The Chicken Express? Step right up and I’ll tell you how to build a coop in a few easy steps. And no you don’t have to invest much, unless you want to make your coop designer.
In warm climates very little is needed to keep your hens happy – basically a roof over their heads, a lengthwise pole for curling their toes around when they sleep at night (you might want to raise it high where feral cats might stalk your chickens), and some fencing to keep them from, well, flying the coop.
Here are our chickens before we bought them.
As it turns out, Bedouin chickens which we bought in the Negev Desert, are very agile creatures and even sleep in our blackberry tree some nights. The fencing doesn’t help them that much, but it does keep them contained somewhat, and out of the mouth of our crazy dog.
Here’s what you’ll need to build the coop:
- A corner on your roof, garden, or backyard for the chicken coop, a couple meters by a couple meters at least
- An old door or piece of plywood for a roof
- Some plywood for the sides
- Chicken wire, if you want to contain the chickens outside the coop (they eat weeds so consider letting them run loose)
- A wooden pole
- Some boxes, or crates for roosting. Throw in something soft.
- Feed
Find a corner to build against, saving yourself the need to build 2 extra walls. Be lazy. Make sure there’s a roof for the chickens to protect them against the sun, and rain, and in the winter if it gets cold, you can throw a carpet over the sides to keep the cold wind out. Make sure they have three walls.
We built a 2 meter or so pole, installed horizontally, down low about 50 cm off the ground but noticed some street cats were preying on our hens and raised the pole to about 1.5 meters off the ground. Most chickens can fly to this height but see what works for yours. It really doesn’t take much to make your chickens happy. But they do need a pole to sleep on at night.
What you feed your chickens:
- A basic seed/corn meal
- Compost – can include eggshells (ours really love labane cheese – could be because they are Bedouin hens)
- Garden weeds and greens (let them go wild!)
- Worms and bugs (they feed themselves while aerating the ground)
- Endless supply of water
Chickens do need basic feed, that which can be bought at a feedlot. Some inquiring around on where to find chickens and feed might be in order. Animal markets for livestock might be your best bet. Ask around in places like that. We bought a huge drum of feed consisting of corn meal and other seeds, and feed our chickens a regular diet of all the vegetable-based compost that would otherwise be composted. But don’t worry. Chicken doo makes an excellent compost too. One of my friends can’t eat eggs unless they are free-range and fed with organic oats. So it’s really up to you to decide how to feed your chickens, depending on your health needs and sensitivities.
We have five chickens and one rooster. The rooster is just for the fun of it. You don’t need one if you have neighbors nearby who will complain about the noise. And roosters DO make noise, waking us up as early as 1:30 am.
Bedouin women (crouching like crows) selling “bede” hens at the market
Unlike commercially-raised chickens, our hens don’t get “sunshine” 24 hours a day. Some parts of the year the chickens won’t lay. They will molt and take a break. And not every chicken will lay every day once she starts. We bought young chickens and it took them a couple of months to start laying. Now three of the five are laying, but like I said, not every day.
See a video interview with my dad about chickens
We bought our chickens at a Bedouin market (for about $10 each) because it was important for my husband that we have a “wild” variety – chickens that haven’t been genetically manipulated. Our eggs are on the small to medium size, the yolks absolutely huge compared to the white. One hen is laying eggs with the most delightful little beige specks on them.
Dad (left), the closest link to my family of egg people is determined that next time he comes to visit me in the Middle East he’ll be smuggling in white hen eggs – “the real good layers” – from Canada. He keeps asking me about building an incubator for these eggs to become hatchlings. Hopefully it will happen and when it does, I’ll report it here on Green Prophet.
Meanwhile, I am dreaming about how many eggs I will collect tomorrow. And how exciting it will be for my little baby daughter, when she gets bigger, to go out and collect them like I did when I was a little girl (that’s me in the top photo). My family had a coop in a suburban town outside Toronto until our evil neighbour complained and we had to get rid of it.
Before the complaints, I would go out and collect our eggs and sell them to our neighbors for a dollar a dozen, to cover the price of feed. Seriously, it was so much fun. If this blogger, and lazy environmentalist who is addicted to the computer can start a coop, you can too. Get cracking and join the new movement of urban farming.
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Chicken Coop Free Plans in Holly Bluff, Mississippi
A good place to start any search is the internet. Simply plugging in the phrase "chicken coops for sale in Holly Bluff 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 Holly Bluff Mississippi chicken coops. What to look for when buying a chicken coop in Holly Bluff, Mississippi With the massive rise in poultry keeping there has been an equally large increase in the range of chicken stuff for sale. Chicken real estate is a case in factor. It's likewise a timeless example of the great old bandwagon being got on as numerous prospective chicken housing experts pitch a selection of lodging declaring to be the optimal remedy to your chicken real estate requirements. Frequently the price looks eye-catching, your diy-chicken-coop-planshome looks desirable, hell also the clean-cut household standing there feeding the chickens look desirable. Surely they know a professional chicken house when they see one? There are several low-cost as well as horrible coops flooding the marketplace. I understand this as I've checked a number of them in the area, and also seen a ewe run straight via one when the feed pail appeared. The result was just an expensive pile of firewood and also a tiny group of bemused and also now homeless bantams.
Baby Chick Hatcheries in Holly Bluff, Mississippi
Typically these mass produced designs are created of quick grown up lumber - come the first decline of rain they swell, leaving you either defending a door that will not close, or tearing the door furniture off in a vain effort to release the squawking inhabitants. The initial cozy day indicates the hardwood dries out and also splits, the really felt roof 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 once attractive apartment however since the hovel is currently a haven for, as well as most likely crawling with, the poultry keeper's bane, red mite. Add on the fact that it said on the blurb that it would suit 4 large chickens when that stocking density was based upon the Circle Line at 5pm on a Friday, and what are you left with? A couple of hinges and some kindling. A decent coop for thee to 4 birds should cost you around ₤ 300 though this can depend upon whether you choose for a totally free standing house or one with a run attached. Presuming you are varying your birds in a large room and also the pop opening doorway allows sufficient for the type you keep, then the main demands of housing boil down to three factors which will certainly define the variety of birds the house will hold; perches, nest boxes and also ventilation. Most types of chicken will perch when they go to roost at night, this perch must ideally be 5-8cm large with smoothed off sides so the foot rests easily on it. The perch must be above the nest box entry as chickens will certainly additionally naturally search for the acme to perch. A perch lower than that will have the birds roosting in the nest box overnight (which is incidentally when they create one of the most poo) leading to soiled eggs the following day. They should not nonetheless be so high off the floor of the house that leg injuries can happen when the bird comes down in the early morning. Chickens need about 20cm of perch each (in tiny breeds this is certainly much less), plus if more than one perch is set up in your house they must be greater than 30cm apart. They will hunker up with their neighbors but are not that keen on roosting with a beak in the bloomers of the bird ahead. Preferably your home must have a least one nest box for every single three birds as well as these ought to be off the ground and also in the darkest area of your house. Your home ought to have adequate air flow: without it after that condensation will certainly build up every night, also in the chilliest of weather condition. Know, ventilation works on the principle of cozy air leaving via a high space drawing cooler air in from a lower space - it's not a set of openings on opposite wall surfaces of your home and also at the same degree, this is what's referred to as a draught. If you have a house with a run connected then the points above are still real, yet you must also think about the run size. The EU optimum lawful stocking thickness for a cost-free variety bird is (and let's encounter it, one of the inspirations for maintaining some hens in the house is potentially improved or better well-being) 2,500 birds per hectare, that's maximum one bird each 4m settled. Take a close look at some of the deal homes - it could well be the house has the appropriate perches, right ventilation and adequate 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 invest the day on? And so as the stating goes, "you obtain what you spend for". You could believe you've grabbed a bargain, but you as well as your flock might rue the day you did. Purchase the ideal house and it will last for a couple of decades, otherwise longer offered the right therapy. In the long run your chicken and your fowl maintaining encounter will be a lot the much better for it.chickens coops
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