close

Chicken Coops for Sale in Metcalfe, Mississippi

Chicken Coops for Sale in Metcalfe, Mississippi

Is Your Chicken Coop Winter Ready?

Despite tenacious attempts at denial and outright snubbing, winter is setting its GPS to our neighborhoods. If you live north of Zone 8 – you know what this means. Sigh.

Time to winterize the garden, house, backyard and…the coop. Cold weather and blankets of ice and snow mean your chickens will be spending quite a bit more time indoors. You will need to ensure the coop remains draft-free, well-lit and ready to provide the flock with a healthy and invigorating living space.

If you add festive touches to your coop, choose safe, inedible and fire-proof decorations. Chickens love a holiday party.

Fall Cleaning

Prepare the chickens’ living space for the next few months. Cold and inclement weather means the chicken barn will be closed up and not allowed the airings of the spring and summer.

Change all of the bedding and scrub away any manure. Cobwebs and dust needs to be vacuumed, and it is a good idea to spray a livestock approved disinfectant before and after the shop vac gets turned on. Keep birds outside when cleaning the coop as the dust is very bad for them.

Pay close attention to cracks and crevices – scrubbing off any manure that may have stuck there. Use a paint scraper or sharp implement. This is a fun job that we all look forward too! It really does stick like paint. And painting the areas prone to soiling makes tidying-up much easier. The paint gives the coop a clean look.

Roosts need special attention and should be cleaned on a regular schedule. Do not let manure sit on the roosting poles as this increases the chances of foot infections. Bumblefoot (pododermatitis) can often be linked to dirty roosts.

Purchase “cheap” rubber drawer liners to wrap around roosts. They are disposable – which keeps cleaning simple. They provide a non-slip, cushioned surface and are warm under the birds’ feet.

Cleaning Tip: A great way to minimize cleaning chores and prevent sanitation issues is to set up a droppings board under the roosts. If night manure is allowed to fall onto the coop floor, it will get tossed and spread around by the chickens. This makes daily cleaning a nightmare and you end up wasting too much bedding. Chickens rarely use the manure trays for nesting. Situate them about ten inches (roughly) from the roosts. Layer the tray with organic, unscented cat litter, pre-soaked wood pellets or regular shavings.  Do not use hay or straw.

To facilitate composting and to reduce odors try sprinkling the tray with . Scatter this product on the tray before adding the litter material!

Air freshener: After making your winter drinks save the halves of the lemons and oranges. Take these “used” halves and rub them over the roosts and coop furnishings. They offer a mild disinfecting benefit and the coop will smell great! You can also steep the peels in hot water to make your own citrus mist. The chickens’ house will smell so great you will be hosting holiday parties in the coop.

Winter Feeding

Even though snow and cold limit or stop foraging, your birds’ winter nutritional needs remain the same. If you light your coop, egg production is still going on, birds are molting and cold temperatures require “heat” foods. Choose a complete feed for the chickens, and be sure to keep feed stations full.

For a special treat provide the birds with a fun mash. Fill a feeding bowl with the chicken pellets and pour hot water over the feed. The chickens relish this (the feed should be very warm but not scalding).

Greens: If grass is not available, provide the birds with fresh greens each day. Choose whatever they enjoy (avoid iceberg lettuce), but the darker greens are best – and usually the cheapest! Chickens love kale, collards, mustard, dandelion, escarole, dark green lettuces and chard. Many birds will not eat the red chards or lettuces, but it can’t hurt to try. Do not offer avocados, as these are toxic. You can place the greens in a “salad” or made for this purpose!

Fruit: The chickens will love the fruit treats. Try whatever is in season – apples, melons, grapes and berries (thawed frozen berries are a great money saver). Birds will not eat, mango, pineapple or citrus.

Treats: Chickens love treats. Treat these as treats. Do not offer too many. Check your fluffy chickies to ensure they are not putting on winter weight. With limited exercise, the birds can get chunky – this is not healthy. Know the ideal weight for each breed. If birds feel like they are putting on too much fat (fat is felt through the back on the keel – the birds will feel “heavy”), limit treats and rich foods such as seed, pasta, corn, nuts and sunflower seeds. Check out the at e-fowl –  Mealworms, Harvest Delight Poultry Treat and many more . Only offer sugary foods as a rare dessert.

Boredom

Bare ground! Chickens are feathered for the cold, but do not allow them outdoors in windchill, snowy conditions or wet weather. Birds are at risk for frost bite.

Provide the birds with entertainment. Chickens are highly intelligent and active animals inherently structured to spend their days foraging. This need for activity must be addressed to stave off chronic stress and other behavioral issues (feather picking, aggression and immune system problems).

• Hang heads of lettuce or greens from a rope to let the birds forage.

• Offer seed cakes or other bird treats that require work to access.

• Play a radio. Chickens enjoy the stimulation.

• Always give the chickens access to a tray of clean dirt. Bathing is critical to feather and bird health. Dust bathing trays are a winter must. Do not add any diatomaceous earth or peat to the soil, as these are respiratory irritants.

• Set out feed quality first cut hay for the birds to scratch through. They love the seed heads. Never supply moldy or dusty hay. Remove hay once it gets wet or soiled. Chickens tend not to eat first cut hay, but they may munch on alfalfa (they can eat dry alfalfa) or second cut. Chickens are prone to dangerous crop impactions from eating stemmy hay – so watch out for this. Check to be sure the birds are not eating the hay – remove it if they are, and replace it with pine needles. If you can get clean straw, this is also a great alternative. Grain stores and pet shops often carry this “bedding quality” straw. Avoid bales of field straw as they usually harbor mycotoxins and molds.

• Toss pine needles in the coop and in the nest boxes. They are clean, smell nice and do not harbor molds. Scatter a thick layer in the yard as well. Pine needles allow the birds to scratch and they look fantastic in the yard. A nice layer of golden pine needles looks clean and adds a festive fall touch to the pen.

• Toys are a great addition. Try out the fun that you fill with seed or meal worms for the chickens to munch. You can also purchase swings designed for chickens! Chickens really enjoy getting a ride on these .

• Allow the chickens a bench or window ledge so that they can perch and look out the coop windows.

Heating the Coop

This is an issue that scratches up quite a bit of debate. If you choose to provide supplemental heating for your coop, safety is the primary issue. Be sure any heat lamps are new, clean and in good working order (no rust, cracks, frayed wires, spider webs or dust). Heat lamps are a fire hazard, keep lamps well away from litter and any flammable substances. Never allow birds or animals access to the lamps and be absolutely certain they are firmly secured.

Never use space heaters in a barn. Only purchase specialty infrared heaters or carefully positioned radiator-style heaters that have safety tip-over shut off features. Old, second-hand or “found” heaters must not be operated in a barn. Deadly fires kill animals every year – don’t be on that list.

“It’s never too early to shop for treats.”

Note: Heated water buckets are a major source for disastrous barn fires. It is not a good idea to use these in chicken houses.

Share your cold weather chicken ideas by popping them in the comment section! Well, enjoy the holidays – and don’t forget those chickens on your shopping list.

Share this:

Chicken coops for sale in Metcalfe Mississippi can be found in agricultural newspapers and community newspapers. The coops are designed for housing for chickens in a safe and secure environment. They generally consist of a small building or large box that is then sectioned off to smaller boxes where the chickens go to roost (or sleep). Chicken coops are a must for raising chickens. Metcalfe Mississippi chicken coops are commonly constructed from wood products. They are not very stable buildings and provide only minimal protection from the elements. Now chicken houses used for large production facilities are a entirely different structure, they are huge and can hold up to 10000 chickens. The coops are typically used for backyard operations, or small family farms. They vary in size depending on the number of residents they house. chicken-coops-in-Metcalfe-MSFinding chicken coops for sale in Metcalfe Mississippi is probably not one of the easiest of items to find. There are manufacturers of chicken houses and coops that sell them out right and Metcalfe Mississippi farm supply stores that they can also be purchased through, but generally speaking it will take some effort to find a chicken coop for sale in Metcalfe Mississippi, especially if your location is not a typically rural location. In rural locations that are much more abundant and easily had. Chicken Coops for sale in Metcalfe MS

Chicken Coop House in Metcalfe, Mississippi

A good place to start any search is the internet. Simply plugging in the phrase "chicken coops for sale in Metcalfe 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 Metcalfe Mississippi chicken coops. What to look for when buying a chicken coop in Metcalfe, Mississippi With the massive increase in chicken maintaining there has been an equally large rise in the range of chicken materiel for sale. Chicken housing is an instance in point. It's likewise a classic instance of the good old bandwagon being jumped on as different prospective fowl housing specialists market a selection of accommodation declaring to be the excellent remedy to your chicken housing requirements. Commonly the price looks eye-catching, the house looks appealing, heck even the clean-cut family members standing there feeding the chickens look attractive. Definitely they recognize a quality chicken house when they see one? There are many cheap and nasty cages flooding the market. I understand this as I've checked a number of them in the field, as well as seen a ewe run straight via one when the feed bucket appeared. The result was nothing but a costly pile of fire wood as well as a small flock of bemused and now homeless bantams. Chickens for sale in Metcalfe MS

Chicken Coop Kits in Metcalfe, Mississippi

More often than not these standardized versions are built of rapid grown lumber - come the first drop of rainfall they swell, leaving you either fortifying a doorway that will not close, or tearing the door furniture off in a vain effort to release the squawking occupants. The initial warm day means the hardwood dries as well as fractures, the really felt roofing system bubbles and boils, and also come nightfall the hens refuse to enter. This is not as a result of their disappointment at the decrease of their when attractive residential property however due to the fact that the hovel is now a place for, and also probably crawling with, the fowl caretaker's nemesis, red mite. Add that it claimed on the blurb that it would certainly match four large hens when that equipping thickness was based upon the Circle Line at 5pm on a Friday, and also exactly what are you entrusted? A number of hinges and some kindling. A respectable coop for thee to 4 birds must cost you approximately ₤ 300 though this can depend on whether you choose for a totally free standing house or one with a run connected. Thinking you are ranging your birds in a large space and the pop opening door is big enough for the breed you keep, then the major needs of housing boil down to three points which will specify the number of birds your home will certainly hold; perches, nest boxes as well as ventilation. A lot of breeds of chicken will perch when they go to roost during the night, this perch ought to ideally be 5-8cm vast with smoothed off sides so the foot rests pleasantly on it. The perch should be higher than the nest box entrance as chickens will also naturally search for the acme to perch. A perch lower than that will have the birds roosting in the nest box over night (which is by the way when they produce the most poo) causing dirtied eggs the following day. They shouldn't nevertheless 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 small breeds this is undoubtedly much less), plus if more than one perch is mounted in the house they ought to 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 in front. Preferably your house needs to have a least one nest box for every 3 birds and also these ought to be off the ground and in the darkest area of your house. Your house ought to have ample air flow: without it then condensation will develop every evening, even in the chilliest of weather. Know, ventilation deals with the concept of warm air leaving with a high gap attracting cooler air in from a reduced space - it's not a set of holes on opposite walls of your house and also at the exact same level, this is exactly what's called a draught. If you have a house with a run attached after that the points above are still real, but you need to likewise think about the run size. The EU optimum lawful equipping density for a totally free variety bird is (as well as let's encounter it, one of the motivations for maintaining some chickens in the house is possibly boosted or far better welfare) 2,500 birds each hectare, that's optimal one bird per 4m squared. Take a close look at some of the bargain homes - it could well be the house has the right perches, correct air flow and also sufficient nest boxes for an affordable number of birds, however will each of the chickens have anything greater than an A4 sized item of ground to invest the day on? Therefore as the saying goes, "you obtain exactly what you pay for". You might think you've got a deal, however you and your group can rue the day you did. Acquisition the appropriate house and it will certainly last for a couple of decades, if not longer provided the proper treatment. In the long run your chicken and also your chicken keeping experience will certainly be much the better for it.
coop     coop
More Posts
Chicken Coops for Sale in Heidelberg, Mississippi
Chicken Coops for Sale in Alligator, Mississippi
Chicken Coops for Sale in Burnsville, Mississippi
Chicken Coops for Sale in Artesia, Mississippi
Chicken Coops for Sale in Louin, Mississippi