close

Chicken Coops for Sale in Wiggins, Mississippi

Chicken Coops for Sale in Wiggins, Mississippi

Chickens in the City – Practical Advice on Managing an Urban Coop and the Neighbors

August 13, 2012 |

Chickens pecking at your toes? Fresh eggs daily? Sounds like rural living. With the rise of the urban locavore movement, though, poultry are becoming commonplace in cities all over the country.

When Khrysti Smyth first started keeping chickens in her urban yard in Somerville Massachusetts, it was not only for the fresh eggs, but to reconnect with nature.

“I have been a green living practitioner and advocate for my entire life,” she said, but after moving to Somerville and selling her car she found herself “city-locked”.  She started to feel detached from nature and wanted to bring it back into her life.

For her, chicken keeping quickly became a natural antidote to city living.

As someone starting out with chickens in an urban environment, there were many practical questions to answer: How much would it cost? What would chickens do to the lawn? How would the neighbors react? Having successfully negotiated these muddy waters herself, Smyth has extended her love of the birds into a small business, helping other urbanites bring chickens into their homes. Now, she has some tips for you.

Costs and Coops: the practical side to chicken keeping

The greatest cost associated with chickens is the initial set up, including the coop. The trade off, Smyth says, is between time and money. For example, she built her chicken coop entirely from Craigslist materials, costing her less than $500, but also 3-4 months of her time. Chickens themselves range in price, too. Chicks can cost between $3-10, while laying-aged hens can be as much as $75.

Smyth sells a coop and bird set up, complete with installation, for $1,000-$1,500. As it can take up to a year before chicks start laying, buying a complete set-up means that her customers can have a chicken coop with laying birds within a few days rather than months or even years.

Khrysti Smyth and Lucy. Photo: Khrysti Smyth

Typically, feed is the only reoccurring cost chicken owners have after the initial set up. In the summer, Smyth reports that her 14 chickens will go through a 50-pound bag of chicken feed (costing under $20) in about one and a half months. In the winter, with fewer alternative food options, the chickens go through the feed a little faster.

“The more you have them free-ranging and the more fruits and veggies you feed them, the less chicken food they eat,” Smyth said.

For all that work, Smyth reports that she can get between 4-5 eggs per bird per week, with ornamental chickens laying slightly less than that.

Grit and Grass: What are chickens going to do to the yard?

Though chickens are appreciated for their eggs, new owners and their neighbors are often concerned about the problems poultry can bring, such as attracting pest animals and destroying lawns.

Smyth says that the potential for increased urban pests is “not entirely a misconception, but it has been amplified more than is realistic.”

“As long as you manage it in such a way that does not make [the food] easily accessible, even if [pests] show up once, they are not going to stick around because there is something easier to get down the block.”

She encourages chicken owners to keep all their food in pest-proof containers, design their coops to keep critters out, and ensure that the chicken coop won’t provide the easiest meal on the block. In urban environments, most pests have better options.

But what about your lawn or garden?

“Anything green or leafy that you might eat, [the chickens] definitely want to eat,” Smyth reports. She recommends poultry netting to keep chickens away from gardens and moving the enclosure daily to ensure that they don’t do too much damage to any one area.

She notes that many farmers will use chickens to till and fertilize a garden after it’s been harvested. “It’s a great way to put your animals to work in your garden area.”

The Other Pest: how to manage your neighbors

Surprisingly, keeping birds out of gardens and away from opportunist rodents can be chickenfeed compared to the challenges of dealing with the human neighbors in an urban environment.

Smyth has had a lot of success bringing chickens to her neighborhood in Somerville, displaying them in classrooms and even having them meet the mayor. Unfortunately, not all urban poultry owners are as lucky.

Blake Brasher was living in the adjacent city of Cambridge, when he and his housemates decided to purchase a few chickens and ducks.

“We had two chickens and three ducks. Each duck had its own personality and would run out to greet us when we went into the yard,” Brasher says. “We considered them pets with benefits; the benefits being the eggs.”

He even noticed a benefit to his yard. “The birds were wonderful at keeping the rats at bay and at eating slugs, which are a big garden pest in New England. Many of our garden plants thrived that year. It was a pleasure to hang out with the birds, and a number of our friends and neighbors would come over to see them regularly.”

It wasn’t long though before one neighbor started to complain to the city. There was concern about rats, noises, housing values and even bird flu.

At the time, the city of Cambridge did not have any laws or zoning ordinances related to managing urban poultry. And as a result, the city was forced to interpret existing zoning ordinances. The interpretation for Brasher and his housemates was not good, ultimately requiring them to get rid of their birds.

“It was not a happy ending,” Brasher said. The birds were sent off to a local learning farm, where the chickens died within a few weeks from disease and the ducks were eaten by predators.

According to the city of Cambridge, poultry keeping is not permitted at this time, leaving other chicken owners in the city at the mercy of neighbors and city zoning boards.

“I guess the key would be to have good relations with your neighbors,” Brasher says. “We had discussed within the house whether or not we should try to ask for permission from our neighbors before getting the birds, but we felt like our relationship was such that she would say no to anything we asked.”

Smyth says that it’s common for people to not want to deal with neighbors. “The risk is that you are going to have one neighbor who is absolutely opposed to it. If you open that flood gate of communication, you are going to hear all about why this is a terrible idea.”

She adds that getting as many people on your side ahead of time is key. “I was proactive with my neighbors,” Smyth said. She brought them a plan, which detailed the number of chickens and the layout of their coop, inviting them to respond. She also hyped up the fact that there would be eggs, “which is really good for placating neighbors.”

Since first getting her chickens, Smyth has helped the city of Somerville change their ordinances to allow up to 6 hens and disallow roosters, which can be a nuisance to neighbors.

Keeping a tidy coop, using her birds for outreach and including her neighbors in her planning has allowed Smyth to safely keep chickens in her urban yard for several years now. She sees chicken-keeping as a neighborhood activity, and her goal is to be able to share a little piece of nature with other city dwellers.

“Having a garden and giving produce to your neighbors is one thing,” Smyth said. “Having chickens and having everybody want to come over to meet them and show their kids really helps develop the community.”

Chicken coops for sale in Wiggins 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. Wiggins 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-Wiggins-MSFinding chicken coops for sale in Wiggins 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 Wiggins 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 Wiggins 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 Wiggins MS

Baby Chick Care in Wiggins, Mississippi

A good place to start any search is the internet. Simply plugging in the phrase "chicken coops for sale in Wiggins 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 Wiggins Mississippi chicken coops. What to look for when buying a chicken coop in Wiggins, Mississippi With the big boost in chicken keeping there has been an equally big increase in the range of chicken paraphernalia for sale. Fowl housing is a proceedings in point. It's additionally a traditional example of the good old bandwagon being jumped on as various prospective chicken housing experts market an array of accommodation asserting to be the suitable remedy to your chicken housing needs. Frequently the cost looks attractive, the house looks attractive, hell even the clean-cut family standing there feeding the chickens look attractive. Certainly they know a high quality chicken house when they see one? There are numerous inexpensive as well as awful cages swamping the marketplace. I recognize this as I've checked a variety of them in the area, and seen a ewe run directly with one when the feed container appeared. The result was only an expensive stack of fire wood as well as a little group of bemused as well as now homeless bantams. Chickens for sale in Wiggins MS

Chicken Coop Materials List in Wiggins, Mississippi

More often than not these mass produced designs are built of quick grown lumber - come the very first decrease of rain they swell, leaving you either fortifying a doorway that won't shut, or tearing the doorway furniture off in a vain effort to launch the squawking occupants. The initial warm and comfortable day implies the hardwood dries out as well as cracks, the really felt roofing system bubbles and boils, and also come nightfall the hens refuse to go in. This is not because of their frustration at the decline of their once appealing home but since the hovel is currently a haven for, and also probably abounding, the chicken keeper's nemesis, red mite. Add that it said on the blurb that it would certainly fit four large hens when that stocking thickness was based upon 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 four birds need to cost you approximately ₤ 300 though this can depend upon whether you elect for a cost-free standing house or one with a run connected. Assuming you are varying your birds in a big room and also the pop hole door is big sufficient for the type you keep, after that the main requirements of housing come down to three points which will define the number of birds the house will hold; perches, nest boxes and also air flow. Many types of chicken will perch when they visit roost at night, this perch ought to ideally be 5-8cm vast with smoothed off sides so the foot sits comfortably on it. The perch needs to be more than the nest box entry as chickens will certainly also naturally search for the highest point to perch. A perch lower than that will certainly have the birds roosting in the nest box overnight (which is incidentally when they create the most poo) resulting in stained eggs the following day. They shouldn't nevertheless be so high off the flooring of the house that leg injuries might take place when the bird gets down in the early morning. Chickens need regarding 20cm of perch each (in small types this is undoubtedly less), plus if greater than one perch is set up in the house they should be more than 30cm apart. They will 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. Preferably the house needs to have a the very least one nest box for every single three birds and also these ought to be off the ground as well as in the darkest location of your house. The house should have appropriate ventilation: without it after that condensation will certainly develop every night, even in the chilliest of weather condition. Understand, air flow works with the principle of warm and comfortable air leaving with a high space attracting cooler air in from a lower void - it's not a collection of openings on opposite walls of your home as well as at the exact same degree, this is what's called a draught. If you have a house with a run connected after that the factors above are still real, but you ought to likewise take into consideration the run dimension. The EU optimum lawful stocking thickness for a free array bird is (as well as let's encounter it, one of the inspirations for maintaining some chickens in your home is potentially improved or better welfare) 2,500 birds each hectare, that's optimal one bird each 4m made even. Take a close look at some of the bargain homes - it could well be the house has the best perches, appropriate air flow as well as sufficient nest boxes for an affordable variety of birds, yet will each of the chickens have anything more than an A4 sized piece of ground to invest the day on? Therefore as the saying goes, "you obtain what you spend for". You may assume you've grabbed a bargain, however you and your group can rue the day you did. Acquisition the ideal house and it will certainly last for a few decades, if not longer offered the proper therapy. Ultimately your chicken and your fowl maintaining experience will certainly be considerably the better for it.
chick     build
More Posts
Chicken Coops for Sale in Edwards, Mississippi
Chicken Coops for Sale in Scobey, Mississippi
Chicken Coops for Sale in Pachuta, Mississippi
Chicken Coops for Sale in Sturgis, Mississippi
Chicken Coops for Sale in Coila, Mississippi