Chicken Coops for Sale in Gerald, Missouri
Chicken Coops for Sale in Gerald, Missouri
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 Run Ideas in Gerald, Missouri
A good place to start any search is the internet. Simply plugging in the phrase "chicken coops for sale in Gerald Missouri" 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 Gerald Missouri chicken coops. What to look for when buying a chicken coop in Gerald, Missouri With the substantial rise in poultry maintaining there has actually been a similarly big rise in the variety of chicken stuff for sale. Fowl housing is a situation in point. It's also a traditional example of the excellent old bandwagon being jumped on as numerous potential poultry housing specialists market an array of accommodation declaring to be the suitable option to your chicken real estate demands. Usually the cost looks eye-catching, the house looks eye-catching, hell also the clean-cut family members standing there feeding the chickens look attractive. Surely they know a top quality chicken house when they see one? There are lots of cheap and unpleasant cages swamping the marketplace. I know this as I've checked a variety of them in the field, as well as seen a ewe run straight through one when the feed container showed up. The result was nothing but an expensive heap of firewood as well as a tiny group of bemused as well as currently homeless bantams.
Baby Chick Incubator in Gerald, Missouri
More often than not these mass produced designs are built of rapid grown up hardwood - come the initial decline of rainfall they swell, leaving you either blockading a doorway that will not shut, or ripping the door furnishings off in a vain effort to launch the squawking citizens. The very first cozy day indicates the hardwood dries and also fractures, the really felt roofing system bubbles and boils, as well as come nightfall the chickens refuse to enter. This is not as a result of their frustration at the decline of their as soon as desirable residential property however considering that the hovel is now a place for, as well as possibly crawling with, the fowl keeper's bane, red mite. Add on that it claimed on the blurb that it would fit 4 big chickens when that equipping density was based upon the Circle Line at 5pm on a Friday, and also exactly what are you left with? A few joints and some kindling. A respectable coop for thee to 4 birds ought to cost you in the region of ₤ 300 though this can rely on whether you choose for a complimentary standing house or one with a run attached. Presuming you are ranging your birds in a big room and the pop hole doorway is big enough for the breed you keep, after that the primary requirements of real estate boil down to 3 factors which will define the number of birds your home will certainly hold; perches, nest boxes and also air flow. Many breeds of chicken will perch when they go to roost in the evening, this perch should preferably be 5-8cm vast with smoothed off edges so the foot rests pleasantly on it. The perch should be above the nest box access as chickens will additionally naturally try to find 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) leading to stained eggs the following day. They shouldn't nevertheless be so high off the floor of your house that leg injuries could possibly take place when the bird gets down in the early morning. Chickens need regarding 20cm of perch each (in little types this is certainly less), plus if more than one perch is installed in the house they should be greater than 30cm apart. They will hunker up with their next-door neighbors yet are not that crazy about roosting with a beak in the bloomers of the bird in front. Preferably your home ought to have a least one nest box for every three birds and also these must be off the ground and also in the darkest location of your home. Your home needs to have appropriate air flow: without it after that condensation will certainly develop every night, also in the chilliest of weather. Know, air flow works with the principle of warm air leaving through a high space drawing cooler air in from a reduced gap - it's not a set of openings on opposite walls of the house and at the same degree, this is exactly what's called a draft. If you have a house with a run affixed then the factors above are still real, however you must likewise think about the run size. The EU optimum lawful equipping density for a totally free range bird is (and also allow's face it, among the motivations for maintaining some chickens in the house is possibly boosted or better welfare) 2,500 birds each hectare, that's optimal one bird per 4m made even. Take a close consider several of the deal houses - it could well be your home has the right perches, proper air flow and ample nest boxes for an affordable variety of birds, but will each of the chickens have anything greater than an A4 sized item of ground to spend the day on? And so as the claiming goes, "you obtain what you spend for". You may assume you've grabbed a deal, but you and your flock might rue the day you did. Purchase the appropriate house as well as it will certainly last for a few decades, if not longer provided the right treatment. In the long run your poultry and also your poultry maintaining experience will be a lot the better for it.for sale plans
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