Chicken Coops for Sale in Pineville, Missouri
Chicken Coops for Sale in Pineville, 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 Pineville, Missouri
A good place to start any search is the internet. Simply plugging in the phrase "chicken coops for sale in Pineville 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 Pineville Missouri chicken coops. What to look for when buying a chicken coop in Pineville, Missouri With the huge boost in poultry maintaining there has been a just as big surge in the array of fowl stuff for sale. Poultry housing is a proceedings in factor. It's likewise a classic instance of the excellent old bandwagon being jumped on as numerous potential fowl housing experts market a range of lodging asserting to be the ideal solution to your chicken real estate requirements. Often the price looks eye-catching, your diy-chicken-coop-planshome looks attractive, heck even the clean-cut family members standing there feeding the chickens look eye-catching. Surely they understand a top quality chicken house when they see one? There are several affordable and nasty coops flooding the market. I know this as I've tested a variety of them in the field, and seen a ewe run straight with one when the feed bucket appeared. The result was nothing but an expensive stack of firewood as well as a tiny group of bemused and currently homeless bantams.
Chicken Coop For Sale Near Me in Pineville, Missouri
Generally these mass produced designs are built of rapid grown hardwood - come the initial drop of rainfall they swell, leaving you either blockading a doorway that won't close, or tearing the door furnishings off in a vain attempt to release the squawking occupants. The very first warm and comfortable day indicates the lumber dries and also splits, the felt roofing system bubbles as well as boils, and also come nightfall the hens refuse to enter. This is not because of their disappointment at the decline of their once eye-catching property however because the hovel is currently a place for, as well as possibly abounding, the fowl caretaker's nemesis, red mite. Add on that it stated on the blurb that it would certainly fit 4 large hens when that equipping density was based on the Circle Line at 5pm on a Friday, and also just what are you entrusted? A few hinges and also some kindling. A respectable coop for thee to four birds must cost you in the region of ₤ 300 though this could depend upon whether you choose for a totally free standing house or one with a run affixed. Assuming you are ranging your birds in a huge room and also the pop hole door is big sufficient for the breed you maintain, then the main needs of real estate boil down to 3 points which will certainly specify the number of birds your house will certainly hold; perches, nest boxes as well as air flow. The majority of types of chicken will perch when they go to roost at night, this perch needs to preferably be 5-8cm broad with smoothed off edges so the foot rests comfortably on it. The perch ought to be above the nest box entry as chickens will certainly also normally search for the highest point to perch. A perch lower than that will have the birds roosting in the nest box overnight (which is by the way when they generate the most poo) resulting in dirtied eggs the following day. They shouldn't nevertheless be so high off the floor of your house that leg injuries could take place when the bird gets down in the early morning. Chickens require regarding 20cm of perch each (in small breeds this is undoubtedly much less), plus if more than one perch is mounted in your home they need to 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 ahead. Preferably your home should have a least one nest box for every 3 birds and also these ought to be off the ground as well as in the darkest area of your house. Your home needs to have adequate air flow: without it after that condensation will build up every night, even in the chilliest of weather condition. Understand, air flow deals with the concept of warm air leaving via a high gap drawing cooler air in from a lower gap - it's not a collection of holes on other wall surfaces of your home and also at the very same level, this is what's known as a draught. If you have a house with a run attached after that the points above are still real, however you ought to likewise think about the run dimension. The EU maximum legal stocking density for a complimentary variety bird is (and allow's face it, one of the inspirations for keeping some hens in your home is perhaps enhanced or better welfare) 2,500 birds per hectare, that's optimal one bird per 4m squared. Take a close consider some of the deal residences - it could well be your home has the appropriate perches, correct ventilation and enough nest boxes for a sensible variety of birds, yet will each of the chickens have anything greater than an A4 sized piece of ground to spend the day on? And so as the claiming goes, "you get what you spend for". You may assume you've grabbed a deal, but you as well as your flock can rue the day you did. Acquisition the ideal house and it will last for a few decades, otherwise longer offered the right therapy. In the end your chicken and your chicken keeping encounter will certainly be a lot the better for it.chick coop
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