Chicken Coops for Sale in Nutley, New Jersey
Chicken Coops for Sale in Nutley, New Jersey
Our Chicken Coop Design – Front Elevation (Part 2 of 3)
Okay, I lied. I had hoped to finish up writing on our chicken coop design with this post, but I ran out of time and markers…seriously – my gray marker ran out. So today I’m going to focus on the front elevation and next week I’ll wrap it up with the other 3 elevations.
Front Elevation of the Coop
When designing your coop you really need to think through ventilation for a number of reasons: respiratory health of the chickens; drying out the moisture and their manure keeps down the smells and the potential of the hens getting sick. I made ours super-ventilated by covering the entire front of our coop with hardware cloth. We may have gone overboard, but it’s better to err on the side of too much ventilation in a coop than too little…and because Atlanta has a fairly temperate climate, I think we’re good. That said, you do have to consider strong winds – particularly in the colder months. That’s why Britt and I crafted Roman shade-like curtains out of painter’s drop cloths for the front and the windows on the other 3 sides of the coop. It was quite inexpensive and fairly easy to do…particularly if you strategically use the hems already sewn in. These curtains will give our ladies a refuge from the cold winds – protecting the exposed areas of their bodies (combs, wattles, and feet).
Here are a few other things to note about the front elevation of our coop:
- Again, entire area is covered in hardware cloth. I could have used chicken wire on the top (bottom needs hardware cloth to keep out critters), but I had enough hardware cloth and I thought it looked better for the entire area to be consistent.
- The height of the walls are 6.5’…which is plenty high (for me at least) to be able to walk through the door…and there is plenty of height inside, since there is no ceiling (just the rafters and tin roof above).
- 24″ doors were constructed out of pressure-treated wood and painted the same color as the doors of our home.
- To clean things up a bit and to cover up where the pieces of hardware cloth met, I added 1″ trim on the outside of each 2×4 and painted it and the siding of the rest of the coop the same color gray as our house.
- We used gate latches as handles. If you do as well, make sure you make it so that you won’t get locked in when the doors close. To do that, I simply drilled a hole just above the latch and attached a long, thin chain that I threaded through the hole…allowing me to open the latch from inside. Don’t use string or twine…I found that out the hard way. String will wear out and break – leaving you stranded inside. Fortunately when it happened to me, one of my girls was within shouting distance.
- We were running out of hardware cloth when we were finishing the gable, so we simply filled in the middle space with a board and painted it gray. To make sense of this oddly proportioned space and to bring a little bit of character to the coop, I hung a set of antlers from a Mule Deer I shot several years ago with my dad in Wyoming.
So there’s the front elevation. We are really pleased with it…it’s done what we set out to do – make a more than livable space for our chickens (and bunny), while still being attractive. Now we may be a bit too particular, but I really think having an attractive coop in a nice setting has made raising chickens not only sustainable, but more enjoyable. So sure, you could build a coop that is purely functional, but if it looks like a hunk of junk, is that really something you want to see every day…sometimes several times? We thought not.
Next week I’ll wrap things up on our chicken coop design…but until then, please let me know if you have any other questions about our coop or raising chickens. I could perhaps work my answers into the next post.
Take care,
PS: Here are the links to and of Our Chicken Coop Design…and the link to .
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Chicken Coop Pictures in Nutley, New Jersey
A good place to start any search is the internet. Simply plugging in the phrase "chicken coops for sale in Nutley New Jersey" 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 Nutley New Jersey chicken coops. What to look for when buying a chicken coop in Nutley, New Jersey With the big rise in chicken maintaining there has been a similarly big rise in the range of chicken paraphernalia for sale. Chicken real estate is a situation in point. It's also a timeless example of the good old bandwagon being jumped on as various would-be chicken real estate specialists market a variety of accommodation asserting to be the ideal remedy to your chicken housing demands. Commonly the price looks attractive, your house looks attractive, heck even the clean-cut household standing there feeding the chickens look appealing. Undoubtedly they know a top quality chicken house when they see one? There are many affordable and awful coops flooding the market. I recognize this as I've tested a number of them in the area, and also seen a ewe run directly through one when the feed pail showed up. The result was nothing but an expensive heap of firewood and a small group of bemused and currently homeless bantams.
Baby Chicken in Nutley, New Jersey
Usually these mass produced designs are built of fast grown up hardwood - come the initial decrease of rain they swell, leaving you either blockading a doorway that will not close, or ripping the door furniture off in a vain attempt to launch the squawking inhabitants. The initial cozy day means the timber dries and cracks, the felt roofing bubbles and boils, and come nightfall the chickens refuse to enter. This is not because of their disappointment at the decrease of their once desirable home yet considering that the hovel is currently a sanctuary for, and also possibly crawling with, the chicken caretaker's nemesis, red mite. Add on the fact that it stated on the blurb that it would certainly match four large hens when that stocking density was based on the Circle Line at 5pm on a Friday, and what are you entrusted? A number of joints and some kindling. A respectable coop for thee to four birds must cost you around ₤ 300 though this could rely on whether you choose for a complimentary standing house or one with a run connected. Presuming you are ranging your birds in a large space and the pop opening door allows enough for the breed you keep, after that the main requirements of real estate boil down to three points which will certainly define the number of birds the house will certainly hold; perches, nest boxes and also air flow. The majority of breeds 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 rests pleasantly on it. The perch must be higher than the nest box access as chickens will likewise normally seek the acme to perch. A perch less than that will certainly have the birds roosting in the nest box overnight (which is by the way when they generate one of the most poo) resulting in stained eggs the list below day. They shouldn't nonetheless be so high off the flooring of your house that leg injuries could possibly occur when the bird comes down in the morning. Chickens require regarding 20cm of perch each (in small breeds this is certainly much less), plus if greater than one perch is set up in your home they should be more than 30cm apart. They will hunker up with their neighbors however are not that keen on roosting with a beak in the bloomers of the bird ahead. Ideally your house ought to have a the very least one nest box for every 3 birds and also these ought to be off the ground and in the darkest location of your house. Your house ought to have appropriate ventilation: without it after that condensation will certainly accumulate every night, also in the coldest of climate. Realize, air flow works with the concept of cozy air leaving via a high void attracting cooler air in from a reduced space - it's not a set of openings on other walls of your house and at the exact same degree, this is exactly what's called a draft. If you have a house with a run connected then the factors above are still real, but you should also take into consideration the run dimension. The EU optimum legal equipping thickness for a free variety bird is (as well as allow's face it, among the motivations for keeping some chickens in your home is perhaps improved or much better welfare) 2,500 birds each hectare, that's maximum one bird each 4m squared. Take a close take a look at several of the bargain homes - it could well be your house has the best perches, appropriate air flow and ample nest boxes for a sensible number of birds, yet will each of the chickens have anything greater than an A4 sized piece of ground to invest the day on? Therefore as the stating goes, "you get what you pay for". You could believe you've got a bargain, however you and your flock might rue the day you did. Purchase the ideal house and also it will last for a few decades, otherwise longer given the proper treatment. In the long run your fowl and your chicken maintaining encounter will be much the better for it.plans plans
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