Chicken Coops for Sale in Fletcher, North Carolina
Chicken Coops for Sale in Fletcher, North Carolina
The Small Property Chicken Coop
Raising chickens has been one of the most rewarding activities that we’ve done on our homestead. While we don’t raise them for meat due to the city’s limitations, we reap an abundance of benefits from the eggs and the friendship we get from our girls.
In this next installment of , I’ll be sharing how my husband Todd designed and built Lucy and Ethel’s chicken coop using his ingenuity and minimal square footage on our .18 of an acre.
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, I was so excited to finally be able to raise a couple of my own “girls” to gather eggs from and get to know. I’m an animal lover, and seem to be able to make friends with any animal that will allow me, so I knew that these two sweet little chicks and I would be the best of friends. , and since there were only two of them, there was plenty of space for them to grow.
After moving some things around to set up our ‘barn’ area, Todd got to work on the chicken coop. Being a handy guy, he decided that he could design and build one that would be cheaper than a prefab one, as well as be able to fit where we needed it to on our small property homestead.
He chose to use the back of one of our sheds as the back wall, and another of our sheds as the side wall, which would save us some money on hardware cloth. He framed the rest of the coop and door with 2x4s. He also extended the side of the shed so that it would serve as the left wall of the coop.
This is the shed that is being used as the back wall of the coop. You can see on the right side of the shed where the new section was added for the left wall of the coop.
Todd designed the girls’ coop to be multi-level, rather than sprawling. He used plywood and 2x4s for the levels, and built an access ladder to both. The girls had a hard time not slipping on the sleek wood between the “steps” on the ladder, so I added a few strips of to those sections, which worked beautifully.
Here is a current photo of the two levels (please excuse the “lived in” look, I apparently hadn’t taken photos of the two levels when it was new). This is the top level, where we keep the girls’ nesting boxes. The ladder with the comes up the right side of this level, and it’s easy for the girls to hop up to the top of their nesting boxes, where they like to sleep at night. Todd also built a roost for them, which is actually a few inches offset from the edge of the level so when they poop, most of it falls to the ground.
Here is the second level, where the girls usually eat their evening treats, and where I keep their oyster shell and water (water not pictured). You can see how the ladder passes the second level up to the top level, which makes it easy for the girls to hop to the second level at snack time.
We left the bottom level as dirt, and I have been using the , which has worked out well for the most part. We haven’t had any issues with large rodents, and any mice that dare step foot into the coop are met with two hungry beaks.
Todd lined the front of the coop with 1″ hardware cloth and it has worked very well for us; however, I have heard that if you have issues with raccoons, it’s best to go with 1/2″ hardware cloth.
Another Space Saving Coop Idea
A friend of mine, Nora from , and is based on Todd’s multilevel chicken coop design. Their family has around 8-10 girls, so this brooder was a very good fit for them. It can definitely be built outdoors and used as a space-saving chicken coop for 1-3 chickens, or built indoors to use as a brooder for a larger flock.
As you can see, building a chicken coop to fit your small property needs can be a much better prospect than purchasing a prefab chicken coop. While prefab coops are beautiful and promise ease, tailoring your chicken coop to fit in just the right place on your small property can be more affordable, and in the long run, more convenient for your homestead setup. As long as your chicken coop meets , you can build a chicken coop that meets your homestead’s needed requirements as well, which will make everyone happy!
For more great information on raising chickens, please visit Fresh Eggs Daily’s Ultimate Chicken Care Guide.
What size is your property? Do you use space-saving techniques?
Chicken Coop You Can Walk In in Fletcher, North Carolina
A good place to start any search is the internet. Simply plugging in the phrase "chicken coops for sale in Fletcher North Carolina" 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 Fletcher North Carolina chicken coops. What to look for when buying a chicken coop in Fletcher, North Carolina With the significant increase in poultry maintaining there has actually been a just as large rise in the range of fowl materiel for sale. Chicken housing is a case in point. It's likewise a timeless instance of the excellent old bandwagon being got on as different would-be chicken housing experts pitch a range of lodging asserting to be the excellent option to your chicken real estate requirements. Often the cost looks eye-catching, the house looks appealing, heck even the clean-cut family standing there feeding the chickens look desirable. Certainly they recognize a professional chicken house when they see one? There are numerous inexpensive as well as nasty cages swamping the market. I know this as I've examined a variety of them in the area, and also seen a ewe run directly through one when the feed bucket showed up. The outcome was nothing but an expensive heap of fire wood as well as a little flock of bemused and now homeless bantams.
Baby Chick Feeder in Fletcher, North Carolina
More often than not these mass produced designs are created of quick grown hardwood - come the very first decline of rainfall they swell, leaving you either defending a doorway that will not shut, or ripping the door furniture off in a vain effort to launch the squawking inhabitants. The first warm day indicates the lumber dries out and fractures, the felt roofing bubbles and boils, and come nightfall the chickens refuse to enter. This is not because of their dissatisfaction at the decrease of their once eye-catching commercial property but since the hovel is currently a sanctuary for, as well as most likely crawling with, the chicken keeper's nemesis, red mite. Add on the fact that it stated on the blurb that it would suit 4 huge chickens when that equipping density was based on the Circle Line at 5pm on a Friday, and also just what are you left with? A few joints and some kindling. A respectable coop for thee to 4 birds should cost you around ₤ 300 though this could depend on whether you choose for a cost-free standing house or one with a run attached. Thinking you are ranging your birds in a large room and also the pop hole doorway is big sufficient for the breed you maintain, after that the major requirements of housing come down to 3 points which will certainly define the variety of birds the house will certainly hold; perches, nest boxes and ventilation. Many types of chicken will perch when they visit roost during the night, this perch needs to ideally be 5-8cm broad with smoothed off sides so the foot sits pleasantly on it. The perch ought to be more than the nest box entrance as chickens will additionally naturally seek the acme to perch. A perch lower than that will certainly have the birds roosting in the nest box overnight (which is incidentally when they generate one of the most poo) bring about dirtied eggs the list below day. They shouldn't nevertheless be so high off the floor of your house that leg injuries can happen when the bird gets down in the early morning. Chickens need about 20cm of perch each (in little breeds this is certainly less), plus if greater than one perch is set up in your house they should be more than 30cm apart. They will hunker up with their next-door neighbors but are not that crazy about roosting with a beak in the bloomers of the bird in front. Ideally the house should have a least one nest box for each three birds and also these should be off the ground and also in the darkest area of your home. Your home should have adequate ventilation: without it after that condensation will develop every night, even in the chilliest of weather. Realize, ventilation works on the concept of cozy air leaving with a high void drawing cooler air in from a lower gap - it's not a set of holes on contrary walls of your house and also at the very same level, this is exactly what's called a draft. If you have a house with a run affixed after that the factors above are still true, however you ought to likewise think about the run dimension. The EU optimum lawful equipping density for a free array bird is (and let's encounter it, one of the motivations for maintaining some chickens at home is perhaps improved or much better well-being) 2,500 birds per hectare, that's optimal one bird per 4m made even. Take a close look at a few of the bargain residences - it could well be the house has the best perches, appropriate ventilation and also enough nest boxes for a practical number of birds, however will each of the chickens have anything more than an A4 sized item of ground to spend the day on? And so as the stating goes, "you obtain just what you spend for". You might believe you've grabbed a deal, yet you and also your group could possibly rue the day you did. Acquisition the best house as well as it will last for a couple of years, otherwise longer given the correct therapy. In the long run your fowl and your chicken keeping experience will certainly be considerably the far better for it.chick diy
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