Chicken Coops for Sale in Kernersville, North Carolina
Chicken Coops for Sale in Kernersville, North Carolina
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 Enclosures in Kernersville, North Carolina
A good place to start any search is the internet. Simply plugging in the phrase "chicken coops for sale in Kernersville 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 Kernersville North Carolina chicken coops. What to look for when buying a chicken coop in Kernersville, North Carolina With the big rise in poultry keeping there has actually been a similarly huge rise in the range of fowl paraphernalia on sale. Fowl real estate is an instance in point. It's also a timeless instance of the great old bandwagon being jumped on as various potential poultry real estate professionals peddle an array of lodging declaring to be the excellent solution to your chicken real estate demands. Typically the cost looks eye-catching, your house looks desirable, heck also the clean-cut household standing there feeding the chickens look desirable. Surely they understand a professional chicken house when they see one? There are numerous inexpensive and also nasty coops swamping the market. I understand this as I've checked a number of them in the area, and seen a ewe run directly via one when the feed pail showed up. The result was just a pricey stack of firewood and also a tiny flock of bemused and also now homeless bantams.
Chicken Coop Blueprints in Kernersville, North Carolina
Usually these standardized designs are created of fast grown up timber - come the initial decrease of rainfall they swell, leaving you either fortifying a door that will not shut, or tearing the doorway furniture off in a vain attempt to launch the squawking occupants. The first cozy day suggests the lumber dries and also fractures, the felt roof bubbles as well as boils, and come nightfall the hens refuse to go in. This is not as a result of their disappointment at the decrease of their once attractive apartment but due to the fact that the hovel is now a haven for, and also most likely abounding, the chicken keeper's bane, red mite. Add on the fact that it claimed on the blurb that it would fit four big chickens when that equipping thickness was based on the Circle Line at 5pm on a Friday, and also exactly what are you entrusted? A couple of joints and also some kindling. A suitable coop for thee to 4 birds ought to cost you approximately ₤ 300 though this could rely on whether you elect for a cost-free standing house or one with a run affixed. Presuming you are varying your birds in a huge space as well as the pop hole doorway allows enough for the breed you maintain, after that the primary needs of real estate come down to 3 factors which will define the variety of birds your home will certainly hold; perches, nest boxes and also air flow. Most types of chicken will perch when they go to roost in the evening, this perch must ideally be 5-8cm large with smoothed off sides so the foot rests comfortably on it. The perch ought to be more than the nest box entrance as chickens will certainly additionally 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 create 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 can happen when the bird comes down in the early morning. Chickens require about 20cm of perch each (in small types this is undoubtedly much less), plus if more than one perch is set up in your home they should be more than 30cm apart. They will certainly hunker up with their next-door neighbors however are not that keen on roosting with a beak in the bloomers of the bird ahead. Ideally your house should have a least one nest box for every three birds as well as these must be off the ground and in the darkest location of your home. Your house must have appropriate ventilation: without it after that condensation will build up every night, also in the chilliest of climate. Be aware, air flow works on the concept of cozy air leaving via a high space attracting cooler air in from a lower space - it's not a set of holes on other wall surfaces of your home and also at the same level, this is just what's called a draft. If you have a house with a run attached then the factors above are still true, but you must likewise think about the run dimension. The EU optimum lawful equipping thickness for a complimentary array bird is (and also allow's encounter it, among the motivations for maintaining some hens in your home is possibly enhanced or much better well-being) 2,500 birds each hectare, that's maximum one bird per 4m squared. Take a close consider a few of the deal homes - it could well be your home has the appropriate perches, right ventilation as well as ample nest boxes for a practical number of birds, yet will each of the chickens have anything more than an A4 sized piece of ground to invest the day on? And so as the saying goes, "you obtain what you spend for". You could assume you've got hold of a deal, but you and also your flock could rue the day you did. Acquisition the best house and it will last for a couple of decades, if not longer provided the proper treatment. Eventually your chicken and also your fowl keeping experience will certainly be considerably the better for it.chicken diy
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