Chicken Coops for Sale in Nashville, North Carolina
Chicken Coops for Sale in Nashville, North Carolina
How to Choose the Right Chicken Coop
With Spring well underway, many of us are doing a little spring cleaning and preparing for some new chicks! Maybe it’s time for a new coop? Here are some basic tips for choosing the right coop for your flock and how to take care of it so you can be sure your chickens and other fowl are happy and healthy.
A chicken coop can have many purposes. It can be as simple as a place to roost at night if your flock is free range, or, if you prefer to keep your flock in one place, serves as their all-inclusive home with room for roosting, exercise, feeding, and laying eggs. There are many different designs and layouts to choose from when picking out a coop. You can buy one pre-made, or find instructions for building your own. Here are some factors to consider when choosing your flock’s home:
- Key Features There are a few basic features you’ll want for any chicken coop:
-
Roosting bars don’t have to be fancy, and they’ll give your hens a safe place to sleep at night. Like most birds, chickens, turkeys, and other types of fowl prefer sleeping in an elevated area in order to stay safe from predators. Roosting bars will provide a place for your hens to perch at night so they can sleep soundly.
- A nesting box is a great way to encourage your hens to lay their eggs in a specific spot. If the coop you own doesn’t have built-in boxes, milk crates are a great substitute!
- Dispensers are useful for keeping food and water clean. There are plenty of styles you can buy, or you can make them yourself. Keep food and water dispensers slightly elevated, a few inches off the ground, in order to prevent dirt from getting in. If you have young chicks in your coop, remember to make sure the food and water are accessible, and that they are not at risk of getting caught in the water dish and drowning.
-
- Space
Our ladies are free range during the day, so they don’t need much space in their coop. Having enough space is important for your coop if you want to avoid fighting. The average recommendation is a minimum of 1-2 square feet per bird, and much more if your flock remains in the coop 24/7. If your flock is not given enough space, it won’t be long before you notice the signs. Look for birds pecking at one another and birds with missing feathers. Bullying is a common side effect when there isn’t enough room to go around. If you do notice signs of bullying in your flock, separate the bullied birds until they are better and increase the amount of space in your coop.
- Safety There are a number of things that might affect your flock’s safety, whether it’s predators or the elements. Protect your flock from extreme temperatures by ensuring that your coop is well insulated and also well ventilated to allow proper airflow. There are a number of things you can do each year to prepare your flock for winter, and in the summer months they need access to fresh air and water in order to keep cool. As for predators, a properly enclosed coop will keep out larger animals, and roosting bars will allow your birds to stay at a safe height while they sleep.
- Convenience There are plenty of things to think about for your hens when choosing the right coop, but don’t forget about yourself! A good coop will be easily accessible so that you can gather eggs, change out food and water, and clean the coop without much hassle. Many coops will have larger doors or hatches that allow you better access inside the coop, and can be locked up when you are finished.
Basic Coop Care Once you’ve chosen the right coop, maintaining it is your next step. Be sure to place your coop in an area that will stay dry so you and your flock won’t have to deal with mud and puddles after some wet weather. Give your hens a supply of hay or straw so they can keep warm and build nests, and provide an area with clean dust or sand that will allow your birds to clean themselves and prevent mites. Change out dirty straw regularly, and clean out any droppings before they build up too much. Many coops are designed so that droppings can be removed easily, but in our lean-to coop we use a rake to pull them out. Cleaning up droppings and old food and keeping the coop dry will prevent mold and keep out bugs and other pests.
The right coop will ensure the health and safety of your backyard flock!
Share this:
Chicken Coop Designs in Nashville, North Carolina
A good place to start any search is the internet. Simply plugging in the phrase "chicken coops for sale in Nashville 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 Nashville North Carolina chicken coops. What to look for when buying a chicken coop in Nashville, North Carolina With the big boost in chicken keeping there has been an equally huge rise in the array of poultry paraphernalia on sale. Poultry housing is a proceedings in point. It's also a classic example of the great old bandwagon being jumped on as various potential fowl housing professionals pitch an array of cottage declaring to be the optimal solution to your chicken housing demands. Commonly the cost looks attractive, your house looks appealing, heck also the clean-cut family standing there feeding the chickens look appealing. Undoubtedly they know a professional chicken house when they see one? There are lots of affordable and also horrible cages flooding the marketplace. I understand this as I've examined a number of them in the area, and seen a ewe run straight through one when the feed container showed up. The outcome was only an expensive heap of firewood and a small group of bemused as well as currently homeless bantams.
Chicken Coop Blueprints in Nashville, North Carolina
Usually these mass produced designs are built of fast grown up wood - come the very first decrease of rainfall they swell, leaving you either barricading a doorway that won't shut, or tearing the doorway furnishings off in a vain attempt to release the squawking occupants. The first warm day indicates the wood dries and also splits, the felt roof bubbles as well as boils, as well as come nightfall the hens choose not to enter. This is not as a result of their frustration at the decrease of their when attractive apartment yet considering that the hovel is currently a sanctuary for, and also probably abounding, the chicken caretaker's nemesis, red mite. Add the fact that it stated on the blurb that it would fit 4 big chickens when that equipping thickness was based upon the Circle Line at 5pm on a Friday, and also just what are you left with? A couple of hinges as well as some kindling. A respectable coop for thee to four birds must cost you approximately ₤ 300 though this can rely on whether you elect for a free standing house or one with a run affixed. Presuming you are varying your birds in a big space and the pop opening door allows sufficient for the breed you keep, then the main requirements of real estate boil down to three points which will certainly specify the variety of birds your house will certainly hold; perches, nest boxes as well as air flow. Many breeds of chicken will certainly perch when they visit roost during the night, this perch must preferably be 5-8cm large with smoothed off edges so the foot rests pleasantly on it. The perch needs to be more than the nest box entry as chickens will certainly likewise naturally seek the acme to perch. A perch less than that will have the birds roosting in the nest box overnight (which is by the way when they create the most poo) bring about soiled eggs the following day. They should not nonetheless be so high off the floor of your home that leg injuries could possibly take place when the bird gets down in the morning. Chickens require regarding 20cm of perch each (in small types this is clearly less), plus if more 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 crazy about roosting with a beak in the bloomers of the bird in front. Preferably the house ought to have a the very least one nest box for every single 3 birds and these ought to be off the ground as well as in the darkest area of your house. Your house should have adequate ventilation: without it after that condensation will develop every night, even in the chilliest of weather condition. Know, air flow works on the concept of warm air leaving through a high void attracting cooler air in from a reduced void - it's not a collection of holes on other walls of your home and also at the same degree, this is just what's referred to as a draft. If you have a house with a run affixed after that the factors above are still true, but you need to likewise consider the run size. The EU optimum legal equipping thickness for a complimentary array bird is (and also allow's encounter it, one of the inspirations for maintaining some chickens in your home is perhaps boosted or better welfare) 2,500 birds per hectare, that's maximum one bird each 4m settled. Take a close consider a few of the deal houses - it could well be your home has the right perches, appropriate air flow and also enough nest boxes for an affordable number of birds, but will each of the chickens have anything greater than an A4 sized item of ground to invest the day on? Therefore as the stating goes, "you obtain what you spend for". You may assume you've got a deal, but you and your group can rue the day you did. Acquisition the best house as well as it will last for a couple of decades, if not longer provided the appropriate treatment. In the end your chicken as well as your chicken maintaining encounter will be much the far better for it.plans plan
More Posts
Chicken Coops for Sale in Creswell, North Carolina
Chicken Coops for Sale in Glenwood, North Carolina
Chicken Coops for Sale in Fountain, North Carolina
Chicken Coops for Sale in Butner, North Carolina
Chicken Coops for Sale in Crossnore, North Carolina