Chicken Coops for Sale in Oak Hill, Ohio
Chicken Coops for Sale in Oak Hill, Ohio
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 Plans For 20 Chickens in Oak Hill, Ohio
A good place to start any search is the internet. Simply plugging in the phrase "chicken coops for sale in Oak Hill Ohio" 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 Oak Hill Ohio chicken coops. What to look for when buying a chicken coop in Oak Hill, Ohio With the big increase in chicken keeping there has actually been an equally big surge in the array of chicken paraphernalia on sale. Chicken real estate is a case in factor. It's additionally a timeless instance of the excellent old bandwagon being got on as numerous would-be chicken real estate specialists peddle a range of holiday accommodation declaring to be the ideal solution to your chicken housing requirements. Commonly the cost looks attractive, the house looks desirable, heck also the clean-cut family standing there feeding the chickens look desirable. Certainly they know a professional chicken house when they see one? There are lots of affordable and unpleasant coops flooding the market. I recognize this as I've checked a variety of them in the field, and also seen a ewe run directly through one when the feed pail showed up. The outcome was nothing but a costly heap of fire wood and a little group of bemused as well as now homeless bantams.
Chicken Coop Amazon in Oak Hill, Ohio
Generally these mass produced models are built of rapid grown up timber - come the first decrease of rainfall they swell, leaving you either blockading a door that won't shut, or tearing the doorway furnishings off in a vain effort to launch the squawking residents. The first warm day suggests the wood dries out and also splits, the really felt roof bubbles as well as boils, and also come nightfall the chickens choose not to go in. This is not as a result of their disappointment at the decline of their as soon as appealing property yet due to the fact that the hovel is now a place for, and also probably crawling with, the poultry keeper's nemesis, red mite. Add on that it claimed on the blurb that it would certainly suit four huge hens when that equipping thickness was based on the Circle Line at 5pm on a Friday, and what are you entrusted? A few hinges as well as some kindling. A decent coop for thee to four birds must cost you around ₤ 300 though this could rely on whether you elect for a free standing house or one with a run affixed. Thinking you are varying your birds in a big area as well as the pop hole doorway is big enough for the type you keep, then the main demands of real estate boil down to three factors which will specify the variety of birds your house will hold; perches, nest boxes and also air flow. Many types of chicken will perch when they visit roost in the evening, this perch must preferably be 5-8cm vast with smoothed off sides so the foot rests conveniently on it. The perch must be higher than the nest box entry as chickens will likewise 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 incidentally when they produce one of the most poo) bring about dirtied eggs the following day. They should not nevertheless be so high off the floor of your home that leg injuries could possibly occur when the bird gets down in the early morning. Chickens need concerning 20cm of perch each (in little types this is obviously much less), plus if more than one perch is set up in your home they should be greater than 30cm apart. They will hunker up with their next-door neighbors yet are not that crazy about roosting with a beak in the bloomers of the bird ahead. Preferably your home needs to have a least one nest box for each 3 birds and these should be off the ground and also in the darkest area of your home. Your house needs to have ample ventilation: without it then condensation will develop every evening, even in the chilliest of climate. Understand, ventilation deals with the principle of warm and comfortable air leaving through a high void drawing cooler air in from a lower space - it's not a set of holes on opposite walls of your home and also at the exact same degree, this is what's called a draught. If you have a house with a run affixed then the points above are still real, yet you need to also think about the run size. The EU maximum lawful stocking density for a totally free variety bird is (as well as allow's face it, one of the motivations for keeping some chickens at home is potentially improved or much better well-being) 2,500 birds each hectare, that's maximum one bird each 4m made even. Take a close take a look at a few of the deal houses - it could well be your home has the right perches, proper air flow and also sufficient nest boxes for a reasonable number of birds, however will each of the chickens have anything more than an A4 sized item of ground to invest the day on? Therefore as the stating goes, "you obtain just what you pay for". You may think you've got hold of a deal, however you as well as your flock could possibly rue the day you did. Acquisition the right house and it will certainly last for a couple of decades, otherwise longer provided the correct treatment. Eventually your fowl as well as your fowl maintaining encounter will be much the better for it.plan coops
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