Chicken Coops for Sale in Fairmont, Oklahoma
Chicken Coops for Sale in Fairmont, Oklahoma
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 And Run Plans in Fairmont, Oklahoma
A good place to start any search is the internet. Simply plugging in the phrase "chicken coops for sale in Fairmont Oklahoma" 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 Fairmont Oklahoma chicken coops. What to look for when buying a chicken coop in Fairmont, Oklahoma With the huge boost in poultry keeping there has actually been an equally large increase in the array of fowl materiel for sale. Poultry real estate is a case in point. It's likewise a traditional example of the good old bandwagon being jumped on as numerous potential poultry housing experts market a range of accommodation declaring to be the perfect remedy to your chicken real estate needs. Commonly the cost looks attractive, the house looks eye-catching, hell even the clean-cut household standing there feeding the chickens look eye-catching. Definitely they understand a high quality chicken house when they see one? There are lots of economical as well as nasty coops swamping the market. I know this as I've checked a number of them in the field, as well as seen a ewe run straight via one when the feed bucket showed up. The result was nothing but a costly stack of fire wood and also a little group of bemused and now homeless bantams.
Chicken Coop Supplies in Fairmont, Oklahoma
Usually these mass produced models are created of rapid grown up timber - come the initial drop of rain they swell, leaving you either defending a door that won't close, or tearing the door furniture off in a vain effort to launch the squawking inhabitants. The initial warm and comfortable day suggests the hardwood dries and splits, the felt roofing bubbles as well as boils, and come nightfall the chickens refuse to enter. This is not due to their dissatisfaction at the decrease of their as soon as desirable commercial property however due to the fact that the hovel is currently a sanctuary for, and most likely abounding, the chicken caretaker's bane, red mite. Add on that it stated on the blurb that it would fit 4 large chickens when that equipping thickness was based on the Circle Line at 5pm on a Friday, and also exactly what are you entrusted? A few joints and some kindling. A suitable coop for thee to four birds need to cost you in the region of ₤ 300 though this could depend on whether you elect for a complimentary standing house or one with a run connected. Presuming you are ranging your birds in a big room and the pop opening door is big enough for the breed you keep, then the primary demands of real estate boil down to three factors which will certainly define the variety of birds your house will hold; perches, nest boxes as well as air flow. Most breeds of chicken will perch when they go to roost in the evening, this perch needs to preferably be 5-8cm broad with smoothed off edges so the foot sits pleasantly on it. The perch needs to be more than the nest box entry as chickens will certainly additionally naturally try to find the highest point to perch. A perch below that will certainly have the birds roosting in the nest box overnight (which is incidentally when they generate the most poo) bring about stained eggs the following day. They should not however be so high off the flooring of the house that leg injuries could take place when the bird gets down in the morning. Chickens require concerning 20cm of perch each (in little types this is certainly less), plus if greater than one perch is set up in the house they should be more than 30cm apart. They will hunker up with their next-door neighbors but are not that keen on roosting with a beak in the bloomers of the bird ahead. Preferably your house needs to have a the very least one nest box for every 3 birds as well as these must be off the ground as well as in the darkest location of your house. Your home should have appropriate air flow: without it after that condensation will certainly build up every night, also in the chilliest of weather. Understand, air flow deals with the principle of warm and comfortable air leaving through a high gap attracting cooler air in from a reduced space - it's not a set of holes on opposite wall surfaces of your home and at the same degree, this is exactly what's called a draught. If you have a house with a run affixed after that the factors above are still true, but you must additionally think about the run dimension. The EU maximum legal stocking thickness for a free range bird is (as well as allow's encounter it, one of the inspirations 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 each 4m squared. Take a close look at several of the bargain homes - it could well be the house has the ideal perches, proper air flow and sufficient nest boxes for a reasonable number of birds, but will each of the chickens have anything more than an A4 sized item of ground to spend the day on? And so as the saying goes, "you obtain what you pay for". You may think you've grabbed a deal, yet you and your flock can rue the day you did. Acquisition the ideal house and it will last for a few decades, if not longer given the proper therapy. Ultimately your poultry as well as your poultry maintaining encounter will be a lot the much better for it.build plan
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