Chicken Coops for Sale in Miami, Oklahoma
Chicken Coops for Sale in Miami, Oklahoma
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.
Share this:
Like this:
Chicken Coop Yard Design in Miami, Oklahoma
A good place to start any search is the internet. Simply plugging in the phrase "chicken coops for sale in Miami 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 Miami Oklahoma chicken coops. What to look for when buying a chicken coop in Miami, Oklahoma With the huge increase in chicken maintaining there has actually been a similarly large increase in the variety of chicken stuff for sale. Poultry real estate is an instance in factor. It's likewise a timeless example of the excellent old bandwagon being got on as numerous prospective chicken real estate specialists peddle a range of holiday accommodation claiming to be the optimal option to your chicken real estate needs. Usually the cost looks eye-catching, your house looks eye-catching, hell even the clean-cut family standing there feeding the chickens look eye-catching. Undoubtedly they know a high quality chicken house when they see one? There are numerous affordable as well as nasty cages swamping the marketplace. I understand this as I've examined a number of them in the field, and also seen a ewe run directly through one when the feed bucket showed up. The result was only a costly heap of firewood and also a little flock of bemused and also now homeless bantams.
Baby Chicks Hatching in Miami, Oklahoma
Most of the time these mass produced designs are constructed of fast grown up lumber - come the first decrease of rain they swell, leaving you either blockading a doorway that won't close, or ripping the door furnishings off in a vain effort to launch the squawking residents. The very first warm day suggests the wood dries and also splits, the really felt roofing bubbles and also boils, and also come nightfall the hens choose not to go in. This is not as a result of their disappointment at the decrease of their as soon as attractive property however considering that the hovel is now a place for, and also probably crawling with, the chicken keeper's nemesis, red mite. Add on the fact that it claimed on the blurb that it would certainly match four large hens when that stocking thickness was based on the Circle Line at 5pm on a Friday, as well as exactly what are you entrusted? A number of joints as well as some kindling. A good coop for thee to 4 birds should cost you around ₤ 300 though this can depend on whether you elect for a totally free standing house or one with a run attached. Presuming you are ranging your birds in a huge space and also the pop hole doorway is big sufficient for the type you keep, then the main demands of real estate boil down to 3 points which will certainly define the number of birds the house will hold; perches, nest boxes and air flow. Most breeds of chicken will certainly perch when they go to roost in the evening, this perch ought to preferably be 5-8cm broad with smoothed off edges so the foot sits comfortably on it. The perch needs to be more than the nest box entry as chickens will certainly likewise naturally seek the highest point to perch. A perch less than that will have the birds roosting in the nest box overnight (which is incidentally when they generate one of the most poo) leading to soiled eggs the following day. They shouldn't however be so high off the flooring of the house that leg injuries can occur when the bird comes down in the morning. Chickens require regarding 20cm of perch each (in little breeds this is certainly much less), plus if greater than one perch is installed in your home they ought to be greater than 30cm apart. They will hunker up with their neighbors yet are not that keen on roosting with a beak in the bloomers of the bird in front. Ideally your home ought to have a least one nest box for every single three birds and these ought to be off the ground and in the darkest location of the house. Your house should have ample ventilation: without it after that condensation will certainly develop every evening, even in the chilliest of weather. Understand, ventilation deals with the concept of warm air leaving via a high gap attracting cooler air in from a lower space - it's not a set of openings on opposite wall surfaces of your house and also at the exact same level, this is what's called a draught. If you have a house with a run connected after that the factors above are still true, but you should also think about the run size. The EU optimum legal equipping density for a free variety bird is (and let's face it, one of the motivations for keeping some hens in your home is possibly boosted or better well-being) 2,500 birds per hectare, that's maximum one bird each 4m settled. Take a close look at a few of the bargain homes - it could well be the house has the right perches, correct air flow 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 could believe you've got a bargain, however you and also your flock might rue the day you did. Acquisition the appropriate house as well as it will last for a couple of years, if not longer given the right therapy. Ultimately your fowl and your poultry maintaining encounter will certainly be much the far better for it.plans plan
More Posts
Chicken Coops for Sale in Aline, Oklahoma
Chicken Coops for Sale in Colony, Oklahoma
Chicken Coops for Sale in Langston, Oklahoma
Chicken Coops for Sale in Jet, Oklahoma
Chicken Coops for Sale in Altus, Oklahoma