Chicken Coops for Sale in Shidler, Oklahoma
Chicken Coops for Sale in Shidler, Oklahoma
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:
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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.
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- 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!
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Chicken Coop Run Ideas in Shidler, Oklahoma
A good place to start any search is the internet. Simply plugging in the phrase "chicken coops for sale in Shidler 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 Shidler Oklahoma chicken coops. What to look for when buying a chicken coop in Shidler, Oklahoma With the massive rise in poultry keeping there has actually been an equally large surge in the variety of chicken stuff on sale. Poultry housing is a proceedings in factor. It's also a classic example of the great old bandwagon being jumped on as various prospective poultry real estate experts market an array of cottage declaring to be the perfect remedy to your chicken real estate demands. Often the cost looks appealing, your house looks desirable, heck also the clean-cut family standing there feeding the chickens look appealing. Undoubtedly they know a top quality chicken house when they see one? There are many economical and awful cages flooding the marketplace. I recognize this as I've examined a variety of them in the area, and also seen a ewe run directly via one when the feed pail showed up. The result was just an expensive stack of firewood as well as a small flock of bemused and also now homeless bantams.
Chicken Coop Run Ideas in Shidler, Oklahoma
Usually these standardized designs are created of fast grown up wood - come the first decrease of rainfall they swell, leaving you either blockading a door that won't close, or ripping the doorway furniture off in a vain attempt to launch the squawking residents. The first warm and comfortable day implies the lumber dries and splits, the felt roof bubbles and also boils, and also come nightfall the chickens choose not to go in. This is not because of their disappointment at the decline of their once eye-catching commercial property however since the hovel is now a haven for, as well as possibly crawling with, the chicken caretaker's nemesis, red mite. Add that it claimed on the blurb that it would suit four huge hens when that stocking thickness was based on the Circle Line at 5pm on a Friday, as well as exactly what are you left with? A number of hinges and also some kindling. A respectable coop for thee to 4 birds must cost you approximately ₤ 300 though this can rely on whether you elect for a totally free standing house or one with a run connected. Presuming you are ranging your birds in a big space and the pop opening doorway is big sufficient for the breed you keep, then the primary demands of housing come down to three points which will define the number of birds the house will hold; perches, nest boxes as well as air flow. Many types of chicken will certainly perch when they visit roost at night, this perch needs to ideally be 5-8cm wide with smoothed off edges so the foot sits easily on it. The perch needs to be above the nest box entry as chickens will certainly likewise normally look for the highest point to perch. A perch lower than that will certainly have the birds roosting in the nest box overnight (which is incidentally when they produce the most poo) leading to dirtied eggs the following day. They should not however be so high off the flooring of the house that leg injuries could occur when the bird gets down in the morning. Chickens require regarding 20cm of perch each (in tiny breeds this is obviously less), plus if greater than one perch is mounted in your home they must be more than 30cm apart. They will certainly hunker up with their neighbors but are not that crazy about roosting with a beak in the bloomers of the bird in front. Ideally the house ought to have a the very least one nest box for every 3 birds as well as these ought to be off the ground and also in the darkest area of your home. Your home ought to have adequate air flow: without it then condensation will certainly accumulate every night, also in the coldest of climate. Be aware, ventilation works with the concept of warm and comfortable air leaving via a high void attracting cooler air in from a reduced void - it's not a collection of openings on opposite walls of your house and also at the exact same level, this is just what's known as a draught. If you have a house with a run attached then the points above are still true, but you ought to also take into consideration the run size. The EU optimum lawful equipping thickness for a free array bird is (and let's face it, among the inspirations for keeping some chickens in the house is possibly enhanced or far better welfare) 2,500 birds per hectare, that's optimal one bird per 4m squared. Take a close check out several of the bargain houses - it could well be your house has the best perches, appropriate ventilation and ample nest boxes for a sensible number of birds, yet will each of the chickens have anything greater than an A4 sized piece of ground to spend the day on? And so as the stating goes, "you obtain just what you spend for". You may assume you've got a deal, however you as well as your flock might rue the day you did. Acquisition the appropriate house and it will last for a few years, if not longer given the proper treatment. Eventually your poultry and also your chicken maintaining encounter will be a lot the better for it.plans diy
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