Chicken Coops for Sale in Bridgeport, Pennsylvania
Chicken Coops for Sale in Bridgeport, Pennsylvania
Eggs! Raise Your Own Hens In A Chicken Coop Built From Scrap
From a long line of egg farmers in Holland, Karin’s dad finally builds her a chicken coop
Where bylaws allow, or can be bypassed, I highly recommend building your own chicken coop. Imagine getting fresh, free-range organic eggs every day? When my parents came to visit me in Jaffa a few months ago, Dad found himself bored. Back in Holland, my family the Van Der Meers were one of the biggest egg producers in the country before the Depression. So you could say, eggs are in our genes. With Dad nothing to do for a few weeks, I brought up the idea of having him build me a chicken coop. That got him kind of excited. He foraged for wood in my backyard and came up with a coop that resembles a bus stop. The Chicken Express? Step right up and I’ll tell you how to build a coop in a few easy steps. And no you don’t have to invest much, unless you want to make your coop designer.
In warm climates very little is needed to keep your hens happy – basically a roof over their heads, a lengthwise pole for curling their toes around when they sleep at night (you might want to raise it high where feral cats might stalk your chickens), and some fencing to keep them from, well, flying the coop.
Here are our chickens before we bought them.
As it turns out, Bedouin chickens which we bought in the Negev Desert, are very agile creatures and even sleep in our blackberry tree some nights. The fencing doesn’t help them that much, but it does keep them contained somewhat, and out of the mouth of our crazy dog.
Here’s what you’ll need to build the coop:
- A corner on your roof, garden, or backyard for the chicken coop, a couple meters by a couple meters at least
- An old door or piece of plywood for a roof
- Some plywood for the sides
- Chicken wire, if you want to contain the chickens outside the coop (they eat weeds so consider letting them run loose)
- A wooden pole
- Some boxes, or crates for roosting. Throw in something soft.
- Feed
Find a corner to build against, saving yourself the need to build 2 extra walls. Be lazy. Make sure there’s a roof for the chickens to protect them against the sun, and rain, and in the winter if it gets cold, you can throw a carpet over the sides to keep the cold wind out. Make sure they have three walls.
We built a 2 meter or so pole, installed horizontally, down low about 50 cm off the ground but noticed some street cats were preying on our hens and raised the pole to about 1.5 meters off the ground. Most chickens can fly to this height but see what works for yours. It really doesn’t take much to make your chickens happy. But they do need a pole to sleep on at night.
What you feed your chickens:
- A basic seed/corn meal
- Compost – can include eggshells (ours really love labane cheese – could be because they are Bedouin hens)
- Garden weeds and greens (let them go wild!)
- Worms and bugs (they feed themselves while aerating the ground)
- Endless supply of water
Chickens do need basic feed, that which can be bought at a feedlot. Some inquiring around on where to find chickens and feed might be in order. Animal markets for livestock might be your best bet. Ask around in places like that. We bought a huge drum of feed consisting of corn meal and other seeds, and feed our chickens a regular diet of all the vegetable-based compost that would otherwise be composted. But don’t worry. Chicken doo makes an excellent compost too. One of my friends can’t eat eggs unless they are free-range and fed with organic oats. So it’s really up to you to decide how to feed your chickens, depending on your health needs and sensitivities.
We have five chickens and one rooster. The rooster is just for the fun of it. You don’t need one if you have neighbors nearby who will complain about the noise. And roosters DO make noise, waking us up as early as 1:30 am.
Bedouin women (crouching like crows) selling “bede” hens at the market
Unlike commercially-raised chickens, our hens don’t get “sunshine” 24 hours a day. Some parts of the year the chickens won’t lay. They will molt and take a break. And not every chicken will lay every day once she starts. We bought young chickens and it took them a couple of months to start laying. Now three of the five are laying, but like I said, not every day.
See a video interview with my dad about chickens
We bought our chickens at a Bedouin market (for about $10 each) because it was important for my husband that we have a “wild” variety – chickens that haven’t been genetically manipulated. Our eggs are on the small to medium size, the yolks absolutely huge compared to the white. One hen is laying eggs with the most delightful little beige specks on them.
Dad (left), the closest link to my family of egg people is determined that next time he comes to visit me in the Middle East he’ll be smuggling in white hen eggs – “the real good layers” – from Canada. He keeps asking me about building an incubator for these eggs to become hatchlings. Hopefully it will happen and when it does, I’ll report it here on Green Prophet.
Meanwhile, I am dreaming about how many eggs I will collect tomorrow. And how exciting it will be for my little baby daughter, when she gets bigger, to go out and collect them like I did when I was a little girl (that’s me in the top photo). My family had a coop in a suburban town outside Toronto until our evil neighbour complained and we had to get rid of it.
Before the complaints, I would go out and collect our eggs and sell them to our neighbors for a dollar a dozen, to cover the price of feed. Seriously, it was so much fun. If this blogger, and lazy environmentalist who is addicted to the computer can start a coop, you can too. Get cracking and join the new movement of urban farming.
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Chicken Coop Pictures in Bridgeport, Pennsylvania
A good place to start any search is the internet. Simply plugging in the phrase "chicken coops for sale in Bridgeport Pennsylvania" 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 Bridgeport Pennsylvania chicken coops. What to look for when buying a chicken coop in Bridgeport, Pennsylvania With the substantial boost in poultry keeping there has been a similarly big increase in the variety of poultry stuff for sale. Poultry housing is a case in factor. It's additionally a classic instance of the excellent old bandwagon being got on as various potential chicken housing professionals pitch an array of holiday accommodation asserting to be the perfect remedy to your chicken real estate needs. Often the rate looks desirable, the house looks attractive, heck also the clean-cut family standing there feeding the chickens look appealing. Surely they know a professional chicken house when they see one? There are lots of economical and also awful cages flooding the market. I understand this as I've tested a variety of them in the area, and seen a ewe run directly through one when the feed bucket appeared. The outcome was nothing but an expensive heap of fire wood and a tiny group of bemused as well as now homeless bantams.
Chicken Coop You Can Walk In in Bridgeport, Pennsylvania
Generally these mass produced designs are built of quick grown lumber - come the initial drop of rain they swell, leaving you either barricading a door that will not shut, or tearing the doorway furniture off in a vain attempt to launch the squawking residents. The very first cozy day means the wood dries out and also cracks, the really felt roofing system bubbles as well as boils, as well as come nightfall the chickens choose not to go in. This is not because of their dissatisfaction at the decline of their as soon as eye-catching building but due to the fact that the hovel is currently a sanctuary for, and also most likely abounding, the fowl keeper's bane, red mite. Add that it stated on the blurb that it would fit four big chickens when that equipping thickness was based on the Circle Line at 5pm on a Friday, and exactly what are you entrusted? A few hinges and also some kindling. A decent coop for thee to four birds need to cost you in the region of ₤ 300 though this could depend upon whether you choose for a free standing house or one with a run attached. Assuming you are ranging your birds in a big room and the pop opening doorway is big enough for the type you keep, after that the main needs of real estate boil down to 3 points which will certainly define the number of birds your 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 ought to ideally be 5-8cm large with smoothed off sides so the foot sits easily on it. The perch should be more than the nest box entrance as chickens will also normally seek the acme to perch. A perch below that will have the birds roosting in the nest box overnight (which is by the way when they create one of the most poo) bring about stained eggs the following day. They shouldn't nevertheless be so high off the flooring of the house that leg injuries can take place when the bird gets down in the early morning. Chickens require about 20cm of perch each (in little breeds this is clearly less), plus if greater than one perch is mounted in your home they ought to be greater than 30cm apart. They will hunker up with their next-door neighbors however are not that keen on roosting with a beak in the bloomers of the bird ahead. Preferably the house must have a the very least one nest box for every single three birds and these must be off the ground as well as in the darkest location of your home. Your home ought to have sufficient air flow: without it then condensation will accumulate every night, also in the coldest of weather condition. Understand, ventilation works with the concept of cozy air leaving through a high void attracting cooler air in from a lower void - it's not a collection of holes on opposite walls of your house as well as at the same degree, this is just what's referred to as a draught. If you have a house with a run connected after that the points above are still real, yet you need to also think about the run size. The EU optimum legal equipping density for a complimentary range bird is (as well as allow's face it, among the inspirations for keeping some hens in the house is potentially enhanced or far better welfare) 2,500 birds per hectare, that's maximum one bird each 4m settled. Take a close consider a few of the deal residences - it could well be your home has the appropriate perches, correct ventilation and ample nest boxes for a practical variety of birds, but will each of the chickens have anything more than an A4 sized item of ground to spend the day on? Therefore as the saying goes, "you obtain exactly what you spend for". You may think you've got hold of a deal, yet you and your flock might rue the day you did. Acquisition the ideal house as well as it will certainly last for a few years, if not longer given the appropriate treatment. In the long run your fowl as well as your poultry maintaining encounter will certainly be much the better for it.plan for sale
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