Chicken Coops for Sale in Easton, Pennsylvania
Chicken Coops for Sale in Easton, Pennsylvania
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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Baby Chicks in Easton, Pennsylvania
A good place to start any search is the internet. Simply plugging in the phrase "chicken coops for sale in Easton 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 Easton Pennsylvania chicken coops. What to look for when buying a chicken coop in Easton, Pennsylvania With the big increase in chicken maintaining there has actually been an equally big increase in the array of chicken materiel on sale. Poultry real estate is a case in factor. It's likewise a classic instance of the good old bandwagon being jumped on as various prospective poultry real estate experts pitch a selection of holiday accommodation asserting to be the excellent remedy to your chicken housing demands. Frequently the cost looks eye-catching, your house looks attractive, heck also the clean-cut family standing there feeding the chickens look appealing. Definitely they recognize a quality chicken house when they see one? There are several low-cost as well as unpleasant coops flooding the marketplace. I know this as I've examined a number of them in the area, as well as seen a ewe run directly through one when the feed bucket appeared. The result was nothing but a costly pile of fire wood and also a tiny group of bemused and also now homeless bantams.
Chicken Coop For Sale Near Me in Easton, Pennsylvania
Typically these mass produced models are created of fast grown lumber - come the initial decline of rainfall they swell, leaving you either defending a door that won't close, or tearing the doorway furniture off in a vain effort to release the squawking occupants. The initial warm day implies the lumber dries and also splits, the really felt roof bubbles and boils, as well as come nightfall the chickens choose not to enter. This is not due to their dissatisfaction at the decline of their once attractive home but because the hovel is currently a place for, and also possibly crawling with, the chicken caretaker's bane, red mite. Add on the fact that it claimed on the blurb that it would fit 4 big hens when that stocking density was based on the Circle Line at 5pm on a Friday, and exactly what are you entrusted? A number of joints and also some kindling. A respectable coop for thee to four birds need to cost you approximately ₤ 300 though this could depend upon whether you choose for a cost-free standing house or one with a run attached. Assuming you are ranging your birds in a big space and also the pop opening door allows sufficient for the breed you maintain, after that the main demands of housing come down to three factors which will specify the variety of birds your home will hold; perches, nest boxes as well as air flow. Many types of chicken will perch when they visit roost during the night, this perch must ideally be 5-8cm large with smoothed off sides so the foot rests pleasantly on it. The perch must be above the nest box entry as chickens will likewise naturally search for the acme to perch. A perch below that will certainly have the birds roosting in the nest box over night (which is incidentally when they generate the most poo) causing dirtied eggs the following day. They shouldn't however be so high off the floor of your home that leg injuries could possibly take place when the bird comes down in the early morning. Chickens need about 20cm of perch each (in little breeds this is undoubtedly less), plus if greater than one perch is mounted in the house they must be more than 30cm apart. They will hunker up with their neighbors however are not that keen on roosting with a beak in the bloomers of the bird ahead. Preferably the house needs to have a least one nest box for every single three birds as well as these must be off the ground and also in the darkest area of your home. The house ought to have appropriate ventilation: without it after that condensation will accumulate every night, even in the coldest of climate. Understand, ventilation deals with the principle of warm air leaving through a high gap drawing cooler air in from a reduced gap - it's not a set of holes on contrary wall surfaces of the house and at the same degree, this is what's called a draught. If you have a house with a run affixed after that the factors above are still true, yet you should also think about the run dimension. The EU maximum lawful stocking thickness for a totally free variety bird is (as well as let's face it, one of the motivations for keeping some chickens in the house is potentially improved or better welfare) 2,500 birds each hectare, that's optimal one bird each 4m made even. Take a close look at some of the deal residences - it could well be your home has the appropriate perches, appropriate ventilation as well as enough nest boxes for a practical number of birds, yet will each of the chickens have anything more than an A4 sized piece of ground to invest the day on? And so as the claiming goes, "you obtain what you spend for". You could think you've got a deal, but you as well as your group could rue the day you did. Acquisition the right house and also it will certainly last for a few decades, if not longer offered the right therapy. Ultimately your poultry as well as your chicken maintaining experience will be considerably the better for it.for sale build
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