Chicken Coops for Sale in Ferndale, Pennsylvania
Chicken Coops for Sale in Ferndale, 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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Baby Chick Hatching in Ferndale, Pennsylvania
A good place to start any search is the internet. Simply plugging in the phrase "chicken coops for sale in Ferndale 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 Ferndale Pennsylvania chicken coops. What to look for when buying a chicken coop in Ferndale, Pennsylvania With the substantial increase in chicken keeping there has been a similarly big surge in the array of chicken paraphernalia for sale. Poultry housing is a case in factor. It's also a classic instance of the excellent old bandwagon being got on as various would-be chicken housing specialists pitch a range of lodging declaring to be the perfect remedy to your chicken real estate demands. Typically the rate looks attractive, your house looks desirable, heck also the clean-cut household standing there feeding the chickens look eye-catching. Certainly they understand a quality chicken house when they see one? There are lots of low-cost and also awful coops flooding the market. I recognize this as I've tested a number of them in the field, and seen a ewe run directly with one when the feed pail appeared. The result was just an expensive heap of fire wood and also a small group of bemused as well as now homeless bantams.
Chicken Coop Reviews in Ferndale, Pennsylvania
More often than not these mass produced models are created of rapid grown up lumber - come the first drop of rain they swell, leaving you either barricading a door that will not shut, or ripping the doorway furnishings off in a vain effort to launch the squawking inhabitants. The initial cozy day suggests the wood dries and also cracks, the really felt roof bubbles as well as boils, and also come nightfall the hens refuse to enter. This is not as a result of their dissatisfaction at the decline of their once appealing residential property yet because the hovel is currently a haven for, as well as possibly crawling with, the fowl keeper's nemesis, red mite. Add that it stated on the blurb that it would certainly match four big chickens when that stocking density was based on the Circle Line at 5pm on a Friday, as well as just what are you entrusted? A few joints and also some kindling. A decent coop for thee to four birds should cost you approximately ₤ 300 though this can depend on whether you choose for a cost-free standing house or one with a run affixed. Assuming you are ranging your birds in a large area as well as the pop opening doorway allows enough for the breed you keep, then the major requirements of real estate boil down to 3 factors which will specify the variety of birds your house will hold; perches, nest boxes and also ventilation. The majority of types of chicken will perch when they go to roost at night, this perch should preferably be 5-8cm vast with smoothed off edges so the foot rests pleasantly on it. The perch must be above the nest box access as chickens will certainly also naturally look for the highest point to perch. A perch less than that will certainly have the birds roosting in the nest box over night (which is by the way when they generate one of the most poo) bring about soiled eggs the list below day. They should not nonetheless be so high off the flooring of your house that leg injuries could take place when the bird comes down in the morning. Chickens require about 20cm of perch each (in little types this is clearly less), plus if more than one perch is mounted in the house they ought to be greater than 30cm apart. They will hunker up with their next-door neighbors yet are not that crazy about roosting with a beak in the bloomers of the bird ahead. Preferably your home needs to have a the very least one nest box for every single 3 birds as well as these should be off the ground as well as in the darkest area of the house. The house needs to have sufficient ventilation: without it then condensation will develop every evening, even in the coldest of climate. Be aware, air flow works on the principle of warm air leaving through a high void drawing cooler air in from a lower gap - it's not a collection of openings on contrary walls of your house and at the same degree, this is what's referred to as a draft. If you have a house with a run connected after that the factors above are still true, however you should also consider the run dimension. The EU maximum legal equipping density for a complimentary array bird is (and also let's face it, among the inspirations for keeping some chickens in your home is potentially boosted or much better welfare) 2,500 birds per hectare, that's optimal one bird each 4m squared. Take a close consider a few of the bargain residences - it could well be your home has the best perches, right air flow and also enough nest boxes for a sensible variety of birds, yet will each of the chickens have anything more than an A4 sized item of ground to invest the day on? Therefore as the saying goes, "you get just what you spend for". You may think you've got hold of a deal, yet you as well as your group can rue the day you did. Purchase the ideal house as well as it will last for a few years, otherwise longer provided the appropriate treatment. Eventually your fowl and also your chicken maintaining experience will certainly be considerably the better for it.chicken coops
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