Chicken Coops for Sale in Kantner, Pennsylvania
Chicken Coops for Sale in Kantner, Pennsylvania
building our homestead | the chicken coop.
When Justin and I had been , he took me to his family’s farm for Thanksgiving. I was already nervous as it was – he was a new boyfriend and I was meeting his family – but by the end of the weekend they’d coerced convinced me to drive a skid loader, fire off a few rounds at some coffee cans, and forage for my own breakfast in the chicken coop. When we came back the next spring, there were a handful of baby chicks fluttering around the yard and I thought they were so precious. Uncle Bill handed me one, nearly weightless in my palm, all its hollow bones twitching against my fingers. It made me nervous, how fragile it felt and how anxious it seemed to get back to its Mama Bird.
But the eggs? The eggs I loved. I loved the plastic Easter egg sitting inside the nesting box (to encourage the ladies to lay there); I loved the varying shades of brown, the speckled pattern and the occasional pastel green egg that appeared. They made the white grocery store eggs look so bland, so boring. And when we brought the eggs inside to fry up alongside our buttered toast, their yolks were electric orange. I’d never seen anything like it before (they grow pumpkins on the farm and feed the chickens with the broken pieces, thus the late-autumn yolks are especially colorful). I slid two over-easy’s onto my plate and split them open with the prong of my fork and watched the yolk puddle out to my toast. I think about that breakfast a lot, about the smell of the barn early in the morning; how Justin and I were living outside our comfort zones and learning to love each other; how he casually mentioned that, one day, we might have a farm.
We don’t have a full-blown farm, not by a long shot, but after trying to and finally accepting this is where we’ll stay, we decided to start building our backyard homestead. Justin bought the blueprints for a chicken coop and set to work in our garage over the winter. We poured the concrete footers together before Christmas, before the frost would come, and Justin etched our initials into the last one while it was still wet. He spent hours under the fluorescent lights of the garage bay, hammering and nailing and sometimes painting. And finally, after months of work, we hauled it outside with a trailer and some extra manpower.
Most of the books we read said chickens were low-maintenance, that they don’t need much besides a cardboard box and some fresh water. But my husband, God love him, is an overachiever. So our chickens will have the Ritz Carlton of chicken coops to call home. And this coming weekend, our chicks will arrive! We have nine in total – three each of Barred Rocks, Rhode Island Red, and Ameraucanas (Easter Eggers). They’ll live in a brooder box in our garage for the first few weeks to stay toasty warm, and by the end of May or June we’ll move them out to the luxury hotel we call a chicken coop. It isn’t quite finished, we still need to add shingles and chicken wire all around, but I’m so proud of it. I’m proud of what we’re doing, how we live, how we eat, how we teach our kids about food and about life.
So cheers to the homestead! We’re finally doing it.
***
First few photos are iPhone.
Resources:
Chicken Coop Run Ideas in Kantner, Pennsylvania
A good place to start any search is the internet. Simply plugging in the phrase "chicken coops for sale in Kantner 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 Kantner Pennsylvania chicken coops. What to look for when buying a chicken coop in Kantner, Pennsylvania With the substantial rise in poultry keeping there has actually been a just as huge surge in the variety of chicken stuff on sale. Chicken housing is a proceedings in factor. It's also a classic example of the great old bandwagon being jumped on as numerous potential chicken housing specialists pitch an array of lodging claiming to be the excellent remedy to your chicken real estate needs. Frequently the cost looks attractive, your house looks desirable, heck also the clean-cut family members standing there feeding the chickens look eye-catching. Surely they know a quality chicken house when they see one? There are numerous low-cost and unpleasant coops flooding the market. I know this as I've checked a number of them in the field, as well as seen a ewe run straight through one when the feed pail showed up. The outcome was just a costly pile of fire wood as well as a tiny flock of bemused and also currently homeless bantams.
Chicken Coop Necessities in Kantner, Pennsylvania
More often than not these standardized designs are created of rapid grown lumber - come the very first decline of rain they swell, leaving you either blockading a doorway that won't close, or ripping the door furniture off in a vain effort to launch the squawking inhabitants. The initial warm and comfortable day suggests the lumber dries as well as fractures, the really felt roof covering bubbles and also boils, and also come nightfall the hens choose not to go in. This is not as a result of their dissatisfaction at the decline of their as soon as attractive apartment but because the hovel is now a haven for, and most likely crawling with, the poultry keeper's nemesis, red mite. Add the fact that it claimed on the blurb that it would fit 4 large chickens when that equipping thickness was based upon the Circle Line at 5pm on a Friday, and also what are you left with? A couple of hinges and some kindling. A decent coop for thee to four birds must cost you approximately ₤ 300 though this could depend on whether you elect for a totally free standing house or one with a run affixed. Presuming you are ranging your birds in a big space and the pop opening door is big sufficient for the breed you maintain, after that the primary needs of housing come down to three points which will define the variety of birds the house will certainly hold; perches, nest boxes as well as ventilation. A lot of types of chicken will perch when they visit roost at night, this perch should preferably be 5-8cm vast with smoothed off edges so the foot rests easily on it. The perch must be more than the nest box entrance as chickens will certainly likewise normally search for the highest point to perch. A perch lower than that will have the birds roosting in the nest box over night (which is by the way when they create one of the most poo) resulting in soiled eggs the list below day. They shouldn't however be so high off the flooring of your home that leg injuries might take place when the bird gets down in the morning. Chickens require concerning 20cm of perch each (in small types this is obviously much less), plus if greater than one perch is mounted in your house they need to be greater than 30cm apart. They will certainly hunker up with their next-door neighbors however are not that crazy about roosting with a beak in the bloomers of the bird ahead. Ideally your house needs to have a the very least one nest box for each 3 birds as well as these need to be off the ground and in the darkest area of your house. The house should have ample air flow: without it after that condensation will build up every night, even in the coldest of climate. Realize, air flow works on the principle of cozy air leaving via a high space attracting cooler air in from a reduced void - it's not a collection of openings on opposite wall surfaces of the house and also at the exact same degree, this is what's known as a draught. If you have a house with a run affixed after that the points above are still real, but you must additionally take into consideration the run dimension. The EU optimum lawful equipping thickness for a free variety bird is (as well as allow's face it, one of the inspirations for keeping some hens in the house is possibly improved or far better well-being) 2,500 birds per hectare, that's optimal one bird each 4m squared. Take a close look at several of the deal residences - it could well be your house has the best perches, proper air flow and enough nest boxes for a reasonable number of birds, but will each of the chickens have anything more than an A4 sized item of ground to invest the day on? And so as the stating goes, "you obtain just what you spend for". You might believe you've got a deal, but you and your flock could rue the day you did. Acquisition the right house as well as it will certainly last for a couple of years, if not longer given the right treatment. Ultimately your poultry and also your poultry maintaining encounter will be considerably the far better for it.plans coops
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