Chicken Coops for Sale in Lanse, Pennsylvania
Chicken Coops for Sale in Lanse, Pennsylvania
Chicken Tractors vs Chicken Coops
A lot of people do not seem to know this but are also chicken houses. The only real difference between the two is that chicken tractors can be moved from place to place and a chicken house is fixed in one place. You can have both if you have the means and the space in your yard, but either will do to house your chicken flock, provided they all fit with plenty of room to move. If you are not too familiar with raising chickens and keeping hens, it wouldn’t be any wonder if you didn’t immediately realise this difference.
A fixed chicken house or chicken coop
Planning ahead
But now knowing that there is a difference between the two, it will be easier for you to plan how you’re going to keep your chickens housed. Especially if you are planning to raise your very own chickens soon, but don’t actually have them yet, you have the chance to look around and see if you can pick up something pre-loved (second hand!) or even modify something to suit your yard space and the number and types of chickens that you’re planning to keep. A purpose built chicken house or chicken tractor will probably suit best, but other types of small to medium animal enclosures could work equally well. It’s all an individual choice, really.
Chicken tractor plans
If you have been searching for different types of chicken tractor plans online, you will have seen a great variety of chicken tractor designs. While most may look similar to each other, there will also be some that have been made with a great deal of creativity. Some of those designs are so pretty that people cannot help but buy them or have them made. Sometimes, people attempt to make chicken tractors themselves too. This may or may not be successful depending on how gifted the individual is in carpentry and handiwork…but, hey, if it keeps the chickens in and safe and dry and warm, and the predators out, does it really matter?
What Are Chicken Tractors For?
All round protection
Depending on how big the tractor is, the chickens are free to roam around the enclosed space with plenty of room to move. This really is beneficial especially if there are some things around your yard area that you would like to protect from your chickens. For instance, if you have some plants that will be destroyed if pecked by chickens, if you have garden mulch in your garden beds (the chickens will rearrange that for you…) or if you have neighbors who keep a vegetable patch and don’t take kindly to your chickens helping themselves.
Largely, though, the chicken tractor is to protect the chickens from the environment as well – they can get through holes in fences and potentially fall foul of dogs, and it’s not unusual for a neighborhood dog to run loose and have a bit of sport with an unsuspecting chicken. Chickens and traffic don’t mix and if you live in a fairly rural area, foxes love a bit of chicken for dinner. If any of these situations sound like you, you can always house your flock in a decent sized chicken tractor so that they can roam happily, but not to the point when they can reach treasured plants or be in danger.
A sustainable approach
One benefit of the chicken tractor as compared to the chicken coop is that it is movable and that you do not need to build a floor for underneath your chickens. This also means that you do not have to exert more effort in maintaining the floors of the chicken house – like cleaning and mending or maintaining. The ground will be the floor and all their droppings will serve as fertilizer. This does not mean though that you can let their tractor stay rooted in just one place. While the area may provide enough entertainment for your chickens for a short while, there will come a time when you would need to move them to another area with fresh ground to peck and to let the original spot recover. The chicken scratchings will also uproot and kill off any grass they live on in a fairly short time, so moving the tractor regularly is the best approach.
Potential health benefits
According to research, chickens that are living in tractors may be able to thrive better than those who are in cages because they have enough access to the outside world and they are not being deprived of their daily needs. While those in cages may also have food and water, there are times when they will not be able to receive enough sunlight. There are also instances when they cannot move properly, if their cage isn’t large enough, which means that they will not be getting enough exercise. A chicken tractor is a great improvement on this.
More Benefits of Chicken Tractors
Other than the obvious benefits already described above, it has been said that chicken tractors will potentially allow hens to make their own nests or areas where they will choose to lay their eggs. But there are certainly advantages to have “manmade” nesting boxes available where hens can lay their eggs. This means that the layout can be designed so that you will be able to gather eggs more easily instead of trying to find the eggs in the various different places where your chickens might have hidden them. (Two guesses where the idea of the Egg Hunt fiasco we go through at Easter Time came from!)
Is it okay if your chickens are pets?
This is not at all unusual to find; there are people who are not just keeping chickens for their eggs, fertilizer or other reasons we won’t mention in their earshot. Plenty of people like to keep backyard chickens because they are simply just great pets – they are not that fussy, not hard to look after and aren’t too messy if your yard isn’t too perfectly manicured.
Once a chicken has come to the end of its egg-laying career, it seems only fair to let it live its life out in peace and health and happiness in it’s own home sweet home! Although some people that have never known the joys being a chicken owner will find it a bit weird, a sweet creature that demands little, appreciates all, takes up little space and gives what it can is a great thing to have around (wouldn’t you agree?).
Your backyard chickens will adapt happily to a chicken tractor or a chicken house equally well. It’s really only a question of what will best suit your needs to be able to live with them in your yard with minimum fuss and maximum practicality.
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Chicken Coop Kits For Sale in Lanse, Pennsylvania
A good place to start any search is the internet. Simply plugging in the phrase "chicken coops for sale in Lanse 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 Lanse Pennsylvania chicken coops. What to look for when buying a chicken coop in Lanse, Pennsylvania With the big increase in poultry maintaining there has been a similarly large increase in the variety of chicken paraphernalia for sale. Chicken real estate is a case in point. It's likewise a traditional example of the great old bandwagon being jumped on as different potential poultry housing experts market a selection of lodging claiming to be the excellent remedy to your chicken housing needs. Commonly the price looks appealing, your diy-chicken-coop-planshome looks appealing, hell even the clean-cut family members standing there feeding the chickens look appealing. Surely they recognize a professional chicken house when they see one? There are lots of affordable and nasty cages flooding the market. I know this as I've checked a number of them in the area, and also seen a ewe run directly through one when the feed pail appeared. The result was only a costly stack of firewood and also a little group of bemused as well as now homeless bantams.
Chicken Coop Build in Lanse, Pennsylvania
More often than not these mass produced models are built of fast grown up wood - come the initial decrease of rain they swell, leaving you either fortifying a door that won't close, or ripping the door furnishings off in a vain effort to launch the squawking occupants. The first warm and comfortable day indicates the wood dries out and fractures, the felt roofing bubbles and boils, as well as come nightfall the hens choose not to enter. This is not due to their dissatisfaction at the decline of their when eye-catching home however since the hovel is now a place for, and also probably crawling with, the chicken caretaker's nemesis, red mite. Add the fact that it said on the blurb that it would match four big hens when that equipping thickness was based on the Circle Line at 5pm on a Friday, and what are you entrusted? A number of hinges as well as some kindling. A good coop for thee to four birds ought to cost you around ₤ 300 though this could depend on whether you elect for a free standing house or one with a run connected. Presuming you are varying your birds in a big area and the pop hole door allows enough for the type you maintain, after that the primary requirements of real estate come down to 3 factors which will specify the number of birds your home will certainly hold; perches, nest boxes and also ventilation. Most breeds of chicken will perch when they go to roost during the night, this perch should preferably be 5-8cm broad with smoothed off edges so the foot rests easily on it. The perch ought to be more than the nest box entrance as chickens will certainly likewise naturally seek the highest point to perch. A perch below that will have the birds roosting in the nest box over night (which is incidentally when they create one of the most poo) causing soiled eggs the list below day. They should not nevertheless be so high off the floor of the house that leg injuries might happen when the bird gets down in the morning. Chickens need regarding 20cm of perch each (in small types this is undoubtedly much less), plus if greater than one perch is mounted in your home they must be greater than 30cm apart. They will certainly hunker up with their neighbors however are not that crazy about roosting with a beak in the bloomers of the bird in front. Preferably the house ought to have a least one nest box for each three birds as well as these ought to be off the ground and also in the darkest area of the house. Your home needs to have appropriate air flow: without it after that condensation will build up every evening, even in the coldest of climate. Know, ventilation deals with the principle of warm air leaving via a high space drawing cooler air in from a lower space - it's not a set of holes on other wall surfaces of your home and at the exact same level, this is what's called a draft. If you have a house with a run connected then the points above are still real, however you must additionally take into consideration the run dimension. The EU maximum legal equipping density for a cost-free array bird is (as well as allow's encounter it, one of the inspirations for keeping some chickens at home is potentially boosted or better well-being) 2,500 birds each hectare, that's maximum one bird per 4m squared. Take a close look at several of the bargain residences - it could well be the house has the right perches, correct air flow and enough nest boxes for a sensible number of birds, yet will each of the chickens have anything more than an A4 sized item of ground to spend the day on? Therefore as the stating goes, "you obtain exactly what you pay for". You could believe you've got a bargain, but you and also your flock could possibly rue the day you did. Purchase the best house and also it will last for a few years, otherwise longer provided the appropriate therapy. In the long run your poultry and also your poultry maintaining experience will certainly be a lot the much better for it.build plans
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