Chicken Coops for Sale in Mc Keesport, Pennsylvania
Chicken Coops for Sale in Mc Keesport, Pennsylvania
Our Chicken Coop Design – Front Elevation (Part 2 of 3)
Okay, I lied. I had hoped to finish up writing on our chicken coop design with this post, but I ran out of time and markers…seriously – my gray marker ran out. So today I’m going to focus on the front elevation and next week I’ll wrap it up with the other 3 elevations.
Front Elevation of the Coop
When designing your coop you really need to think through ventilation for a number of reasons: respiratory health of the chickens; drying out the moisture and their manure keeps down the smells and the potential of the hens getting sick. I made ours super-ventilated by covering the entire front of our coop with hardware cloth. We may have gone overboard, but it’s better to err on the side of too much ventilation in a coop than too little…and because Atlanta has a fairly temperate climate, I think we’re good. That said, you do have to consider strong winds – particularly in the colder months. That’s why Britt and I crafted Roman shade-like curtains out of painter’s drop cloths for the front and the windows on the other 3 sides of the coop. It was quite inexpensive and fairly easy to do…particularly if you strategically use the hems already sewn in. These curtains will give our ladies a refuge from the cold winds – protecting the exposed areas of their bodies (combs, wattles, and feet).
Here are a few other things to note about the front elevation of our coop:
- Again, entire area is covered in hardware cloth. I could have used chicken wire on the top (bottom needs hardware cloth to keep out critters), but I had enough hardware cloth and I thought it looked better for the entire area to be consistent.
- The height of the walls are 6.5’…which is plenty high (for me at least) to be able to walk through the door…and there is plenty of height inside, since there is no ceiling (just the rafters and tin roof above).
- 24″ doors were constructed out of pressure-treated wood and painted the same color as the doors of our home.
- To clean things up a bit and to cover up where the pieces of hardware cloth met, I added 1″ trim on the outside of each 2×4 and painted it and the siding of the rest of the coop the same color gray as our house.
- We used gate latches as handles. If you do as well, make sure you make it so that you won’t get locked in when the doors close. To do that, I simply drilled a hole just above the latch and attached a long, thin chain that I threaded through the hole…allowing me to open the latch from inside. Don’t use string or twine…I found that out the hard way. String will wear out and break – leaving you stranded inside. Fortunately when it happened to me, one of my girls was within shouting distance.
- We were running out of hardware cloth when we were finishing the gable, so we simply filled in the middle space with a board and painted it gray. To make sense of this oddly proportioned space and to bring a little bit of character to the coop, I hung a set of antlers from a Mule Deer I shot several years ago with my dad in Wyoming.
So there’s the front elevation. We are really pleased with it…it’s done what we set out to do – make a more than livable space for our chickens (and bunny), while still being attractive. Now we may be a bit too particular, but I really think having an attractive coop in a nice setting has made raising chickens not only sustainable, but more enjoyable. So sure, you could build a coop that is purely functional, but if it looks like a hunk of junk, is that really something you want to see every day…sometimes several times? We thought not.
Next week I’ll wrap things up on our chicken coop design…but until then, please let me know if you have any other questions about our coop or raising chickens. I could perhaps work my answers into the next post.
Take care,
PS: Here are the links to and of Our Chicken Coop Design…and the link to .
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Chicken Hut in Mc Keesport, Pennsylvania
A good place to start any search is the internet. Simply plugging in the phrase "chicken coops for sale in Mc Keesport 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 Mc Keesport Pennsylvania chicken coops. What to look for when buying a chicken coop in Mc Keesport, Pennsylvania With the huge boost in poultry maintaining there has been a just as big rise in the range of poultry materiel for sale. Chicken housing is a proceedings in factor. It's additionally a timeless instance of the good old bandwagon being got on as various prospective fowl housing specialists peddle a range of holiday accommodation claiming to be the ideal option to your chicken real estate requirements. Usually the cost looks desirable, the house looks desirable, hell even the clean-cut family standing there feeding the chickens look desirable. Definitely they know a high quality chicken house when they see one? There are several economical and also unpleasant coops flooding the market. I recognize this as I've examined a number of them in the area, and also seen a ewe run straight through one when the feed bucket showed up. The outcome was just a costly heap of firewood and also a little flock of bemused and currently homeless bantams.
Chicken Coop Free Plans in Mc Keesport, Pennsylvania
Usually these mass produced models are constructed of fast grown timber - come the first decline of rainfall they swell, leaving you either defending a doorway that will not shut, or ripping the door furniture off in a vain attempt to release the squawking inhabitants. The first warm day indicates the wood dries as well as splits, the really felt roofing bubbles and also boils, and also come nightfall the hens refuse to enter. This is not due to their disappointment at the decline of their once desirable property yet due to the fact that the hovel is currently a sanctuary for, as well as most likely abounding, the fowl caretaker's nemesis, red mite. Add the fact that it said on the blurb that it would certainly match four large chickens when that stocking thickness was based on the Circle Line at 5pm on a Friday, and just what are you entrusted? A few joints and also some kindling. A decent coop for thee to four birds ought to cost you approximately ₤ 300 though this can depend upon whether you choose for a totally free standing house or one with a run affixed. Assuming you are ranging your birds in a large space and also the pop opening door is big enough for the breed you maintain, after that the major demands of real estate come down to three points which will certainly define the number of birds your home will certainly hold; perches, nest boxes and also ventilation. Many breeds of chicken will perch when they go to roost at night, this perch should preferably be 5-8cm vast with smoothed off sides so the foot rests pleasantly on it. The perch needs to be higher than the nest box access as chickens will certainly additionally naturally look for the acme to perch. A perch lower than that will certainly have the birds roosting in the nest box over night (which is by the way when they produce the most poo) leading to dirtied eggs the list below day. They should not nonetheless be so high off the flooring of your house that leg injuries might happen when the bird gets down in the early morning. Chickens require regarding 20cm of perch each (in tiny breeds this is undoubtedly less), plus if more than one perch is mounted in the house they must be more than 30cm apart. They will hunker up with their next-door neighbors but are not that crazy about roosting with a beak in the bloomers of the bird in front. Preferably your house ought to have a least one nest box for each 3 birds and these should be off the ground and also in the darkest location of your house. The house should have ample air flow: without it then condensation will certainly accumulate every night, also in the chilliest of climate. Realize, air flow works with the principle of cozy air leaving via a high void drawing cooler air in from a lower void - it's not a set of holes on other wall surfaces of the house and also at the very same degree, this is exactly what's known as a draft. If you have a house with a run connected after that the points above are still true, yet you need to also consider the run size. The EU maximum legal stocking thickness for a complimentary array bird is (and also allow's face it, among the inspirations for maintaining some hens in the house is potentially improved or much better well-being) 2,500 birds per hectare, that's maximum one bird each 4m made even. Take a close look at some of the deal residences - it could well be your home has the right perches, proper air flow and sufficient nest boxes for an affordable number of birds, however will each of the chickens have anything greater than an A4 sized piece of ground to spend the day on? And so as the stating goes, "you obtain just what you pay for". You might think you've got a deal, however you and your group could rue the day you did. Purchase the right house and also it will last for a couple of decades, otherwise longer provided the appropriate treatment. Eventually your chicken and your fowl keeping experience will certainly be considerably the far better for it.build chick
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