Chicken Coops for Sale in Newtown, Pennsylvania
Chicken Coops for Sale in Newtown, 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 For Sale in Newtown, Pennsylvania
A good place to start any search is the internet. Simply plugging in the phrase "chicken coops for sale in Newtown 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 Newtown Pennsylvania chicken coops. What to look for when buying a chicken coop in Newtown, Pennsylvania With the huge rise in chicken maintaining there has actually been an equally large surge in the array of fowl stuff for sale. Fowl housing is a proceedings in point. It's additionally a classic example of the good old bandwagon being jumped on as numerous potential chicken housing professionals peddle a selection of cottage claiming to be the suitable solution to your chicken real estate needs. Often the rate looks desirable, your house looks attractive, heck even the clean-cut family standing there feeding the chickens look appealing. Surely they understand a quality chicken house when they see one? There are many inexpensive and also nasty cages swamping the marketplace. I understand this as I've tested a number of them in the area, and seen a ewe run straight through one when the feed pail showed up. The result was nothing but an expensive heap of firewood and a little group of bemused as well as currently homeless bantams.
Chicken Coop Run Plans in Newtown, Pennsylvania
Usually these standardized versions are constructed of quick grown timber - come the initial decrease of rain they swell, leaving you either barricading a doorway that won't close, or ripping the doorway furnishings off in a vain effort to release the squawking occupants. The first cozy day means the timber dries out and also splits, the really felt roof bubbles and boils, and come nightfall the chickens choose not to go in. This is not because of their dissatisfaction at the decline of their as soon as eye-catching apartment however since the hovel is now a place for, and possibly abounding, the fowl caretaker's bane, red mite. Add that it stated on the blurb that it would match 4 large chickens when that equipping thickness was based on the Circle Line at 5pm on a Friday, and what are you entrusted? A couple of joints and some kindling. A suitable coop for thee to 4 birds must cost you in the region of ₤ 300 though this could depend on whether you elect for a complimentary standing house or one with a run attached. Presuming you are ranging your birds in a huge space and also the pop hole door is big sufficient for the type you keep, then the primary demands of real estate come down to 3 factors which will certainly define the variety of birds your home will certainly hold; perches, nest boxes and ventilation. The majority of types of chicken will perch when they visit roost at night, this perch must ideally be 5-8cm vast with smoothed off sides so the foot rests comfortably on it. The perch must be higher than the nest box entrance as chickens will certainly additionally naturally try to find the highest point to perch. A perch lower than that will have the birds roosting in the nest box over night (which is incidentally when they generate the most poo) bring about soiled eggs the list below day. They shouldn't nonetheless be so high off the flooring of your house that leg injuries could occur when the bird gets down in the morning. Chickens require about 20cm of perch each (in small types this is clearly much less), plus if greater than one perch is mounted in your house they must be greater than 30cm apart. They will certainly 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. Ideally the house ought to have a the very least one nest box for every 3 birds and these must be off the ground and in the darkest area of the house. Your home should have appropriate air flow: without it then condensation will certainly accumulate every evening, also in the coldest of climate. Know, air flow deals with the concept of warm air leaving through a high void attracting cooler air in from a lower void - it's not a set of holes on other walls of your home as well as at the very same level, this is what's called a draft. If you have a house with a run attached after that the points above are still real, yet you should additionally think about the run size. The EU optimum lawful stocking thickness for a totally free range bird is (as well as let's encounter it, among the motivations for keeping some hens at home is perhaps boosted or better welfare) 2,500 birds per hectare, that's maximum one bird each 4m settled. Take a close look at a few of the deal residences - it could well be the house has the best perches, proper air flow and sufficient nest boxes for a sensible variety of birds, but will each of the chickens have anything greater than an A4 sized item of ground to spend the day on? Therefore as the saying goes, "you get what you pay for". You may believe you've got a deal, but you as well as your group can rue the day you did. Purchase the ideal house as well as it will certainly last for a few decades, if not longer offered the right treatment. Ultimately your chicken and your chicken keeping experience will be much the better for it.chick coops
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