Chicken Coops for Sale in Williamsport, Pennsylvania
Chicken Coops for Sale in Williamsport, Pennsylvania
The Small Property Chicken Coop
Raising chickens has been one of the most rewarding activities that we’ve done on our homestead. While we don’t raise them for meat due to the city’s limitations, we reap an abundance of benefits from the eggs and the friendship we get from our girls.
In this next installment of , I’ll be sharing how my husband Todd designed and built Lucy and Ethel’s chicken coop using his ingenuity and minimal square footage on our .18 of an acre.
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, I was so excited to finally be able to raise a couple of my own “girls” to gather eggs from and get to know. I’m an animal lover, and seem to be able to make friends with any animal that will allow me, so I knew that these two sweet little chicks and I would be the best of friends. , and since there were only two of them, there was plenty of space for them to grow.
After moving some things around to set up our ‘barn’ area, Todd got to work on the chicken coop. Being a handy guy, he decided that he could design and build one that would be cheaper than a prefab one, as well as be able to fit where we needed it to on our small property homestead.
He chose to use the back of one of our sheds as the back wall, and another of our sheds as the side wall, which would save us some money on hardware cloth. He framed the rest of the coop and door with 2x4s. He also extended the side of the shed so that it would serve as the left wall of the coop.
This is the shed that is being used as the back wall of the coop. You can see on the right side of the shed where the new section was added for the left wall of the coop.
Todd designed the girls’ coop to be multi-level, rather than sprawling. He used plywood and 2x4s for the levels, and built an access ladder to both. The girls had a hard time not slipping on the sleek wood between the “steps” on the ladder, so I added a few strips of to those sections, which worked beautifully.
Here is a current photo of the two levels (please excuse the “lived in” look, I apparently hadn’t taken photos of the two levels when it was new). This is the top level, where we keep the girls’ nesting boxes. The ladder with the comes up the right side of this level, and it’s easy for the girls to hop up to the top of their nesting boxes, where they like to sleep at night. Todd also built a roost for them, which is actually a few inches offset from the edge of the level so when they poop, most of it falls to the ground.
Here is the second level, where the girls usually eat their evening treats, and where I keep their oyster shell and water (water not pictured). You can see how the ladder passes the second level up to the top level, which makes it easy for the girls to hop to the second level at snack time.
We left the bottom level as dirt, and I have been using the , which has worked out well for the most part. We haven’t had any issues with large rodents, and any mice that dare step foot into the coop are met with two hungry beaks.
Todd lined the front of the coop with 1″ hardware cloth and it has worked very well for us; however, I have heard that if you have issues with raccoons, it’s best to go with 1/2″ hardware cloth.
Another Space Saving Coop Idea
A friend of mine, Nora from , and is based on Todd’s multilevel chicken coop design. Their family has around 8-10 girls, so this brooder was a very good fit for them. It can definitely be built outdoors and used as a space-saving chicken coop for 1-3 chickens, or built indoors to use as a brooder for a larger flock.
As you can see, building a chicken coop to fit your small property needs can be a much better prospect than purchasing a prefab chicken coop. While prefab coops are beautiful and promise ease, tailoring your chicken coop to fit in just the right place on your small property can be more affordable, and in the long run, more convenient for your homestead setup. As long as your chicken coop meets , you can build a chicken coop that meets your homestead’s needed requirements as well, which will make everyone happy!
For more great information on raising chickens, please visit Fresh Eggs Daily’s Ultimate Chicken Care Guide.
What size is your property? Do you use space-saving techniques?
Chicken Coop On Trailer in Williamsport, Pennsylvania
A good place to start any search is the internet. Simply plugging in the phrase "chicken coops for sale in Williamsport 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 Williamsport Pennsylvania chicken coops. What to look for when buying a chicken coop in Williamsport, Pennsylvania With the huge boost in poultry keeping there has been a similarly huge increase in the array of fowl paraphernalia on sale. Poultry housing is a case in factor. It's also a traditional instance of the great old bandwagon being jumped on as various prospective fowl real estate professionals market a selection of cottage asserting to be the optimal remedy to your chicken real estate needs. Often the price looks desirable, your house looks eye-catching, heck also the clean-cut household standing there feeding the chickens look eye-catching. Undoubtedly they understand a professional chicken house when they see one? There are lots of inexpensive and nasty cages flooding the marketplace. I recognize this as I've tested a variety of them in the area, and also seen a ewe run straight via one when the feed container showed up. The outcome was nothing but an expensive heap of firewood as well as a small group of bemused as well as currently homeless bantams.
Baby Chick Care in Williamsport, Pennsylvania
Most of the time these mass produced versions are created of quick grown up hardwood - come the initial drop of rainfall they swell, leaving you either blockading a door that will not shut, or tearing the doorway furniture off in a vain attempt to release the squawking inhabitants. The very first warm day suggests the hardwood dries and splits, the felt roof covering bubbles and also boils, and come nightfall the chickens refuse to enter. This is not because of their disappointment at the decline of their when attractive home yet considering that the hovel is now a place for, and also probably abounding, the fowl caretaker's nemesis, red mite. Add on the fact that it claimed on the blurb that it would certainly fit four huge chickens when that stocking density was based on the Circle Line at 5pm on a Friday, and what are you left with? A couple of hinges and some kindling. A good coop for thee to 4 birds ought to cost you in the region of ₤ 300 though this could rely on whether you choose for a totally free standing house or one with a run affixed. Presuming you are varying your birds in a huge area as well as the pop hole doorway is big sufficient for the type you keep, then the primary requirements of housing boil down to 3 points which will certainly specify the variety of birds your home will certainly hold; perches, nest boxes and air flow. Many breeds of chicken will perch when they visit roost during the night, this perch ought to preferably be 5-8cm wide with smoothed off sides so the foot sits easily on it. The perch should be more than the nest box entry as chickens will also 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 the most poo) bring about soiled eggs the following day. They should not however be so high off the flooring of your home that leg injuries might take place when the bird comes down in the morning. Chickens require concerning 20cm of perch each (in small types this is certainly less), plus if greater than one perch is installed in your house they must be greater than 30cm apart. They will hunker up with their neighbors but are not that keen on roosting with a beak in the bloomers of the bird ahead. Ideally your home should have a least one nest box for every single 3 birds and these must be off the ground and in the darkest area of your home. Your home should have adequate air flow: without it after that condensation will develop every night, even in the coldest of weather condition. Know, air flow deals with the principle of warm and comfortable air leaving via a high gap drawing cooler air in from a reduced void - it's not a set of holes on contrary wall surfaces of your home and at the exact same degree, this is exactly what's called a draft. If you have a house with a run attached after that the points above are still true, however you should additionally take into consideration the run dimension. The EU optimum lawful equipping density for a cost-free variety bird is (and allow's encounter it, one of the inspirations for maintaining some chickens in the house is perhaps boosted or far better welfare) 2,500 birds per hectare, that's optimal one bird per 4m squared. Take a close consider some of the deal residences - it could well be your house has the ideal perches, correct ventilation and also ample nest boxes for an affordable number of birds, however will each of the chickens have anything more than an A4 sized piece of ground to spend the day on? And so as the claiming goes, "you get exactly what you pay for". You could believe you've grabbed a deal, however you and your group can rue the day you did. Purchase the appropriate house and also it will last for a couple of years, otherwise longer given the correct therapy. In the long run your poultry as well as your chicken maintaining encounter will be considerably the far better for it.plan chick
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