Chicken Coops for Sale in Stanardsville, Virginia
Chicken Coops for Sale in Stanardsville, Virginia
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 And Run in Stanardsville, Virginia
A good place to start any search is the internet. Simply plugging in the phrase "chicken coops for sale in Stanardsville Virginia" 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 Stanardsville Virginia chicken coops. What to look for when buying a chicken coop in Stanardsville, Virginia With the huge increase in poultry keeping there has been an equally big rise in the variety of fowl stuff on sale. Chicken housing is a case in point. It's likewise a traditional instance of the great old bandwagon being jumped on as various prospective chicken housing specialists peddle a selection of accommodation declaring to be the suitable solution to your chicken housing requirements. Typically the price looks attractive, your diy-chicken-coop-planshome looks attractive, hell even the clean-cut household standing there feeding the chickens look desirable. Definitely they understand a quality chicken house when they see one? There are several low-cost and also awful cages flooding the marketplace. I understand this as I've checked 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 only an expensive pile of firewood and also a tiny flock of bemused and also currently homeless bantams.
Chicken Coop Boxes in Stanardsville, Virginia
Typically these mass produced designs are constructed of quick grown up wood - come the initial decline of rain they swell, leaving you either barricading a door that will not close, or ripping the door furnishings off in a vain effort to launch the squawking residents. The first cozy day means the lumber dries and also splits, the felt roof covering bubbles as well as boils, and also come nightfall the chickens refuse to go in. This is not as a result of their dissatisfaction at the decrease of their as soon as appealing residential property however considering that the hovel is currently a place for, and probably crawling with, the chicken caretaker's bane, red mite. Add on that it claimed on the blurb that it would certainly suit four huge chickens when that stocking density was based on the Circle Line at 5pm on a Friday, and also exactly what are you entrusted? A couple of hinges and also some kindling. A good coop for thee to four birds ought to cost you approximately ₤ 300 though this can depend upon whether you elect for a free standing house or one with a run attached. Assuming you are varying your birds in a large area as well as the pop opening door allows enough for the breed you keep, after that the main needs of housing boil down to 3 points which will certainly specify the number of birds the house will hold; perches, nest boxes as well as air flow. The majority of types of chicken will certainly perch when they go to roost during the night, this perch should preferably be 5-8cm wide with smoothed off edges so the foot rests pleasantly on it. The perch needs to be above the nest box access as chickens will additionally normally try to find the acme to perch. A perch below that will certainly have the birds roosting in the nest box over night (which is by the way when they create the most poo) bring about stained eggs the following day. They should not however be so high off the floor of your home that leg injuries can occur when the bird comes down in the early morning. Chickens need about 20cm of perch each (in small types this is undoubtedly much less), plus if greater than one perch is set up in your house they ought to be greater than 30cm apart. They will certainly hunker up with their neighbors yet are not that crazy about roosting with a beak in the bloomers of the bird in front. Ideally the house should have a least one nest box for each three birds and also these need to be off the ground as well as in the darkest location of your house. The house should have adequate air flow: without it then condensation will build up every night, also in the chilliest of weather condition. Realize, air flow deals with the principle of warm and comfortable air leaving through a high gap attracting cooler air in from a reduced void - it's not a collection of holes on other walls of your home and at the exact same level, this is exactly what's known as a draft. If you have a house with a run attached then the factors above are still real, however you ought to additionally take into consideration the run dimension. The EU optimum lawful equipping thickness for a free range bird is (and also let's face it, one of the motivations for keeping some chickens at home is potentially improved or better well-being) 2,500 birds each hectare, that's maximum one bird each 4m settled. Take a close consider several of the bargain homes - it could well be your home has the ideal perches, right ventilation as well as adequate nest boxes for a reasonable number of birds, but will each of the chickens have anything greater than an A4 sized piece of ground to spend the day on? Therefore as the stating goes, "you get exactly what you pay for". You may think you've grabbed a bargain, but you as well as your flock might rue the day you did. Acquisition the best house and it will last for a couple of years, if not longer provided the right treatment. Ultimately your fowl as well as your poultry keeping encounter will be much the much better for it.chicken for sale
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