Chicken Coops for Sale in Wolftown, Virginia
Chicken Coops for Sale in Wolftown, Virginia
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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Chicken Coop Kits Cheap in Wolftown, Virginia
A good place to start any search is the internet. Simply plugging in the phrase "chicken coops for sale in Wolftown 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 Wolftown Virginia chicken coops. What to look for when buying a chicken coop in Wolftown, Virginia With the big increase in poultry keeping there has actually been a similarly huge surge in the range of poultry materiel on sale. Poultry housing is an instance in point. It's additionally a classic example of the great old bandwagon being got on as different would-be fowl housing professionals market a selection of lodging asserting to be the ideal remedy to your chicken housing demands. Often the price looks eye-catching, the house looks appealing, heck also the clean-cut household standing there feeding the chickens look desirable. Undoubtedly they know a high quality chicken house when they see one? There are several inexpensive and also nasty cages flooding the marketplace. I know this as I've checked a variety of them in the area, as well as seen a ewe run straight via one when the feed container showed up. The result was only a costly pile of fire wood and also a little group of bemused and also currently homeless bantams.
Chicken Coop Run Plans in Wolftown, Virginia
Typically these mass produced versions are created of rapid grown wood - come the very first decline of rain they swell, leaving you either blockading a door that will not shut, or tearing the door furnishings off in a vain attempt to launch the squawking residents. The initial warm and comfortable day means the lumber dries and fractures, the really felt roof covering bubbles and boils, and come nightfall the chickens choose not to enter. This is not as a result of their dissatisfaction at the decline of their when eye-catching home yet due to the fact that the hovel is currently a sanctuary for, and also possibly abounding, the chicken keeper's bane, red mite. Add that it said on the blurb that it would certainly match 4 big chickens when that stocking thickness was based on the Circle Line at 5pm on a Friday, as well as what are you left with? A number of joints as well as some kindling. A decent coop for thee to 4 birds must cost you approximately ₤ 300 though this could rely on whether you choose for a totally free standing house or one with a run affixed. Thinking you are ranging your birds in a big area and the pop opening door allows sufficient for the type you maintain, after that the major needs of real estate come down to 3 points which will certainly define the variety of birds the house will certainly hold; perches, nest boxes and also air flow. Most types of chicken will perch when they visit roost in the evening, this perch must ideally be 5-8cm vast with smoothed off sides so the foot sits easily on it. The perch ought to be higher than the nest box access as chickens will certainly additionally naturally search for 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 produce one of the most poo) leading to dirtied eggs the following day. They should not however be so high off the flooring of the house that leg injuries might take place when the bird comes down in the early morning. Chickens need regarding 20cm of perch each (in little breeds this is certainly much less), plus if more than one perch is installed in your house they ought to be more 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 your house ought to have a the very least one nest box for each three birds as well as these need to be off the ground and also in the darkest area of your home. The house ought to have sufficient ventilation: without it after that condensation will certainly build up every night, also in the chilliest of climate. Realize, ventilation works with the concept of warm air leaving with a high space attracting cooler air in from a lower gap - it's not a collection of holes on opposite walls of the house as well as at the exact same degree, this is what's referred to as a draught. If you have a house with a run affixed then the points above are still real, but you must likewise take into consideration the run dimension. The EU optimum lawful stocking density for a cost-free array bird is (and also allow's face it, among the motivations for maintaining some chickens in the house is potentially enhanced or much better welfare) 2,500 birds each hectare, that's optimal one bird per 4m made even. Take a close look at a few of the bargain homes - it could well be the house has the right perches, right air flow and ample nest boxes for a sensible number of birds, however will each of the chickens have anything greater than an A4 sized item of ground to spend the day on? Therefore as the claiming goes, "you get what you spend for". You could think you've grabbed a deal, yet you as well as your flock can rue the day you did. Acquisition the appropriate house and also it will certainly last for a couple of years, otherwise longer offered the correct therapy. In the end your poultry and your poultry maintaining encounter will be considerably the far better for it.coop diy
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