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Chicken Coops for Sale in Bremerton, Washington

Chicken Coops for Sale in Bremerton, Washington

Chickens 101: Chicken Tractors vs. Chicken Coops

Chickens 101: Chicken Tractors vs. Chicken Coops

I received the following e-mail last week:

 

Subject: Help with chickens

 

David,

 

My name is [K. L.] and I live in the [mid-Florida] area, most recently I stumbled upon your YouTube site which then led me to your website. I thoroughly enjoyed your videos and blog post that I have watched and read and would like to ask you for some advice. Currently I have a small garden that is under construction to increase it to a 50′ x 25′ garden, which I enjoy working in and producing food for my wife and I but I would like to add some chickens to the equation. I have never had chickens and really know little to nothing about what I need other than the coop has to be critter proof. I will definitely need critter proof because although I live in a neighborhood, I also live in the forest. I should also tell you that I’m only looking to have eggs right now so any advice on what type of chickens I need would be great. I guess basically I need Chickens 101. Lol. Any help or advice you could give me I would really appreciate it.

Thank you and God Bless,

K

 

Well… lots of questions there. Today I’ve decided to start a short series of “Chickens 101” posts to share what I’ve learned about these oh-so-useful backyard birds.

We’ve kept chickens for years and have had plenty of problems we discovered along the way. When you think you have it all figured out, it’s usually about time for something else to go wrong.

Let’s start with housing.

Chicken Tractors vs. Chicken Coops

1: Chicken tractors

 

I spent a lot of time on the internet researching chickens before and after moving to the country. This made me think that chicken tractors were the best way to go.

My first chicken coop was a chicken tractor I designed as a 4′ x 4′ x 8′ rectangle. About six foot of its length was screened in with chicken wire and the last 2′ had space for the birds to nest at night and lay their eggs.

It was made from solid pressure-treated wood with a metal roof, stained a rich brown color… and it weighed a ton.

I intended on keeping it in the yard of our rental house but even moving it there was a huge pain. It ended up in a former cousin’s yard, then later ended up being disassembled for parts.

FAIL

2: Chicken Coops

 

My second chicken coop design was a more standard affair. We had an old shed so I converted that to a chicken coop over a weekend. We added nest boxes and nailed up some tree limbs so they could roost. I also found some pictures of Elvis the previous homeowner had left in the attic, so I hung those up for the birds. Chickens instinctively like Elvis.

We found that the chickens took to roosting in the rafters of the shed, which was dangerous both for them and for us. When the door was opened in the morning they’d come crashing down like drunk vultures from eight feet in the air, tearing towards the light.

That was remedied by the addition of some old fencing over the rafters so they could no longer make their way up that high.

Around the coop door, we fenced a chicken run that was about 20 x 30′ in size and mostly shaded by an oak tree.

It was a nice place for chickens.

However, the raccoons went after and killed some of our birds  despite our best efforts. If we forgot to shut the birds in at dusk, some would be murdered in the night.

That was a pain. It meant that if we wanted to go to dinner with some friends or had an evening church service, we needed to chase all the birds back into the coop and shut it early.

Pro-tip: Herding chickens isn’t easy in dress shoes

The standard coop design did keep the chickens safe as long as we shut the door, but they did strip the weeds and grass in their run down to compacted sand over a few months. Not particularly permaculture or friendly to the ground or the birds.

After a time, I decided to remedy this by designing some new chicken tractors so I could put at least some of the birds to work in the gardens and the food forest.

3: Chicken Tractors Again

 

This time I used lighter materials and made some simple triangular-topped chicken tractors from 2 x 2″ lumber and chicken wire. They didn’t take long to make and worked a lot better than my previous design. At 3′ x 8′ with about 4′ height in the middle, they held 6-8 birds well.

I didn’t bother putting a true covered roost area in these. Instead, I stapled old feed bags over one half of the tractor for rain and sun protection and just left the other side open.

Dragging them around was a bit of a pain, though. We invariably broke eggs (the birds nested on the ground in this design) and sometimes birds would get their legs pinched if we moved too quickly.

After a time, I got tired of these tractors, my main chicken coop, the losses to raccoons and the feed bill… and we got rid of our chickens altogether.

For a while.

But I couldn’t help it – I had to take them up again, and when I did, . And I got a new flock of healthy pretty birds with bright eyes and flappy little wings.

 

And then the raccoons started taking them, usually one at a time, but not every night. Just here and there.

The worst night was when I had just raised a new round of chickens in the incubator, gotten them bigger and stronger in a tub on the back porch, and then put them in a new chicken tractor.

Two nights afterwards all of them were murdered by a racoon.

All 16 birds.

It was the worst chicken day ever and it led to me putting wire on the bottom of all my chicken tractors.

That wired bottom was a pain, however. The chickens would get their feet stuck in it – and it kept them from digging up the ground nicely and eating the grass and weeds, which is one of the main reasons I wanted them in tractors to begin with.

So – what’s the final answer in the battle of chicken tractors vs. chicken coops?

…stay tuned!

Chicken coops for sale in Bremerton Washington can be found in agricultural newspapers and community newspapers. The coops are designed for housing for chickens in a safe and secure environment. They generally consist of a small building or large box that is then sectioned off to smaller boxes where the chickens go to roost (or sleep). Chicken coops are a must for raising chickens. Bremerton Washington chicken coops are commonly constructed from wood products. They are not very stable buildings and provide only minimal protection from the elements. Now chicken houses used for large production facilities are a entirely different structure, they are huge and can hold up to 10000 chickens. The coops are typically used for backyard operations, or small family farms. They vary in size depending on the number of residents they house. chicken-coops-in-Bremerton-WAFinding chicken coops for sale in Bremerton Washington is probably not one of the easiest of items to find. There are manufacturers of chicken houses and coops that sell them out right and Bremerton Washington farm supply stores that they can also be purchased through, but generally speaking it will take some effort to find a chicken coop for sale in Bremerton Washington, especially if your location is not a typically rural location. In rural locations that are much more abundant and easily had. Chicken Coops for sale in Bremerton WA

Chicken Coop Setup in Bremerton, Washington

A good place to start any search is the internet. Simply plugging in the phrase "chicken coops for sale in Bremerton Washington" 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 Bremerton Washington chicken coops. What to look for when buying a chicken coop in Bremerton, Washington With the huge boost in poultry maintaining there has actually been a similarly huge surge in the variety of fowl materiel on sale. Chicken housing is an instance in point. It's also a classic example of the excellent old bandwagon being jumped on as different prospective fowl housing professionals market a range of holiday accommodation declaring to be the excellent remedy to your chicken housing needs. Frequently the cost looks eye-catching, your house looks desirable, heck even the clean-cut family members standing there feeding the chickens look appealing. Certainly they understand a high quality chicken house when they see one? There are several affordable and also unpleasant coops swamping the market. I recognize this as I've tested a variety of them in the area, and seen a ewe run straight via one when the feed bucket showed up. The outcome was nothing but a costly stack of firewood and also a small flock of bemused as well as currently homeless bantams. Chickens for sale in Bremerton WA

Chicken Coop Boxes in Bremerton, Washington

Most of the time these mass produced designs are built of fast grown up timber - come the first decrease of rain they swell, leaving you either defending a door that won't close, or tearing the doorway furniture off in a vain attempt to launch the squawking occupants. The first warm day indicates the wood dries and fractures, the felt roofing system bubbles as well as boils, and also come nightfall the chickens refuse to go in. This is not because of their dissatisfaction at the decline of their once attractive building however considering that the hovel is currently a haven for, and also possibly crawling with, the chicken keeper's bane, red mite. Add that it said on the blurb that it would certainly fit 4 big chickens when that equipping thickness was based upon the Circle Line at 5pm on a Friday, as well as just what are you left with? A number of hinges and also some kindling. A good coop for thee to 4 birds need to cost you approximately ₤ 300 though this could rely on whether you choose for a totally free standing house or one with a run attached. Presuming you are ranging your birds in a big area as well as the pop opening doorway allows enough for the breed you keep, after that the primary requirements of housing boil down to three points which will define the number of birds the house will hold; perches, nest boxes as well as ventilation. Most types of chicken will perch when they visit roost during the night, this perch ought to preferably be 5-8cm vast with smoothed off sides so the foot rests easily on it. The perch ought to be above the nest box entrance as chickens will certainly also normally search for the highest point 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 generate one of the most poo) causing dirtied eggs the list below day. They shouldn't nevertheless be so high off the floor of your house that leg injuries could possibly occur when the bird gets down in the morning. Chickens need regarding 20cm of perch each (in small types this is clearly less), plus if greater than one perch is mounted in the house they need to be greater than 30cm apart. They will hunker up with their next-door neighbors yet are not that keen on roosting with a beak in the bloomers of the bird in front. Ideally the house needs to have a least one nest box for every single three birds as well as these ought to be off the ground and also in the darkest area of the house. The house should have adequate air flow: without it then condensation will certainly develop every evening, even in the coldest of weather condition. Be aware, air flow works with the principle of cozy air leaving with a high gap attracting cooler air in from a reduced space - it's not a collection of openings on contrary wall surfaces of your home and also at the very same degree, this is just what's known as a draught. If you have a house with a run affixed then the points above are still real, yet you should also consider the run dimension. The EU maximum lawful stocking density for a complimentary array bird is (and also allow's encounter it, among the motivations for maintaining some hens in the house is potentially boosted or far better well-being) 2,500 birds per hectare, that's maximum one bird per 4m made even. Take a close look at a few of the bargain houses - it could well be the house has the ideal perches, proper air flow as well as enough nest boxes for an affordable number of birds, however will each of the chickens have anything greater than an A4 sized item of ground to invest the day on? Therefore as the claiming goes, "you get exactly what you spend for". You might think you've grabbed a deal, however you and your flock could rue the day you did. Purchase the ideal house and it will certainly last for a couple of decades, otherwise longer offered the proper therapy. In the end your fowl as well as your fowl maintaining encounter will certainly be a lot the far better for it.
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