Chicken Coops for Sale in Bretz, West Virginia
Chicken Coops for Sale in Bretz, West 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 On Wheels in Bretz, West Virginia
A good place to start any search is the internet. Simply plugging in the phrase "chicken coops for sale in Bretz West 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 Bretz West Virginia chicken coops. What to look for when buying a chicken coop in Bretz, West Virginia With the significant boost in chicken keeping there has been a similarly big surge in the array of chicken materiel for sale. Fowl housing is a situation in factor. It's likewise a classic example of the good old bandwagon being got on as different prospective chicken housing experts market a range of cottage asserting to be the excellent solution to your chicken housing demands. Often the price looks eye-catching, the house looks eye-catching, hell even the clean-cut family members standing there feeding the chickens look desirable. Certainly they know a quality chicken house when they see one? There are many affordable and nasty coops flooding the marketplace. I recognize this as I've checked a number of them in the field, and also seen a ewe run straight through one when the feed pail showed up. The result was just a pricey pile of firewood and a tiny flock of bemused and currently homeless bantams.
Chicken Coop Pictures in Bretz, West Virginia
Generally these standardized versions are constructed of fast grown hardwood - come the very first decline of rainfall they swell, leaving you either blockading a doorway that will not close, or ripping the doorway furnishings off in a vain attempt to release the squawking residents. The initial warm and comfortable day suggests the timber dries as well as fractures, the felt roofing system bubbles and boils, as well as come nightfall the hens refuse to go in. This is not as a result of their disappointment at the decline of their as soon as eye-catching residential property but due to the fact that the hovel is currently a place for, and also possibly crawling with, the chicken caretaker's nemesis, red mite. Add the fact that it stated on the blurb that it would suit 4 big hens when that equipping density was based upon the Circle Line at 5pm on a Friday, and also exactly what are you left with? A number of joints and also some kindling. A good coop for thee to four birds should cost you in the region of ₤ 300 though this can rely on whether you elect for a free standing house or one with a run attached. Assuming you are varying your birds in a large room and also the pop hole doorway is big sufficient for the breed you maintain, then the primary requirements of housing boil down to 3 factors which will certainly define the variety of birds the house will hold; perches, nest boxes as well as air flow. Many types of chicken will perch when they visit roost at night, this perch must ideally be 5-8cm wide with smoothed off sides so the foot sits easily on it. The perch ought to be more than the nest box access as chickens will certainly additionally 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 incidentally when they generate one of the most poo) bring about stained eggs the list below day. They should not however be so high off the flooring of your home that leg injuries can take place when the bird gets down in the early morning. Chickens require concerning 20cm of perch each (in tiny breeds this is clearly less), plus if more than one perch is set up in your home they must be more than 30cm apart. They will hunker up with their next-door neighbors but are not that crazy about roosting with a beak in the bloomers of the bird ahead. Ideally the house must have a the very least one nest box for every three birds and also these should be off the ground and in the darkest area of your house. Your house should have adequate air flow: without it then condensation will develop every evening, also in the chilliest of weather. Be aware, ventilation works on the concept of warm and comfortable air leaving through a high gap drawing cooler air in from a lower gap - it's not a set of holes on opposite wall surfaces of your home and at the exact same degree, this is just what's referred to as a draft. If you have a house with a run affixed then the points above are still true, yet you should also take into consideration the run size. The EU optimum legal equipping thickness for a complimentary array bird is (as well as allow's face it, one of the motivations for maintaining some chickens in your home is possibly improved or far better welfare) 2,500 birds each hectare, that's maximum one bird each 4m settled. Take a close take a look at some of the bargain residences - it could well be the house has the right perches, proper air flow and ample nest boxes for an affordable 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 stating goes, "you get what you spend for". You might believe you've grabbed a deal, however you as well as your flock can rue the day you did. Acquisition the best house and it will last for a couple of decades, if not longer provided the correct therapy. In the long run your poultry and your poultry maintaining encounter will be considerably the better for it.chicken build
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