Chicken Coops for Sale in Dawes, West Virginia
Chicken Coops for Sale in Dawes, West Virginia
building our homestead | the chicken coop.
When Justin and I had been , he took me to his family’s farm for Thanksgiving. I was already nervous as it was – he was a new boyfriend and I was meeting his family – but by the end of the weekend they’d coerced convinced me to drive a skid loader, fire off a few rounds at some coffee cans, and forage for my own breakfast in the chicken coop. When we came back the next spring, there were a handful of baby chicks fluttering around the yard and I thought they were so precious. Uncle Bill handed me one, nearly weightless in my palm, all its hollow bones twitching against my fingers. It made me nervous, how fragile it felt and how anxious it seemed to get back to its Mama Bird.
But the eggs? The eggs I loved. I loved the plastic Easter egg sitting inside the nesting box (to encourage the ladies to lay there); I loved the varying shades of brown, the speckled pattern and the occasional pastel green egg that appeared. They made the white grocery store eggs look so bland, so boring. And when we brought the eggs inside to fry up alongside our buttered toast, their yolks were electric orange. I’d never seen anything like it before (they grow pumpkins on the farm and feed the chickens with the broken pieces, thus the late-autumn yolks are especially colorful). I slid two over-easy’s onto my plate and split them open with the prong of my fork and watched the yolk puddle out to my toast. I think about that breakfast a lot, about the smell of the barn early in the morning; how Justin and I were living outside our comfort zones and learning to love each other; how he casually mentioned that, one day, we might have a farm.
We don’t have a full-blown farm, not by a long shot, but after trying to and finally accepting this is where we’ll stay, we decided to start building our backyard homestead. Justin bought the blueprints for a chicken coop and set to work in our garage over the winter. We poured the concrete footers together before Christmas, before the frost would come, and Justin etched our initials into the last one while it was still wet. He spent hours under the fluorescent lights of the garage bay, hammering and nailing and sometimes painting. And finally, after months of work, we hauled it outside with a trailer and some extra manpower.
Most of the books we read said chickens were low-maintenance, that they don’t need much besides a cardboard box and some fresh water. But my husband, God love him, is an overachiever. So our chickens will have the Ritz Carlton of chicken coops to call home. And this coming weekend, our chicks will arrive! We have nine in total – three each of Barred Rocks, Rhode Island Red, and Ameraucanas (Easter Eggers). They’ll live in a brooder box in our garage for the first few weeks to stay toasty warm, and by the end of May or June we’ll move them out to the luxury hotel we call a chicken coop. It isn’t quite finished, we still need to add shingles and chicken wire all around, but I’m so proud of it. I’m proud of what we’re doing, how we live, how we eat, how we teach our kids about food and about life.
So cheers to the homestead! We’re finally doing it.
***
First few photos are iPhone.
Resources:
Baby Chick Facts in Dawes, West Virginia
A good place to start any search is the internet. Simply plugging in the phrase "chicken coops for sale in Dawes 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 Dawes West Virginia chicken coops. What to look for when buying a chicken coop in Dawes, West Virginia With the massive increase in chicken maintaining there has actually been an equally large increase in the array of poultry materiel for sale. Poultry housing is a case in point. It's also a classic example of the great old bandwagon being got on as different potential fowl housing specialists peddle a selection of cottage declaring to be the ideal option to your chicken real estate requirements. Often the price looks attractive, the house looks attractive, heck even the clean-cut household standing there feeding the chickens look desirable. Certainly they recognize a high quality chicken house when they see one? There are lots of inexpensive as well as nasty cages swamping the market. I know this as I've examined a variety of them in the field, and also seen a ewe run directly with one when the feed bucket showed up. The result was nothing but a costly stack of fire wood as well as a little flock of bemused and now homeless bantams.
Chicken Coop Kits in Dawes, West Virginia
More often than not these standardized designs are built of quick grown wood - come the very first decrease of rain they swell, leaving you either defending a doorway that won't close, or ripping the door furnishings off in a vain attempt to launch the squawking inhabitants. The initial warm and comfortable day implies the wood dries out and fractures, the felt roofing system bubbles and also boils, as well as come nightfall the hens refuse to go in. This is not due to their frustration at the decline of their as soon as appealing building but since the hovel is currently a sanctuary for, and most likely crawling with, the fowl keeper's nemesis, red mite. Add that it claimed on the blurb that it would match four big hens when that stocking density was based on the Circle Line at 5pm on a Friday, as well as just what are you entrusted? A couple of hinges and also some kindling. A good coop for thee to four birds ought to cost you in the region of ₤ 300 though this could depend on whether you choose for a cost-free standing house or one with a run attached. Presuming you are varying your birds in a large space as well as the pop hole doorway is big enough for the breed you maintain, after that the primary demands of real estate come down to 3 points which will certainly define the variety of birds your house will certainly hold; perches, nest boxes as well as air flow. A lot of breeds of chicken will perch when they go to roost at night, this perch needs to preferably be 5-8cm vast with smoothed off sides so the foot rests conveniently on it. The perch should be higher than the nest box entrance as chickens will certainly likewise normally try to find the highest point to perch. A perch less 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) leading to soiled eggs the following day. They shouldn't nonetheless be so high off the floor of your house that leg injuries might take place when the bird gets down in the early morning. Chickens need about 20cm of perch each (in little types this is undoubtedly less), plus if more than one perch is installed in your home they need to be greater than 30cm apart. They will certainly hunker up with their next-door neighbors yet are not that keen on roosting with a beak in the bloomers of the bird ahead. Preferably your home should have a least one nest box for each three birds and these must be off the ground and also in the darkest location of your home. The house needs to have adequate ventilation: without it after that condensation will accumulate every night, even in the coldest of weather. Understand, air flow deals with the principle of warm air leaving with a high void attracting cooler air in from a reduced void - it's not a set of holes on other wall surfaces of the house and also at the same level, this is what's called a draught. If you have a house with a run attached after that the factors above are still true, yet you must additionally take into consideration the run size. The EU maximum lawful equipping thickness for a cost-free array bird is (as well as allow's encounter it, one of the motivations for maintaining some hens in the house is potentially enhanced or much better welfare) 2,500 birds per hectare, that's maximum one bird each 4m made even. Take a close consider a few of the deal residences - it could well be your house has the right perches, proper ventilation and also ample nest boxes for an affordable variety of birds, yet will each of the chickens have anything more than an A4 sized item of ground to spend the day on? And so as the stating goes, "you obtain what you pay for". You might think you've got a deal, however you and your flock can rue the day you did. Acquisition the appropriate house as well as it will last for a few years, if not longer provided the proper treatment. In the long run your fowl and also your fowl keeping experience will certainly be a lot the much better for it.plans for sale
More Posts
Chicken Coops for Sale in Creston, West Virginia
Chicken Coops for Sale in Chattaroy, West Virginia
Chicken Coops for Sale in Crab Orchard, West Virginia
Chicken Coops for Sale in Big Springs, West Virginia
Chicken Coops for Sale in Bluefield, West Virginia