Chicken Coops for Sale in Lavalette, West Virginia
Chicken Coops for Sale in Lavalette, West Virginia
Our Chicken Coop Design – Front Elevation (Part 2 of 3)
Okay, I lied. I had hoped to finish up writing on our chicken coop design with this post, but I ran out of time and markers…seriously – my gray marker ran out. So today I’m going to focus on the front elevation and next week I’ll wrap it up with the other 3 elevations.
Front Elevation of the Coop
When designing your coop you really need to think through ventilation for a number of reasons: respiratory health of the chickens; drying out the moisture and their manure keeps down the smells and the potential of the hens getting sick. I made ours super-ventilated by covering the entire front of our coop with hardware cloth. We may have gone overboard, but it’s better to err on the side of too much ventilation in a coop than too little…and because Atlanta has a fairly temperate climate, I think we’re good. That said, you do have to consider strong winds – particularly in the colder months. That’s why Britt and I crafted Roman shade-like curtains out of painter’s drop cloths for the front and the windows on the other 3 sides of the coop. It was quite inexpensive and fairly easy to do…particularly if you strategically use the hems already sewn in. These curtains will give our ladies a refuge from the cold winds – protecting the exposed areas of their bodies (combs, wattles, and feet).
Here are a few other things to note about the front elevation of our coop:
- Again, entire area is covered in hardware cloth. I could have used chicken wire on the top (bottom needs hardware cloth to keep out critters), but I had enough hardware cloth and I thought it looked better for the entire area to be consistent.
- The height of the walls are 6.5’…which is plenty high (for me at least) to be able to walk through the door…and there is plenty of height inside, since there is no ceiling (just the rafters and tin roof above).
- 24″ doors were constructed out of pressure-treated wood and painted the same color as the doors of our home.
- To clean things up a bit and to cover up where the pieces of hardware cloth met, I added 1″ trim on the outside of each 2×4 and painted it and the siding of the rest of the coop the same color gray as our house.
- We used gate latches as handles. If you do as well, make sure you make it so that you won’t get locked in when the doors close. To do that, I simply drilled a hole just above the latch and attached a long, thin chain that I threaded through the hole…allowing me to open the latch from inside. Don’t use string or twine…I found that out the hard way. String will wear out and break – leaving you stranded inside. Fortunately when it happened to me, one of my girls was within shouting distance.
- We were running out of hardware cloth when we were finishing the gable, so we simply filled in the middle space with a board and painted it gray. To make sense of this oddly proportioned space and to bring a little bit of character to the coop, I hung a set of antlers from a Mule Deer I shot several years ago with my dad in Wyoming.
So there’s the front elevation. We are really pleased with it…it’s done what we set out to do – make a more than livable space for our chickens (and bunny), while still being attractive. Now we may be a bit too particular, but I really think having an attractive coop in a nice setting has made raising chickens not only sustainable, but more enjoyable. So sure, you could build a coop that is purely functional, but if it looks like a hunk of junk, is that really something you want to see every day…sometimes several times? We thought not.
Next week I’ll wrap things up on our chicken coop design…but until then, please let me know if you have any other questions about our coop or raising chickens. I could perhaps work my answers into the next post.
Take care,
PS: Here are the links to and of Our Chicken Coop Design…and the link to .
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Chicken Coop Ebay in Lavalette, West Virginia
A good place to start any search is the internet. Simply plugging in the phrase "chicken coops for sale in Lavalette 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 Lavalette West Virginia chicken coops. What to look for when buying a chicken coop in Lavalette, West Virginia With the significant boost in poultry keeping there has been an equally big rise in the variety of chicken stuff on sale. Fowl real estate is a case in factor. It's additionally a classic instance of the good old bandwagon being got on as various prospective chicken housing specialists peddle an array of lodging claiming to be the suitable option to your chicken real estate requirements. Frequently the rate looks appealing, the house looks eye-catching, hell even the clean-cut household standing there feeding the chickens look appealing. Undoubtedly they understand a top quality chicken house when they see one? There are numerous inexpensive as well as horrible cages swamping the marketplace. I understand this as I've examined a number of them in the field, and also seen a ewe run straight through one when the feed pail appeared. The outcome was only an expensive heap of firewood and also a small flock of bemused as well as currently homeless bantams.
Chicken Coop On Wheels in Lavalette, West Virginia
Generally these mass produced models are constructed of fast grown timber - come the initial decrease of rainfall they swell, leaving you either fortifying a door that won't close, or ripping the doorway furnishings off in a vain effort to release the squawking occupants. The very first warm day means the lumber dries as well as fractures, the really felt roof covering bubbles and also boils, and come nightfall the hens choose not to go in. This is not due to their dissatisfaction at the decrease of their as soon as eye-catching home however since the hovel is now a place for, and probably abounding, the poultry keeper's bane, red mite. Add on that it claimed on the blurb that it would certainly match four big chickens when that stocking density was based on the Circle Line at 5pm on a Friday, and exactly what are you entrusted? A couple of joints and some kindling. A decent coop for thee to four birds should cost you approximately ₤ 300 though this could depend on whether you choose for a cost-free standing house or one with a run affixed. Assuming you are ranging your birds in a large space as well as the pop hole doorway allows enough for the type you maintain, then the major requirements of real estate come down to 3 factors which will certainly define the variety of birds the house will hold; perches, nest boxes and also air flow. Many types of chicken will certainly perch when they go to roost during the night, this perch should preferably be 5-8cm vast with smoothed off sides so the foot sits easily on it. The perch needs to be higher than the nest box access as chickens will also naturally look for the acme to perch. A perch below that will have the birds roosting in the nest box overnight (which is incidentally when they produce the most poo) leading to stained eggs the following day. They should not however be so high off the flooring of your house that leg injuries might happen when the bird comes down in the morning. Chickens require about 20cm of perch each (in tiny types this is clearly less), plus if greater than one perch is set up in your home they need to be greater than 30cm apart. They will hunker up with their neighbors yet are not that keen on roosting with a beak in the bloomers of the bird in front. Ideally the house must have a the very least one nest box for every 3 birds and these ought to be off the ground and also in the darkest location of the house. Your house ought to have adequate ventilation: without it after that condensation will develop every evening, also in the chilliest of weather condition. Know, air flow works with the concept of warm and comfortable air leaving via a high space drawing cooler air in from a reduced void - it's not a set of holes on opposite wall surfaces of the house and also at the exact same level, this is just what's known as a draft. If you have a house with a run affixed then the factors above are still true, however you ought to additionally think about the run size. The EU maximum legal stocking density for a free range bird is (and let's face it, one of the inspirations for maintaining some hens at home is perhaps enhanced or better well-being) 2,500 birds each hectare, that's optimal one bird each 4m settled. Take a close take a look at several of the deal residences - it could well be the house has the right perches, proper ventilation and also enough nest boxes for a practical number 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 claiming goes, "you get just what you pay for". You may believe you've grabbed a bargain, but you and your group might rue the day you did. Purchase the best house and it will last for a few decades, if not longer offered the appropriate treatment. In the long run your poultry and your poultry maintaining encounter will be a lot the much better for it.diy plans
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