Chicken Coops for Sale in Pipestem, West Virginia
Chicken Coops for Sale in Pipestem, West Virginia
Chicken coops for beginners – a primer!
Your chickens will need a safe dry and well ventilated place to roost at night or to be in bad weather. So here is a chicken coops for beginners primer!
Just cute chicks!
Chicken coops for beginners – things to consider!
We have had a variety of coops since we first started with chickens. We have had old wooden crates converted to a basic house through to our latest construction. We have learned much from each design and have tried to build a better coop for both the chickens and us each time we have had to reconstruct. The only reoccurring theme is that we have tried to use as many recycled items as we could….more to save costs than any other noble reason.
To get some inspiration, have a look at .
The chickens in the new coop
Here are the things that we now consider when we are designing our coops.
Safe Is the coop secure from other animals trying to get in? Here in the NE of the USA we worry about foxes, coyotes, raccoons etc. So it needs to be a design that can’t be broken into, ripped open, lifted up or turned over. In Australia I would be also trying to keep out snakes. Out coop lets in a chipmunk and a squirrel – they get a free feed but don’t do any other damage.
Airy Even in our cold climate, we have a well ventilated coop. Chickens seem to cope extremely well in the cold (ours did great in three months of very bitter winter when it did not get above freezing). So they don’t need a coop that is centrally heated. So good ventilation without being breezy on the birds is perfect.
Chickens on ice!
You don’t need it be be insulated and have central heating. On the really cold days and nights when the thermometer reading was way below freezing we run a red heating lamp to provide a little comfort.
Dry Damp chickens are not happy chickens…and will probably end up as sick chickens. Your coop needs to always be dry. So it has to be up off the ground, a roof to stop rain and/or snow dripping in and a way to open it up in case it does get damp inside. We have stopped providing drinking water in our coop unless its winter (with a water warmer) because the chickens just made a wet mess!
Roosting poles
Chickens need to be able to roost on a perch to sleep, just like all birds do at night (ok …emus don’t). Your chickens needs to have an old broom handle, tree branch or other item to settle on inside the coop. We have four feet of old curtain rod and all six adult birds are very happy. When we get more chickens (the coop could take another dozen) we will install more perches.The new coop’s roosting pole.
Nesting boxes Your girls will appreciate a place to lay their eggs. Some people like to build nesting boxes inside the coop. We found that having nesting boxes that have easy access for humans to collect eggs are great, however our free ranging girls like to lay in a spot in our barn rather than the nesting boxes. Inside our coop the nesting boxes are cut down plastic buckets and these are only used if we are late in letting them out and one girl just can’t wait.
The plastic nesting boxes
Easy to clean We use the deep litter method – which is just code for laying a deep pile of old hay onto the floor of the coop. We clean it out every few months and find that it works great. On past coops it was quite a chore to get into the coop and clean it. With our current design we made a flap on one wall so we have great access for cleaning. We also made the coop tall and added two cut down doors so we can get inside both from the outside and from inside the barn in winter.
Front of the coop – see the lower flap we can open to clean it out – now its a 5 min job!
Chicken coops for beginners – why do it!
Building the coop can be a great family affair. We collected materials from our dump for a few months and then built the structure as a lean-to off the barn. That way we could have a door to the inside of the barn so during winter the chickens could use the barn to roam around if they did not want to venture out into the snow. We also have a door on the outside of the coop and a window on the south side – so it gets loads of light and is easy to clean and air out.
The coop framed up
Coop finished
So far this chicken coop has been perfect! Easy for us to get into. Easy to clean. But most of all, the chickens seem happy to call it home! Using recycled materials has kept our costs low as well!
Jen and Madie ‘fancy up’ the coop with paint.
We hope this chicken coops for beginners primer will help you have happier and safer chickens!
Chicken Coop For Sale Near Me in Pipestem, West Virginia
A good place to start any search is the internet. Simply plugging in the phrase "chicken coops for sale in Pipestem 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 Pipestem West Virginia chicken coops. What to look for when buying a chicken coop in Pipestem, West Virginia With the huge boost in poultry maintaining there has been a just as large surge in the variety of poultry materiel on sale. Poultry housing is an instance in factor. It's additionally a traditional example of the great old bandwagon being jumped on as various potential poultry housing professionals market a variety of lodging claiming to be the ideal solution to your chicken housing demands. Usually the rate looks appealing, your diy-chicken-coop-planshome looks attractive, heck also the clean-cut family standing there feeding the chickens look desirable. Certainly they understand a top quality chicken house when they see one? There are numerous cheap and unpleasant coops swamping the market. I recognize this as I've examined a number of them in the area, and seen a ewe run directly through one when the feed container appeared. The outcome was only a costly stack of firewood and also a tiny flock of bemused and also currently homeless bantams.
Chicken Coop For Sale Near Me in Pipestem, West Virginia
Typically these standardized models are created of rapid grown wood - come the first drop of rainfall they swell, leaving you either barricading a door that will not close, or ripping the doorway furnishings off in a vain effort to launch the squawking citizens. The first cozy day implies the timber dries and also fractures, the felt roofing bubbles and boils, as well as come nightfall the chickens refuse to go in. This is not as a result of their frustration at the decline of their when desirable home but because the hovel is currently a haven for, and also probably abounding, the fowl caretaker's bane, red mite. Add the fact that it said on the blurb that it would certainly suit 4 huge hens when that stocking thickness was based on the Circle Line at 5pm on a Friday, and also just what are you entrusted? A number of hinges and also some kindling. A decent coop for thee to 4 birds ought to cost you in the region of ₤ 300 though this can rely on whether you choose for a complimentary standing house or one with a run attached. Thinking you are ranging your birds in a big space and the pop opening door is big sufficient for the type you maintain, after that the main demands of housing come down to three factors which will certainly specify the number of birds your house will hold; perches, nest boxes and also air flow. Most breeds of chicken will perch when they visit roost at night, this perch must preferably be 5-8cm wide with smoothed off sides so the foot rests pleasantly on it. The perch should be higher than the nest box access as chickens will certainly also normally search for the highest point to perch. A perch lower than that will have the birds roosting in the nest box overnight (which is by the way when they produce one of the most poo) bring about dirtied eggs the list below day. They should not nevertheless be so high off the floor of your house that leg injuries might happen when the bird gets down in the early morning. Chickens need regarding 20cm of perch each (in little types this is clearly much less), plus if greater than one perch is installed in your house they should 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 ahead. Preferably the house ought to have a least one nest box for every three birds and also these should be off the ground and also in the darkest area of your home. Your house ought to have appropriate ventilation: without it after that condensation will accumulate every evening, even in the chilliest of weather. Know, ventilation works on the principle of warm air leaving through a high gap attracting cooler air in from a reduced void - it's not a collection of openings on opposite wall surfaces of your home as well as at the same level, this is what's referred to as a draft. If you have a house with a run connected then the points above are still true, however you ought to additionally consider the run size. The EU optimum legal stocking density for a totally free array bird is (and let's encounter it, one of the motivations for keeping some hens in your home is potentially boosted or far better welfare) 2,500 birds per hectare, that's maximum one bird each 4m squared. Take a close consider some of the deal homes - it could well be your house has the appropriate perches, appropriate ventilation and also ample nest boxes for an affordable number of birds, but will each of the chickens have anything more than an A4 sized item of ground to spend the day on? And so as the saying goes, "you get just what you pay for". You could think you've got hold of a bargain, but you and your flock might rue the day you did. Purchase the best house and also it will last for a couple of years, otherwise longer provided the correct treatment. Eventually your fowl and your chicken maintaining encounter will certainly be much the far better for it.chick coop
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