Chicken Coops for Sale in Switzer, West Virginia
Chicken Coops for Sale in Switzer, West Virginia
How to Choose the Right Chicken Coop
With Spring well underway, many of us are doing a little spring cleaning and preparing for some new chicks! Maybe it’s time for a new coop? Here are some basic tips for choosing the right coop for your flock and how to take care of it so you can be sure your chickens and other fowl are happy and healthy.
A chicken coop can have many purposes. It can be as simple as a place to roost at night if your flock is free range, or, if you prefer to keep your flock in one place, serves as their all-inclusive home with room for roosting, exercise, feeding, and laying eggs. There are many different designs and layouts to choose from when picking out a coop. You can buy one pre-made, or find instructions for building your own. Here are some factors to consider when choosing your flock’s home:
- Key Features There are a few basic features you’ll want for any chicken coop:
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Roosting bars don’t have to be fancy, and they’ll give your hens a safe place to sleep at night. Like most birds, chickens, turkeys, and other types of fowl prefer sleeping in an elevated area in order to stay safe from predators. Roosting bars will provide a place for your hens to perch at night so they can sleep soundly.
- A nesting box is a great way to encourage your hens to lay their eggs in a specific spot. If the coop you own doesn’t have built-in boxes, milk crates are a great substitute!
- Dispensers are useful for keeping food and water clean. There are plenty of styles you can buy, or you can make them yourself. Keep food and water dispensers slightly elevated, a few inches off the ground, in order to prevent dirt from getting in. If you have young chicks in your coop, remember to make sure the food and water are accessible, and that they are not at risk of getting caught in the water dish and drowning.
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- Space
Our ladies are free range during the day, so they don’t need much space in their coop. Having enough space is important for your coop if you want to avoid fighting. The average recommendation is a minimum of 1-2 square feet per bird, and much more if your flock remains in the coop 24/7. If your flock is not given enough space, it won’t be long before you notice the signs. Look for birds pecking at one another and birds with missing feathers. Bullying is a common side effect when there isn’t enough room to go around. If you do notice signs of bullying in your flock, separate the bullied birds until they are better and increase the amount of space in your coop.
- Safety There are a number of things that might affect your flock’s safety, whether it’s predators or the elements. Protect your flock from extreme temperatures by ensuring that your coop is well insulated and also well ventilated to allow proper airflow. There are a number of things you can do each year to prepare your flock for winter, and in the summer months they need access to fresh air and water in order to keep cool. As for predators, a properly enclosed coop will keep out larger animals, and roosting bars will allow your birds to stay at a safe height while they sleep.
- Convenience There are plenty of things to think about for your hens when choosing the right coop, but don’t forget about yourself! A good coop will be easily accessible so that you can gather eggs, change out food and water, and clean the coop without much hassle. Many coops will have larger doors or hatches that allow you better access inside the coop, and can be locked up when you are finished.
Basic Coop Care Once you’ve chosen the right coop, maintaining it is your next step. Be sure to place your coop in an area that will stay dry so you and your flock won’t have to deal with mud and puddles after some wet weather. Give your hens a supply of hay or straw so they can keep warm and build nests, and provide an area with clean dust or sand that will allow your birds to clean themselves and prevent mites. Change out dirty straw regularly, and clean out any droppings before they build up too much. Many coops are designed so that droppings can be removed easily, but in our lean-to coop we use a rake to pull them out. Cleaning up droppings and old food and keeping the coop dry will prevent mold and keep out bugs and other pests.
The right coop will ensure the health and safety of your backyard flock!
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Chicken Coop Adelaide in Switzer, West Virginia
A good place to start any search is the internet. Simply plugging in the phrase "chicken coops for sale in Switzer 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 Switzer West Virginia chicken coops. What to look for when buying a chicken coop in Switzer, West Virginia With the huge boost in poultry keeping there has actually been a just as huge increase in the array of poultry materiel for sale. Poultry housing is a situation in point. It's additionally a traditional example of the great old bandwagon being got on as different potential fowl housing professionals peddle a range of lodging asserting to be the perfect solution to your chicken housing needs. Usually the price looks eye-catching, your house looks attractive, hell also the clean-cut family standing there feeding the chickens look appealing. Undoubtedly they recognize a high quality chicken house when they see one? There are lots of low-cost as well as nasty cages swamping the market. I recognize this as I've checked a variety of them in the area, as well as seen a ewe run directly through one when the feed pail showed up. The outcome was nothing but an expensive stack of fire wood and a little group of bemused as well as now homeless bantams.
Chicken Coops For Sale in Switzer, West Virginia
Typically these mass produced versions are created of rapid grown up timber - come the very first decline of rainfall they swell, leaving you either defending a door that will not close, or tearing the door furniture off in a vain effort to launch the squawking occupants. The very first warm day means the lumber dries and splits, the really felt roofing bubbles as well as boils, and come nightfall the hens refuse to go in. This is not as a result of their dissatisfaction at the decline of their when desirable commercial property yet because the hovel is currently a sanctuary for, and most likely abounding, the chicken keeper's bane, red mite. Add that it stated on the blurb that it would fit four big chickens when that stocking thickness was based upon the Circle Line at 5pm on a Friday, and also just what are you left with? A number of hinges and some kindling. A good coop for thee to 4 birds should cost you approximately ₤ 300 though this could depend on whether you choose for a complimentary standing house or one with a run attached. Presuming you are varying your birds in a big room and also the pop opening doorway is big sufficient for the type you maintain, after that the main needs of real estate come down to 3 points which will certainly define the number of birds the house will hold; perches, nest boxes as well as air flow. Most breeds of chicken will certainly perch when they go to roost at night, this perch must ideally be 5-8cm wide with smoothed off sides so the foot sits comfortably on it. The perch should be higher than the nest box entrance as chickens will certainly additionally naturally try to find the acme to perch. A perch less than that will certainly have the birds roosting in the nest box overnight (which is by the way when they produce the most poo) bring about stained eggs the following day. They shouldn't nonetheless be so high off the flooring of the house that leg injuries could possibly occur when the bird comes down in the morning. Chickens need regarding 20cm of perch each (in tiny breeds this is undoubtedly much less), plus if greater than one perch is installed in your home they ought to be greater than 30cm apart. They will certainly hunker up with their next-door neighbors but are not that crazy about roosting with a beak in the bloomers of the bird ahead. Preferably your house should have a the very least one nest box for each 3 birds as well as these must be off the ground as well as in the darkest area of your house. Your home needs to have adequate air flow: without it after that condensation will certainly accumulate every evening, even in the coldest of weather condition. Know, air flow works with the principle of warm air leaving with a high gap attracting cooler air in from a lower space - it's not a set of holes on contrary wall surfaces of the house and also at the very same degree, this is just what's known as a draft. If you have a house with a run attached then the factors above are still true, yet you ought to likewise think about the run dimension. The EU maximum legal equipping thickness for a complimentary variety bird is (and let's face it, among the motivations for maintaining some chickens at home is possibly improved or better well-being) 2,500 birds each hectare, that's optimal one bird each 4m made even. Take a close look at several of the deal residences - it could well be the house has the appropriate perches, proper ventilation as well as enough nest boxes for a reasonable variety of birds, however will each of the chickens have anything more than an A4 sized item of ground to spend the day on? Therefore as the saying goes, "you get just what you pay for". You could assume you've grabbed a deal, but you as well as your flock could possibly rue the day you did. Acquisition the best house as well as it will certainly last for a few decades, if not longer offered the right treatment. Ultimately your poultry as well as your poultry maintaining experience will be considerably the much better for it.chicken diy
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