Chicken Coops for Sale in Genoa City, Wisconsin
Chicken Coops for Sale in Genoa City, Wisconsin
Chicken Coops — The Top 5 Requirements
Chicken Coops – What You Need
Happy, healthy chickens need proper housing, but knowing what you need may seem daunting. Don’t let choosing the house for your chickens intimidate you. Meeting the needs of your flock, whether building your own chicken castle or buying ready-made, is easy and should provide for four basic needs.
- Protection from the elements
- Protection from predators
- Place for laying eggs
- A roost at night
The Components of a Chicken Coop
As I wrote in my , chickens have an innate homing instinct, keeping your flock close to home. Our feathered kids are such home bodies that even free ranging, every night before sundown all our chickens are perched in the coop. I always recommend a protected place for your flock to come home and roost for the night, even when free ranging.
You don’t need a poultry castle for your chickens to come home to. come in many shapes, sizes, and designs, from fancy to plain. Believe it or not, your chickens won’t care what the coop looks like as long as it provides the above four basic needs.
With that said, before deciding what type of coop you are going to buy or build, you must determine what coop features are needed that most closely conform to a chicken’s natural behavior. Hopefully I can help you understand what you need in the design of your chicken coop.
The Basics
Let’s start with the basics. All chicken coops need 3 things; a roof, 4 walls, and a doorway for entering and leaving. The design and the materials used for the chicken coop is up to you. As long as it is mostly draft free (you still need healthy ventilation), your choices are endless.
Your coop space is based on the number of chickens you plan to house. A good rule of thumb is 4 square feet of floor space per large chicken and 3 square feet for the smaller bantam breeds. Also consider the ease of cleaning when choosing your coop design; you’ll be glad you did.
Security
Making a chicken coop predator free is the most important part of building a home for your flock. Your coop must be secure from the top, bottom, and all sides. When looking at any pre-made coop or chicken coop building plans, consider all angles for security. Not only should you consider the security of the coop itself, but the security of the yard and run as well.
When choosing the wire for your run and coop, we advise steering clear of standard chicken wire. While it works well for keeping your chickens contained it’s not entirely predator proof. Because the holes in standard chicken wire are large, coyotes, raccoons, and foxes can still reach through the mesh, causing harm to your chickens. Always use a small hole wire like hardware cloth with ½ inch openings.
Another consideration when building the chicken yard or run, is airborne predators like hawks. You must include covering the top of the run as well. Our chicken runs use the same size mesh fencing on the top as the sides.
Finally, there are predators from below, such as rats and mice. These critters are attracted to the feed and droppings and like to burrow under your coop. Protect your chickens by using a coop with a floor built into it or burying small mesh fencing below the coop and extending it about 12 inches out on all sides.
The Outside Run
All coops need a connecting chicken run or pen. Chickens need access to the outside to do all those “chicken things”, like dirt baths, catching bugs, scratching dirt, or just relaxing in the sunshine or shade.
Ideally, your chicken run should have 10 square feet of ground space per full size chicken. The smaller bantam breeds require less, about 7 square feet per chicken. If your chickens free range the majority of the day, you can get by with less space.
Laying Boxes
If you want eggs, you need laying boxes. These can be as fancy or as plain as you like, just as long as they are about 12” x 12” and raised off the ground a few inches. You need one box for every 4 laying hens. Boxes should comfortably fit the chicken and have low enough sides for the hens to step over. Be sure to keep your boxes lined with clean straw or other bedding.
Roosting Perches
All birds roost, including chickens. Your coop needs a roosting bar or something off the ground on which your chickens can perch. We strongly suggest having perches both inside the coop and outside in the run area.
When figuring roosting pole size, provide 5-10” of space per chicken and 10” of space between each pole if you are using more than one. Multiple poles also need grading like ladders so the farthest pole is several inches higher than the next.
There are many shapes, sizes, and styles of chicken coops to choose from. Making the right choice for your needs is important, and all coops need to contain all necessary elements.
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Chicken Coop Kits Ebay in Genoa City, Wisconsin
A good place to start any search is the internet. Simply plugging in the phrase "chicken coops for sale in Genoa City Wisconsin" 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 Genoa City Wisconsin chicken coops. What to look for when buying a chicken coop in Genoa City, Wisconsin With the significant rise in chicken keeping there has actually been a just as big surge in the variety of fowl materiel on sale. Fowl real estate is an instance in point. It's also a traditional example of the excellent old bandwagon being got on as different potential poultry real estate specialists market a variety of holiday accommodation asserting to be the perfect solution to your chicken real estate demands. Commonly the cost looks appealing, your house looks attractive, heck also the clean-cut family members standing there feeding the chickens look appealing. Definitely they understand a high quality chicken house when they see one? There are many low-cost and nasty coops swamping the marketplace. I recognize this as I've tested a variety of them in the area, and seen a ewe run straight via one when the feed bucket appeared. The outcome was nothing but a pricey heap of fire wood and a little group of bemused and also now homeless bantams.
Baby Chick Varieties in Genoa City, Wisconsin
More often than not these mass produced models are constructed of quick grown wood - come the initial decline of rain they swell, leaving you either blockading a door that will not shut, or tearing the door furniture off in a vain attempt to release the squawking inhabitants. The initial cozy day suggests the hardwood dries as well as cracks, the felt roof bubbles as well as boils, and also come nightfall the chickens choose not to enter. This is not because of their disappointment at the decrease of their as soon as appealing property yet due to the fact that the hovel is now a haven for, as well as probably crawling with, the chicken keeper's bane, red mite. Add the fact that it claimed on the blurb that it would match 4 big hens when that stocking thickness was based upon the Circle Line at 5pm on a Friday, and also exactly what are you left with? A couple of joints as well as some kindling. A respectable coop for thee to four birds need to cost you approximately ₤ 300 though this could depend on whether you choose for a free standing house or one with a run affixed. Assuming you are ranging your birds in a big area and the pop hole door allows sufficient for the breed you maintain, then the major requirements of housing boil down to three points which will define the number of birds your home will hold; perches, nest boxes and also air flow. Most types of chicken will perch when they go to roost during the night, this perch should ideally be 5-8cm large with smoothed off sides so the foot sits conveniently on it. The perch needs to be above the nest box entrance as chickens will likewise normally seek the acme to perch. A perch below that will certainly have the birds roosting in the nest box over night (which is incidentally when they create the most poo) resulting in soiled eggs the list below day. They should not however be so high off the floor of your house that leg injuries could happen when the bird gets down in the early morning. Chickens need about 20cm of perch each (in tiny types this is certainly much less), plus if greater than one perch is set up in your house they ought to be more 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 must have a the very least one nest box for each three birds and these ought to be off the ground and in the darkest area of your house. Your home must have sufficient ventilation: without it after that condensation will certainly accumulate every night, even in the coldest of climate. Realize, air flow works with the principle of cozy air leaving through a high void drawing cooler air in from a lower space - it's not a set of holes on contrary wall surfaces of your home as well as at the very same degree, this is what's referred to as a draught. If you have a house with a run affixed then the points above are still true, but you must likewise take into consideration the run dimension. The EU optimum lawful stocking density for a cost-free array bird is (as well as let's face it, among the motivations for maintaining some hens in your home is perhaps enhanced or better well-being) 2,500 birds per hectare, that's optimal one bird per 4m made even. Take a close look at several of the deal houses - it could well be the house has the right perches, proper ventilation and also adequate nest boxes for an affordable variety of birds, yet will each of the chickens have anything greater than an A4 sized piece of ground to spend the day on? And so as the stating goes, "you get what you pay for". You might believe you've got a bargain, but you as well as your group could rue the day you did. Acquisition the best house and it will last for a couple of years, if not longer given the proper treatment. Eventually your fowl and also your chicken keeping experience will certainly be a lot the far better for it.chickens chick
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