Chicken Hutch / June 6, 2018 / Maryellen.
How many chickens will inhabit the coop? What size are the chickens large standards or bantams? How many nests will you provide the hens with? How many feeders and waterers will you have available? How many windows will your chicken coop require to give enough sunlight to your flock? Will you be constructing a chicken run with easy access into and out of the coop? You see there are various questions that need to be answered before you build a backyard chicken coop because you may find out too late that the coop you built was not sufficient enough to keep your chickens happy and safe. Once you have answered all your pre-building questions the next step is to choose a terrain where you will build a backyard chicken coop in. It is very important that you choose an area that is wide enough for your coop to fit with plenty of space around it for a chicken run or for you to maneuver around. You do not want to build a coop where you do not have easy access around its perimeter. Try to choose a terrain where it receives direct sunlight and far from heavy bushes or weeds where snakes rodents and other predators may reside in.
These can be constructed under an old abandoned sheds discarded children playhouses or simply a small corner of the backyard. Consider fencing the roof of these chicken coops it will not only protect your chickens from numerous predators but also prevent the chickens from entering into your neighbors backyard. If you have decided to build a medium size chicken coop then you are simply constructing a small chicken house with a slightly larger footprint with a somewhat higher cost and additional construction time. These medium size coops can be built into a portable design which works great if you need to move the chicken hutch for any reason. The only difference between the large coop lies in the fact that they are capable of holding a larger number of hens as compared to smaller coops. There are a wide variety of different chicken hutch plans available which once purchased can be scaled up or back in their design depending on your specific requirements. These medium and smaller coops cannot be utilized for an industrial scale business because they cannot hold more than twenty hens. There are blueprints available for chicken coop building projects on a larger scale. There is no limit to the size of these coops and there is no end to the number of hens that can be kept in these coops if your prepared to do the additional work.
There are quite a few advantages to having a free range chicken coop which I will discuss throughout this article. However I would like to highlight on the importance of using a set of chicken coop plans to guide you throughout the process of building a free range coop. After all it all comes down to planning when it comes to any sort of woodworking or construction. I personally prefer the free range approach to having a coop and in fact that is my current set up for the coop I have at home. The free range coop allows them to roam freely without any sense of confinement ensuring that their mental and emotional health is great. I was sure to build a wide gate because the added width makes it easier to herd the chickens at night or in the morning to keep them safe. This is a crucial consideration because chickens tend to be quite inconsiderate to one another and will push and shove each other when being herded into the coop so be sure to give them sufficient room to move in and out of the coop. A good rule I like to use is that every 10 chickens should be allotted approximately 5 feet of clearance. I recommend keeping a good set of chicken coop plans at hand to make sure you dont miss out on any important factors.
Backyard poultry is one of the enjoyable aspects of keeping and caring for chickens. You can build your own coop following ready made coop plans or design. If you want organic eggs it is always advisable to have a chicken coop in the back yard and you will also get high quality fertilizer for the garden by recycling the food scrapes. Building the most suitable chicken coop involves good skills ample time and great patience. You will have to gather a lot of information from various sources to have a good awareness about the requirements of the birds and a detailed study is absolutely essential to know more about materials and the proper method of construction. Most people will find it really difficult to allocate enough time for all these activities and that is where the importance of cheap chicken coop kits comes in.
The amount of room that different breeds of chickens require may vary. Thus you should do a little research but the general rule is that each chicken should have at least 2 to 3 square feet of space for themselves. Say you have 40 chickens meaning that theyll need about 80 to 120 square feet in total. If possible always choose a plan that has more room rather than less. An 11 by 11 frame would be nice or even a 12 by 12. Although they might not be able to communicate it to you they do enjoy the extra running room. Again a bit of research will help lots. As temperatures change within the different seasons you need to be sure that your chickens dont get too hot or cold. A thermometer is always a good idea. Due to the needs of your chickens you will probably need to get some heating pads or lamps with the colder weather and cooling vents in the summer. This is all to maintain the ideal temperature even with the weather changes.
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