Friday, July 31, 2009

Common Problems in Buiding Chicken Coop


Nowadays most of the home garden owners prefer to build their own chicken coop. If you're one among them, you came to the right place at right time. Without proper plan, you can't start any building including chicken coop. If you start building chicken coop without plan, you'll end up with numerous problems.

Common Problems

The common problems in building chicken coop are problems with location, problem with lighting and problem with space.

Problem with Location

The chicken coop should be located in the place where there is no stagnation of water during rainy season because your chicken will be subjected to various diseases if they have been exposed to inclement weather.
Problem with light
Providing right sized windows in correct location will help the chickens to get enough light and good ventilation. If the windows are being fitted in wrong position, you need to provide extra lighting by electric bulb which will increase the monthly electricity bill.

Problem with space

You should not compromise with space because space directly affects the egg production. If you provide less space, there is possibility of cannibalism and pecking behavior.

Learn these points and draw a proper plan before start building your own chicken coop, ALL THE BEST!!!

Saturday, July 25, 2009

What Are The Perfect Chicken Coop Kits?


I have decided to build my own chicken coop for my family in the backyard. So I Googled and found that an e-book with all details especially with video - how to build a chicken coop is available online. Hats off to CHRIS!

But I found difficulty in choosing perfect chicken coop kits. I researched a lot to find ideal chicken coop kits. I am going to disclosing those hard earned tips for you. They are-

1. Proper Lighting


Lighting is an essential thing for a chicken coop. Most of us think that proper lighting in a coop is to get perfect vision of feed by the chickens. No! Lighting will act as a perfect source of heat during cold seasons.

2. Thick Wire Mesh


This is the next important kit for a coop. The wire mesh should be strong enough to withstand the biting activity of predators. Yes!!! A strong wire mesh protectant will keep pesky predators at bay.

3. Perfect Ventilation


Your chicken require quality air. This can be achieved y proper ventilation only. Even you can provide sliding windows to get pure air for the chickens inside the coop.

4. Perfect Floor

The floor of your coop should be slightly sloped in order to facilitate easy cleaning and easy maintainence. Poor craftmanship and faulty designs can really make your chickens lives as well as your life miserable. Hence don't compromise with the floor.The sloping of the floor will help to hose out the chicken coop very easily as the water will get out the coop immediately, instead of puddling in center.

Be sure to adhere to these things while building chicken coop. If you provide a perfect coop for your chicken, your chickens will provide fresh eggs daily without any hesitant. Happy Cooping!!!

Saturday, July 18, 2009

What Is The Perfect Floor Space In A Chicken Coop?




This is the most asked question by any new chicken coop builder. You should know the answer for this question before planning to build a new chicken coop in your backyard. Your chicken need a perfect floor space to lead a healthy and happy life in its lifetime.

If you are planning to rear 20 chickens, the floor space should be 80 square foot. You should not skimp on space. Yes! If possible you can allocate more space inside the coop to facilitate to rear more chicken in future due course.

In other words, you must provide 4 square foot space per chicken. If you reduce the floor space than the prescribed level, you will end up in various problems including overcrowding, cannibalism, pneumonia and bronchitis.
Never overcrowd your coop! Otherwise, your chickens may lost its quality of life by fighting among themselves and lead to feather picking, which may lead to CANNIBALISM.



Thursday, July 16, 2009

Things To Think Before Selecting Urban Chicken Coop Plans

You may frown your eyebrows when you see the title of this article. Yes! You can raise chickens in urban condition using mobile chicken coop. That too in an economical way. You should consider various factors while building urban chicken coop. These factors will help you to avoid those mistakes and begin enjoying the benefits of raising chickens!

Don't build a coop before proper plan! If you have built a nice chicken coop and begin enjoying bountiful fresh eggs and experience the rewards of raising chickens in your own home!

You should consider the following factors before starting to build urban chicken coop. They include-
  • Total Size
  • Ventilation
  • Light source
  • Feeding set up
If you want to know how these factors affect the performance of your hen, you should read this e-book "How to build cheap chicken coop?"

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Reasons For Building Mobile Chicken Coop


Have you ever heard about mobile chicken coop? Yes!!! It is possible to build mobile chicken coop. The main reasons for building mobile chicken coop are-
  • Low Cost
  • Climatic control
  • You can keep more vigil over birds
  • Less space
  • Fertilizer Spreading all over your garden
Low Cost

It is damn cheap to build a mobile chicken coop. You can see the all activities of the chicken coop building.

Climatic control

In case of raining, you can simply shift the mobile coop to a safe place, where it will receive no rain at all. Say, you can move this coop into your garage.

More Vigil over birds

You can make your children to take part into the activity of poultry farming as they can see the cage from the house itself. In other words, you will be able to keep a close eye on your birds.

Less space

It requires less space. So a house with small garden also will be able to build mobile chicken coop at affordable cost. If you find this hobby is not suitable for you, you can always sell it.

Spread Of Fertilizer

As you can move the mobile chicken coop all over the garden, you can fertilize your lawn or shrubs with ease. Even cleaning the coop is also found to be easy as you can wheel your mobile chicken coop to the nearest water point.

As bottom line, I would like to give a simple idea that you can convert an old trailer into a mobile chicken coop. Click here to get an e-book on "How to build cheap chicken coop?"

Happy Cooping!!!

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE E-BOOK ON HOW TO BUILD YOUR OWN CHICKEN COOP

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Make Your Chicken Comfortable By Building Your Own Chicken Coop



Building your own chicken coop
is very easy, but providing comfort to your chicken should be your priority. You should take utmost care to inspect the construction plans before starting to build a chicken coop.

Though you have spent more money to buy a ready-made coop, it should provide perfect environment for the chickens to lay more eggs. Otherwise it will be waste of material, money and time.

How To Build Comfortable Coop?

It is not a difficult task. You should provide enough space for the chicken to move around (say, 4 sq.ft per chicken). So ascertain the number chickens you're going to rear in the coop before building the same. This will help you to fix the correct floor space of your coop.

If you want more eggs from your chicken, you should provide proper space. Neither more space nor less space will help your chicken to lay more eggs.

Overcrowding will cause the chicken to loss weight and ultimately, there will be loss of egg production.

If you provide more space, the chicken will roam more frequently and the energy will be wasted for the activity and the number of eggs per bird will get reduced. More over, it will consume more feed also.

You can make your chicken more comfortable by providing perch in the coop. The perch should be placed just 8 inches above the ground level. Absence of perches will make the birds to perch on the feeders or in the nesting boxes and it will defecate on the places where you don't want to have them.

You should provide one nesting box per six chickens. This is the thumb rule. Your chicken will feel secure and comfortable, if the chicken box provides dark environment. The nesting material includes straw shavings, which should be 4 inches thickness inside the nest box. Nesting material will help you to get perfect white/brown eggs without any damage.

With these tips and helpful guidelines, you can always make your own chicken coops that are more productive and comfortable.


CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE E-BOOK ON HOW TO BUILD YOUR OWN CHICKEN COOP

Monday, July 6, 2009

How to Build Your Own Chicken Coop Under $150?


Do you know a ready made chicken coop would cost around $1000? But you can build your own chicken coop under $150. Yes!!! It is true! Do follow the simple steps discussed in this article to get a best coop for your chicken.

The first and foremost thing you should do is determine the size of the coop. If you want to house 6-8 chickens then you do require small coop, whereas for housing more than 25 chicken, the cost of building coop will be more and expensive.

You can build your own chicken coop that house 25 chickens for less than 150 bucks. If you buy the same in the market it would cost more than 500 bucks.

It is always advisable to build the house facing the sun. This will help the house dry after it rain. Hence location is the first and foremost thing you should ascertain before starting to build.

Using a wire mesh will help you to prevent your chickens from predators like opossum, owl etc. You can buy the chicken wire mesh at local stores at nominal price.

Your hens are like human beings only. So you should provide proper ventilation to provide fresh air and space to walk around. If not, you just going make you chicken go insane.

To get perfect ideas for building chicken coop below 150 bucks, go to how to make your own chicken coop site to download an e-book with step by step video instructions to build your dream chicken coop.

Saturday, July 4, 2009

Top Ten Tips For Building Better Chicken Coop

Do you know designing and building a chicken coop is really a rewarding experience? By following top ten tips, you can be assured that you will give a safe and healthy environment for your hens.

1. Ascertain the Chicken Coop Size
You should plan the size of the chicken coop well before designing the same. You should know that smaller sized coops are better for limited number of chickens. My advice is go for large sized house because the number of chickens will be increased in future due course (You can increase the number of chickens within few days of start your breeding plan of hens).

2. Don't Spend Lot of Money on a ready made Coop

You will be fascinated with the prebuilt coops. But the builders will include the premium for their services in the rate of the equipment. If you make your own chicken coop, it would be fairly inexpensive than the ready made one.

3. Provide enough space in your Yard

You should provide adequate space in your backyard. This is one of the prerequisite to build a backyard coop.
4. Proper ventilation provision is must

If you want to raise healthy chickens, then you need a fresh supply of clean air. This can be achieved by proper ventilation which will also prevent build up of ammonia and carbon dioxide along the inner walls. Build windows that can be opened and closed.

5. Provide Proper Light

Hens are natural light lovers. Provision of proper light source is must for your chickens to lay plenty of eggs throughout the year. Try to provide light through out the daytime and lightime. Light will induce pituary gland, which inturn help the chicken to start lay in correct time and high number of eggs in the lifetime.

Never under estimates the damage those predators can cause to your chickens. Have proper protection in the house run so that animals cannot dig underground.

5. Make sure predators can’t get in

Predators such as Bandicoots, coons, opposums and, owls can cause damage to your chickens. Hence you should provide proper protection in the house run to avoid digging underground by the predators. More over, you should build the chickencoop on an elevated platform and also try to build a fence about one foot deep in order to prevent the predators entry into the coop.

6. Proper positioning of the feeders -

The thumb rule for placing feeders in the coop is 10-15 centimetres above ground. If you place the feeder lesser than this measurement, you'll notice more crowd around the feeder and there is possibility of more wastage. If you increased the height of the feeder more than this, the larger birds will tend to take more feed than the shorter one.

7. Building the coop off the ground

This is an excellent idea. Yes!!! Building a coop above the ground level will help your chickens to produce more eggs and also get prevented from natural predators.

8. Select the suitable construction materials

You should take into account your local climate before selecting the construction material. If you are living in the warmer year-round climates, you should use wire walls or doors, but if you live in cold climate and wet for part of the year, build insulated wall as well as a solid one. This decision will make your chicken to live stress-free environment.

9. Adequate Floor space is essential

The normal floor space per chicken is 4 sq.ft. Try to adhere to this floor space. Don't compromise with the floor space! This will help to stop your chickens from stressing due to cramping.

10. Perch for your Chickens

You should give ample space for building a perch (roost) for sleeping of your chicken within the coop. This will help your chickens to sleep well as well as lay more eggs. Try to use perfect smooth lumber for building a roost.

In the maintainence of the chicken coop, cleaning is considered to be most time consuming activities. Giving proper slanting in the floors will help your cleaning job of the coop very easy. In nutshell, you should consider predator control, ease of cleaning and proper ventilation in your chicken coop.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE E-BOOK ON HOW TO BUILD YOUR OWN CHICKEN COOP

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