I'd like to give you some essential key to conclude when building chicken coops.
If you don't have experience in keeping poultry, this will help you a lot and guide some useful things which may help in deciding which coop is great for you and your chickens.
If you're new to building chicken houses, you'll be surprised to see that just around six chickens can create mess in the coop. It's important to clean it regularly around their sleeping area once a week. Keeping this thing in mind choose the chicken house design which has easy access for cleaning.
Also it's important that you gather the eggs on regular basis. Because leaving the eggs in the coop can tempt the chickens and they start eating it, thus loosing a lot of eggs and money. Don't forget to change the water regularly as hens drink and eat a lot.
When you're searching for poultry houses designs, you might consider one that is movable. It becomes very easy to move the coop from one place to another especially at the times when the grass around the coop becomes bare. This allows the grass to grow again. Cleaning the movable chicken coop is very easy but in the fixed one you have to go inside and clean it. A movable coop is very light and can simply be moved by two people.
Some stuff to conclude when deciding between fixed and mobile options are:
- Your cost.
- How many chickens you have.
- Ease of construction and sustenance.
- And convenience of portability.
If you're trying to keep the costs down, then a mobile design would be a better option.
Also if you want to have a really easy construction and light on maintenance, again a mobile coop would work better.
As far as being able to move it, the only time it's an important advantage is if you live in an area with constant climate changes and during the cold months, want to move your chickens in a warmer place.
Next you want to make sure that you have a good place near the house where the coop can be placed. Choosing an excellent location before starting to build can save you lots of unnecessary disappointment and wasted time. Here is what you need to know to confidently select the excellent location for your coop.
If you keep it too close to the house then you have to deal with the odor and if it's distant then you'll be late in feeding and collecting the eggs. So it's recommended to keep a chicken coop at the distance of 20 feet or so from the house. Keep in mind that bad weather affects the chickens. So it's possible that in the morning, after a night of bad weather, there may not be enough eggs in the coop.
Putting your chicken coop in a place where you have chances of encountering wild animals can harm your chickens. Placing the coop closer to your house will double up the protection and as well help you to keep an eye on the coop.
The weather of the location where you're planning on building your chicken house is important as well. You need to put it where there is plenty of sunlight, which is critical for laying hens. And if it rains a lot, make sure you use water resistant material for structure chicken houses. You may also consider constructing the coop above the ground a bit in order to prevent accumulation of water when it rains.
Buying a new chicken coop can set you back several hundred dollars, so if you don't mind putting a few hours of work into it, you can build a real nice one really quick, if you have the right chicken coop building plans and materials. This can save you an enormous amount of time and money.
Building chicken coops is not a difficult work, when you have the right design and know these important factors prior to starting.
