subject: Building Chicken Coops [print this page] With the current financial climate and the ever growing worries about the environment there has never beer a better time for building chicken coops. Building chicken coops in your backyard can benefit you in many ways.
The obvious benefit is the delicious fresh free range eggs you will have everyday, (chickens will lay roughly 240-280 eggs a year). Building chicken coops and keeping your own chickens will also help you produce nutritious fertilizer. In feeding the chickens your food scraps you will be doing your bit for the environment and recycling unwanted food waste.
If you are clever when building chicken coops you can position them so that the chickens also eat pests and weeds which will also be turned into your fertilizer.
Chickens can be an entertaining addition to the family and most pets such as cats and dogs will soon get used to them, as long as your dog is not too disobedient or aggressive. Cats will be afraid of the chickens at first but eventually will just ignore them.
You need to consider your neighbours when planning which birds to keep. Roosters can be very annoying for both you and your neighbours as they can start being very loud from as early as 4am! You DO NOT need cockerels in order to produce eggs, chickens will lay eggs without the assistance of cockerels but the eggs will be infertile.
Building chicken coops is not as simple as banging a frame and some mesh together, there are many factors to consider before you undertake the task. When building chicken coops you must at first consider how many birds you will be keeping. As a general rule you will need about one square foot per bird, obviously bigger breeds will need more space.
Ventilation is very important, chickens as humans breath oxygen so they need fresh air but it needs to be draft free, so when building chicken coops you need to incorporate decent air-flow, this will allow the chicken to breath and also help prevent dampness and the build up of carbon dioxide and ammonia.
If you want daily fresh eggs you will need to add a light source when building your chicken coop. This will also help keep the chickens warm in colder climates.
The height of the feeders is also an important design feature when building chicken coops. They need to be high enough so that the chickens cannot get their feet into them so they cannot scratch the feed around and make a mess.
This is just an example of just a few of the complications that need careful consideration when building chicken coops, don't let these put you off! with a decent step-by-step guide the whole process becomes very simple!
