albertthebear.com

The people of today are looking for ways to sustain their life style. Many people are taking up installing solar panels on their roofs. Others are growing gardens and orchards in their backyard. While many others are looking to raising chickens they supply a eggs nearly everyday which are an incredible source of protein. The purpose of this article is to help you build a chicken coop for the flock that you are going to raise.

Tip One. The first step to building a chicken coop is to find out the laws in your state and local city or town. These laws vary from place to place. Many states don’t have practically and laws concerning chicken owning. While some states or regions don’t even allow you to have a rooster or more then 3 chickens.

Tip Two: One of the best tips I can give to people on building a chicken coop is to make the coop easy to clean. One of the very best ways to do this is to make the floor slightly slanted towards the door. I cant tell you how much this makes cleaning the chicken coop easier weather you are just sweeping out the dust and chicken poop or hosing. Its even more important if you use water to clean your chicken coop as this will stop puddles from forming and dampness is very bad for your chickens health.

Tip 3: Chickens need fresh air just like people. Allowing enough ventilation is crucial so that the ammonia levels don’t build up from their feces. If the ammonia level builds up too much it can cause serious health problems to your chicken and anyone entering the coop. Moisture build-up not only causes disease but can also cause carbon dioxide build up and in the long run, mold. None of these things are good and all can be prevented by providing proper ventilation.

Ventilation should be kept up all the time even in winter when your scared the air outside of the chicken coop is to cold for your chickens. If you are really scared that your chickens will catch frostbite then you can install a heater or some insulation. To keep your ventilation high just open up the windows though make sure they have screening.

Tip Four: Lighting helps your chickens in so many ways. Not only does it make the inside of the coop warmer but also it makes your chickens eat more and their for produce more eggs. To get maximum natural light install your windows so that they face south.

If you decide to also add artificial lighting then where you put the lighting is important. You have to put it somewhere where chickens cant get to it. Also you have to put it somewhere where if it fell then it could cause a fire. I find putting it high up works best to keep your chickens from getting to as for the fire every coop is different.

Tip Five. Its always a good idea to give where your putting your chicken feeder and waterer some consideration. Its probably best to put it somewhere where the chickens can easily access it such as in the middle of the coop or along a empty wall. One problem that a lot of people have is that chickens will scratch at their feed with feces encrusted feed. So you should probably get certain types of feeders to prevent this.

The best feeders to do this is either a feeder that only feeds the chickens a little bit at the time. But these can be a little bit expensive. I personally just get feeders where the chickens have to stretch their necks to get to the food.

Looking to find the best information on chicken coop interior? Then visit www.chickencoopx.com to find the best advice on chickens houses for you.

Chicken Diseases and Parasites

So why is Chicken Health so important? Whether your raising your flock to make a profit or just leading a self sustaining lifestyle, chicken illnesses and diseases can easily throw a wrench in the gears. When chickens are living together in a coop, in close proximity to eachother there is a much higher possibility that the diseases will be transmitted quickly, and can sometimes spread to your whole flock.

You don’t want to pay for vaccinations for the whole flock, so learning to spot signs of disease early on can save you money.

Nutrition is Key

The easiest way to save time and money is by simple prevention. Feeding your chickens a nutritional diet is the best preventative measure you can take.

An easy way to spot if your chickens aren’t getting the nutrition they need is to examine their eggs. If they are cracked, or soft, the most probable cause is malnutrition.

Common chicken health problems

Coccidiosis

Symptoms: Paleness in skin color, lowered egg production, and blood in the stool.

This can become serious and even fatal if left untreated, so it’s important to examine the chickens stool periodically to make sure there’s nothing strange about it. There are vaccinations available to cure Coccidiosis.

Parasites

The most common chicken illness is usually parasites. They suck because there are no outward symptoms.

Roundworms

A common parasitic infection. Roundworms can destroy your flock. The only good thing about roundworms is that there are outward signs you can look for.

Roundworms cause your chickens to become unusually skinny, and lower egg production.

All you have to do to check for roundworms is get a sample of their stool and take it to the veterinarian. They can diagnose it.

Cure roundworms by getting a common wormer at your local feed store or the veterinarian office. There is an inexpensive one called piperazine wormer, it’s fairly common and it’s effective.

Tape worms

Like roundworm, tapeworms cause chickens to become much thinner than is usual. Like other parasites, you can check for it by acquiring a stool sample. Make sure to diagnose what kind of problem you think you have before undergoing any treatments.

Avoid tapeworms completely by making sure the entire chicken coop is free of any flies. Flies, beetles, and some slugs have been known to cause tapeworms, especially in damp environments. Wormers are available to rid your flock or tape worms.

Ammonia Burns

Painful looking black marks on legs are known as ammonia burns. They will cause lopsided eggs, watery eyes, blindness, and facial swelling among your chickens.

Ammonia burns result from the chickens stepping on each others feces too much. This is why it’s important to replace all the bedding with dry, clean materials before administering Vitamin A into their diet for treatment. Cleanliness is a large factor to consider when designing a chicken coop.

Looking to find the best deal on a Poultry Coop, then visit http://www.chickencoopx.com/ to find the best advice on Raising chickens for you.

First things first you have to make sure that you have gotten what you need. Its a real pain to have to stop your project just to head over to the hardware store. However this is a pretty simple chicken coop and you don’t need to much material.

5 long pieces of timber (for the coop frame).

11 short pieces of timber (for the frame and nesting sections).

Some chicken wire (to enclose the frame).

Some pieces of chipboard or plywood (to enclose the nesting section).

Some sawdust or straw (for the nesting area)

Nails, hinges, and other bits and pieces.

Step One. Once you have made sure you have everything you need its time to get to work. Take 9 of the shorter pieces of timber you have and some of your nails and nail them to be A shapes. Then once thats done take the other 2 pieces of wood and nail them so its a V shape.

Step Two. Now that your done with the shorter pieces lets work with the longer pieces of wood. Take the five pieces of wood line and nail them to the triangles so that their all lined up in a triangular prism. First nail the tops of the triangles together. Then the base and then nail the mid regions of the triangles. The order that you nail the 4 triangles in should be as follows. A_A__^_A

Step Three: Now that you have a solid triangular prism time to start working with chicken wire. Take your chicken wire and then measure out how much you are going to need to cover up the sides of the triangular prism. Then cut out pieces of chicken wire and nail them to the sides of the coop. Its important not to cover up all the sides just cover up what’s going to be your run. Your run will be the __^_A part of the chicken coop.

Step 4: Now you just have to get the nest area. First completely enclose it using chipboard and timber (no chicken wire). Set up the inside building a nesting box and maybe a roost depending on how much room you have. Then at the top of the chicken coop install a flap or a hinge so you can reach in and get the eggs.

Congratulations you now have finished your very own chicken coop. A chicken ark is usually only fit to hold about 3 to 4 chickens but you might have constructed yours a bit bigger. Make sure that the run of the chicken coop isn’t covered up. Though this increases chances of predator attack it also allows your chickens to graze. A chicken ark is supposed to be portable which means you can pick it up and carry it around. Of course it might be to heavy at which point you can attach it to your truck with a chain and move it around that way.

Looking to find the best information on Chicken Hutch Plans? Then visit www.chickencoopx.com to find the best advice on chickens houses for you.

Breeding your chickens is a fantastic accomplishment that can be very fun. If you have decided to breed your chickens then I would suggest going a step further and start selectively breeding your flock. But before you can selectively breed your chickens you will have to have a goal of which chicken characteristics you want to put into your chickens. Do you want your chickens to be good layers to be meatier to win chicken contests? This article will help you with that very first step.

Weight and Size: The first thing you will have to consider before anything else is how big you want your chickens to be. When talking with other chicken farmers there are usually only 2 sizes. Small and Large. Small chickens, often called bantam chickens, are smaller then regular chickens. This allows them to fly (up to 25 feet). Its well known that bantam chickens are more energetic and have a worse temper. Large chickens often, just called regular chickens, are just that regular average chickens. So if you want a pet then get a bantam chickens if you need eggs get a regular chicken.

Weather: This is not a characteristics of the chickens but rather an outside factor that you should consider when breeding and buying chickens. If you live in a place that is cold a lot of the time then will have to get chickens that are bigger and fluffier. If your local weather varies considerably depending on the season then you should still get a bigger chicken but make sure that their water dish is always full during the summer.

Broody Hens: Unlike the other characteristics in this article this is something you definitely want to breed out, not in. Its possible to deal with a chicken once she have become broody but it can take a while and its best to try to make sure that broodiness shows up as little as possible. It shouldn’t come up to often if you take away their eggs often. This is one of the hardest characteristics to breed out as its a psychological trait instead of a physical one but its not impossible.

Layer Hens: Chances are this is the characteristic you want to breed into your chickens the most. If you want to skip the mid stage of breeding your chickens to be the best egg layers and just buy the best layer chickens then get leghorns. I personally don’t have any leghorns in my flock as though they give a egg every day they are very susceptible to weather and disease and they don’t give a lot of meat when they die.

Meaty Chickens: Some chickens convert what they eat to eggs very easily other chickens convert what they eat to muscle very easily. This makes them great for the meat eating family. If the only reason you want chickens is for their meat and not their eggs then I would suggest getting a cross breed chicken between the White Cornish and the White Rock chicken. I personally don’t recommend them though because of how little eggs they produce.

Show Chickens: Some people just breed beauty into their chickens to win shows. If you are one these people then its up to you want your chickens to look like.

Temper: I hate it when I get a chicken that becomes an angry bully and often, said chicken finds its way into my stew. This of course an undesired situation and its best to try and breed angry birds out of your flock. Of course if you have a small flock with plenty of space you might want to breed the angry birds as its been proven that hawks are less likely to attack. I personally have very little trouble with predator birds and so I try to breed out anger in my flock. The best way to do this is to breed chickens that exist low down the pecking order.

Learn more about Breeding Chickens. Stop by David Daffae’s site where you can find out all about Chicken Coop Designs and what they can do for you.

Chicken flocks are surprisingly similar to wolf packs in the idea that they exist in a strict hierarchy. The hierarchy that exists within your flock is called the pecking order. This word stems from the fact that chickens who are higher up in the pecking order will peck those who are under them in the pecking order.

The day to day life of a chicken differs very little. They wake up when the sun first rises then they lay their eggs. Shortly followed by eating until sunset at which point they will immediately proceed to the safest place they can get to (which should be your coop) and sleep. This can answer the question why chickens don’t lay as many eggs in winter because they dont eat as much even if you give them plenty of food. Its because they go to bed earlier.

A chickens taste and smell are both not very good. This is sometimes a problem as they are not sure what they are eating and sometimes they digest poisonous food. Though for the most part they wont eat things that could be detrimental to there health.

The greatest senses that a chicken has is their sense of hearing and touch. In fact their sense of touch is so incredible they can sense vibrations in the air and ground.

This is a very important sense for guarding against predators. If you have ever walked close to a chicken coop in the middle of the night then you know what I mean. The rooster will give out a warning shout and sometimes the hens will start panicking.

Chickens enjoy sleeping or “roosting” on higher ground. This is so that predators cannot get them in the wild. A chicken that is higher up the pecking order will get a higher or more comfortable roost. Often the smaller or weaker chickens will go to bed first to reserve a spot in the roost but more often then not there driven away from there stronger brethren. Domesticated chickens don’t like being further away from their coop more then 50 meters. This is because they can only see bigger objects 50 meters away.

Chickens can deal better with colder weather then with hot weather because they can’t sweat. Instead they cool down by dunking there beaks in cold water or flapping there wings to air out there feathers.

The sounds that chickens make are integral to their survival as a flock. Though you can’t hear the variations, a roosters crow could mean that it’s morning, or it could mean that a predator from the air is coming, or that a large or small land predator is coming. The high pitch chirps of a chick also can vary in the opposite meanings of being content and comfortable, to being distressed and lost. A chickens cluck can also vary in meaning that it’s happy, to telling baby chicks to follow her.

Looking to find the best information on Chicken Behavior? Then visit www.chickencoopx.com to find the best advice on chickens houses for you.

As you design your chicken coop you will have to make sure that the chicken coop you plan to build will have all the elements that will keep your chickens alive and happy. When your building your chicken coop based on a professional coop plan you usually don’t have to worry but some chicken coop plans dont include everything and you might be deciding to design your very own chicken coop.

When your designing a chicken coop the most important thing is to make sure that you will have enough room for the size of the flock you intend to own. How much room your supposed to have in your chicken coop per chicken will vary depending on kinds of chickens are in your coop. For smaller bantam chickens all your going to need is 1 foot of space in the coop and 4 feet in the chicken run (minimal). Though you will probably have bigger layer hens or just regular chickens. To accommodate these chickens you are going to need 2 square feet in the chicken coop and 8 in the chicken run (minimal).

The next step is to figure out where your going to put the chicken coop. Its best to put it away from sprinklers or where rain puddles form. This is because chickens don’t like damp places.

One of the things your chicken coop will need is lighting. Lighting triggers something in the chickens physiology that makes them lay eggs more often. The best light is always natural light so try to install a window (facing south if possible). If you cant do that then artificial light will help.

When building a chicken coop its always important to build a roost. A roost is someplace where chickens sleep on. Chickens only feel comfortable sleeping when sleeping on something that is high above ground (not to high only about 36 inches). To build a roost just take a plank of wood and nail it to the side of the wall. But their might be better ways to build one.

Ventilation is something you have to consider also. Without proper ventilation your chickens could possibly die from ammonia build up or at least be far more susceptible to disease. To make sure you have ventilation all you have to do is open up the windows. You should do this even in winter (though you might want to open up less windows and install a heater). However its important to stop predators from coming in that you have screens blocking your windows.

Last but not least is to set up nesting boxes. A nesting box is a box where chickens lay their eggs. For this purpose it should be relatively out of the way up against a wall somewhere. Its best to have a slanted roof on the nesting box (but not essential). Most importantly it has to have a soft inside. Most people use straw but I find that this is bad as the chickens usually peck at my straw. So instead I just take a small mat and a stapler or some glue.

Looking to find the best information on Building A Chicken Coop? Then visit www.chickencoopx.com to find the best advice on chickens houses for you.