How to Make a Chicken Coop for Safer & Happier Chickens
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Chickens are fun to watch and they can provide you eggs and meat. Often times people buy chickens and let them live outside and to find whatever shelter they can provide for themselves. There are two problems with raising chickens in that manner, the first are the many predators that are hunting your chickens, there are numerous stray dogs that will wipe out a flock of chickens not to mention skunks and other animals.
The second problem is that they do not lay eggs well when they are raised that way and when they do lay eggs it is difficult to find them. In this article I am going to give you two different ideas about how to make a chicken coop.
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The first and easiest way to make a chicken coop is to convert a shed or an older camp trailer. The camp trailer works well because there is very little modification to be done. The most that needs to be done is to take the cabinet doors off and remove the table. There are all ready plenty of areas that they can roost. The cabinet areas make good laying boxes, all you have to do is put some straw in the cabinets and they will make their own laying areas. Once you have made this conversion it is easy to build a covered chicken run off the front of the trailer, it is important to remember to block off the underside of the trailer so that your chickens don’t escape underneath. A word of warning, if you plan to convert an old camp trailer into a chicken coop be sure you don’t intend to use it for anything else. You can generally find old camp trailers around for $200.00-$300.00 you can even get them free sometimes if you are willing to pull them away.
Often times when we ask how to make a chicken coop or anything else for that matter we try to rack our heads to come up with ideas for the perfect plan. If you are good at this type of planning that’s great or if you are just a weekend project type of person then you might like my second idea. Rather than pull your hair out coming up with elaborate plans for making your chicken coop, you can go to your local hardware store and buy a set of plans for a small or large wood shed for about $5.00 and even less. The size of the shed depends on how many chickens that you have. It is important to remember that you will have to build a roost and laying boxes if you decide too go this rout. A roost can simply be made out of two 2x4x8’s and three or four 2x2x8’s. Nail your 2x4’s about 7 feet apart at about a 45 degree angle, space the 2x2’s crossways and now you have a roost. Your egg boxes can be made our of ¼“ ply wood and 2x2’s, make sure to put dividers in them due to the fact that chickens like a certain amount of privacy when they lay eggs.
No matter which idea you pick make sure that you build a chicken yard off of the coop. it is also a good idea to put chicken wire over the top of the chicken yard or run due to flying predators like hawks and crows.
If you take good care of your chickens then they will take good care of you for along time.
By the way...
I ended up downloading "Building a Chicken Coop" manual. It comes with detailed step by step instructions and is easy to follow and understand. It took me just one day to build my own chicken coop! And I took several breaks :-)
As you can see, building your own chicken coop is easier than you might think! All you need is the RIGHT blueprint.
To Download a step by step blueprint on how to build a chicken coop CLICK HERE
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Sites On How To Build A Chicken Coop:
Chicken Coop Blueprints
It has been left for the West Virginia experiment station to determine just how much difference there would be in egg production between similar flocks kept in warm and cold houses. Two houses, built exactly alike and situated side by side, were selected for the experiment, in each of which were placed twelve pullets. One house had previously been sheathed on the inside and covered with paper to make it perfectly tight. Both were boarded with matched siding and shingle roofs.
Chicken Coop Plans
Today, many people are trying to find ways to be better to their bodies and more environmentally friendly all at the same time. One option, which is available to anyone with the outdoor space, is to build a chicken coop using free chicken coop plans. You can taylor these plans to your needs, for the number of chickens you wish to own.
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How to Build a Chicken Coop - It's Easier Than You Think!
Anyone that raises chickens will need a chicken coop. The question for many is how to build a chicken coop? With a bit of ingenuity and some rather basic materials, you can have a chicken coop in relatively no time at all.
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