Looking After Pets

Now if you have been out searching to get a ready-made chicken coop, you know how high-priced a completely put together model may be. They could be as much as one thousand dollars and that’s before making payment to get it sent to your home. By means of putting some money into chicken pen designs, you’ll be able to construct a poultry coop that will keep your birds healthful and secure from weather conditions and potentially harmful predators. Listed below are 3 things to strongly consider when looking for plans.

If you happen to be looking to purchase a high quality step-by-step guide that contains first-rate chicken coop plans in order to construct all types of chicken houses, go and check out Best Chicken Coop Building Guides

Will it keep the chickens healthy?

Most professionals are in agreement that it really is better to allot a lot of space instead of not enough. Fowl overfilling can lead to feathers being picked, low amounts of egg laying, as well as, in extreme cases, cannibalism. Furthermore this is clearly unhealthy for those fowls and it also results in lower egg numbers and overall quality for you.

Blueprint plans for chicken coops ought to permit at least 4 square feet of personal space for each chicken. Now the required space required for a chicken will vary with variety, with bigger chickens needing somewhat more room. Check out a professional web site or perhaps a textbook to find out the level of space your variety requires so you can locate coop plans which are sized properly.

Exposure to air is a further crucial thing for healthy hens. Lacking satisfactory air flow, the ammonia from the waste matter builds up, causing a burning scent which will trouble you and the chickens. Be certain the coop design provides lots of clean air for your group of birds. Here are a couple more chicken coop design ideas  you’ll want to take into consideration whenever you are setting up your chicken coop plan.

Will it keep your chickens safe and sound?

From digging predators to slithering snakes, there are actually a great deal of animals who will see your coop as a large meal ticket. To stop your yard from turning into a nature documentary, make use of step-by-step-plans that include safety measures.

To illustrate, plans for hen houses ought to include a fenced run. It will keep out a host of predators including raccoons and the nemesis of chickens: foxes. For many runs, traditional wooden or wire fences at least 6 feet high will deter predators. If you have got a determined carnivore, poultry keeping specialists recommend embedding wire mesh about 12 inches deep in the earth beneath the coop fence.

Think the traditional-sized chicken wire will keep your chickens protected? Reconsider. Normal mesh is big enough to permit predators to get their paws slip through to claw at the chickens. Hen keeping professionals advise using half an inch square meshing on coop fencing and window covers to stop raccoons and foxes from harming the chickens.

Blueprint plans for chicken houses must also embrace an additional predator-annoying element: a entrance which shuts automatically at sunset. Light sensors allow the coop door to roll up each sunrise and then close once more when nightfall descends.

Will the coop be trouble-free for you to work with?

Blueprint plans for hen houses should also offer options for making it trouble-free to clean your coop and gather the eggs. Numerous chicken coops contain nesting box doorways which permit you to collect the laid eggs easily. If you happen to be planning a smaller coop, it might have a hinged roof that gives you complete right of entry to the interior. Bigger chicken coops typically possess a human-sized entry that permits you to march straight into the building for cleaning and preservation.

Whatever blueprint plans for chicken houses you use, bear in mind of the fact that the chicken coop should keep the flock vigorous and safe as well as be straightforward for you to use.

The plain truth is that the only real way you will be able to have a top quality hen house that will carry out its objective and not cost you a lot of money is to construct it yourself. You can find many Diy manuals on how to put together cheap chicken coops plans you can purchase over the world wide web as well as literally hundreds of different free plans that you can go for. Building your own chicken coop is usually a lot of good fun, particularly if your whole family unit works on the project collectively.

Once you have made the choice to start out rearing chickens, the next step is to determine how many chickens you are going to look after. Every coop must be constructed to offer sufficient room for the number of chickens you’ll have and a little bigger for the ones that you are bound to add at a later date.

When you start trying to find the guide on how to make your chicken coop, don’t settle on the first guide you discover. As there are so many around, there are obviously going to be some which are better value than others on the market. Ensure you obtain a guide that actually makes sense to you right the way through. You do not want to reach the middle of your plan and lose track of what you are putting together. Low-priced chicken coops are those that you successfully complete the very first time around.

There’s also a quantity of easy chicken coop plans and videos that offer instruction on every aspect on how to build a chicken coop. A number will even promise that they are able to show you the way to construct inexpensive chicken coops for under $100. The problem with that is that you are obliged to pay the price in exchange for the video tutorials or step-by-step guide without being able to observe for yourself just how the building plan is laid out and whether it is a guide that one could readily follow. Your investment decision in the video tutorials or coop plans will add to your overall expenditure of the coop and may not be advantageous for your requirements in the objective. If you should opt for one of these step-by-step plans, make sure it is one that offers a a reimbursement guarantee.

Low-cost chicken coops that you have made yourself are typically as effective for accomodating chickens as the already made ones you will find in shops. Whenever you purchase these, you will be paying money for the time which were used up in building them in addition to the supplies that were used. If you construct your own, you may choose a plan which has all the features you would like and need for your flock while saving literally hundreds of dollars over the asking price of a retail chicken coop.

Now if the price of hen coops is the only real factor which has been getting in your way of raising chickens inside your backyard, then you could be amazed to learn that low-priced chicken coops are a viable option if you’re willing to put some time and effort into building your own construction. Additionally, you can find suggestions on how to acquire used and scrap items that will cost you even less and that offer a more environmentally satisfactory option. 

Cheap chicken coops are a great option that makes raising chickens a real possibility for many individuals. Don’t base your decision to raise chickens on the expenditure of building an adequate coop. Instead, look for a coop building guide which will offer you the easy step-by-step instructions you need to build it quickly by yourself from from beginning to its conclusion.

For a really great guide on how to construct your very own chicken coop the step-by-step manner with excellent coop plans, visit Building a Chicken Coop

When considering raising chickens on your real estate, you have important rules to bear in mind when preparing a timber hen house for the birds. Without using the directions, especially in relation to size, you have the possibility of failing to bring up healthy and also good breeding poultry. Given that chickens are a good investment in both time and money, you will want to try everything you can to have success.

Dimensions of Coop in respect to the amount of Chickens

A key rule to comply with is to be aware of the adequate sq ft recommendations for each bird. Normally, 2 to 4 sq ft of space for each chicken is ideal. Should you have a 4 by 6 foot chicken coop, you will easily house around 12 chickens but it’s not a good idea to exceed this number. A rule of thumb is that the more area you have got for your bird, the better.

Then again, you don’t want to commit to too much space and waste money on costly materials by going overboard. Building an 8 by 10 wooden chicken house for just a handful of chickens isn’t the ideal use of hard earned money and space. Finally, in terms of size, the chicken size is also one point to think about. Don’t forget, tiny chicks get bigger. Bantam chickens are smaller and will thrive in a more compact coop with approximately four square feet of space in an outdoor run. Much larger breeds that certainly need two or more square feet of area in the coop will also require about ten feet of outdoor run space.

Undesirable Side Effects of an Insufficient Wooden Hen House

Should you choose the “less is more” way or maybe have invested in more birds than you can reasonably house, you will probably spot the negative effects of not creating the proposed space. Chickens which are too crowded are not going to produce eggs at the normal or perfect rate. This will make your financial commitment for egg production counterproductive and also a misuse of means.

You’ll also notice that insufficient appropriate space in your wooden hen house can result in the birds harming each other, be it problematic pecking of nestmates or all out cannibalism. Also, a coop which is too little for the amount of birds inside it can become a propagation ground for diseases. The limited areas permits any disorder in the birds to propagate more rapidly. Tight spaces can even provide a toxic degree of fumes from the birds waste to build up. This in itself is not suitable or healthy for the hens.

Use Your Space Effectively

When seeking to coordinate the numerous chickens and breed you would like to raise in the size of the timber hen house you either build or purchase, keep in mind that it will not just sit empty and that all the space within isn’t just for your chickens to roam about in. Take the features into consideration before you invest in birds.

Such amenities that will require room in the house include perches to sit and nap on, nesting boxes, feeding and watering supplies. Once you take all of this into consideration and provide the poultry with comfortable and adequate room to breathe and tolerate their coop mates, you will begin to see the advantages of your labor and can enjoy owning healthy and happy chickens.



A hen house is a place of shelter for your chickens at night and during bad weather as well as nesting boxes for their eggs. Different ideas on building a hen house are available depending on the type of house you want to build. It is important to consider the number of hens that you have when planning a house for your poultry since you want to prevent overcrowding the chickens, which can cause fights and reduced production of eggs. You should as well build a nesting box for every five hens so that they have plenty of spaces to lay their precious eggs. Provide six to 10 inches of spaces for each bird for their perches.

Another important thing is to choose the appropriate material. Wood is an ideal choice in case you do not have plenty of time to get busy for you can finish the task by setting aside two weekends for creating the coop. Make sure that before you start the project to build hen house, you already know the size and style of coops that you want to build. Make sure that they will be put up in proper places.

If you have no idea on building chicken coops, plenty of resources are available on the Internet, whether you require a big coop or a small one, whether you have a limited budget, or whether you want a premium large and two-story hen house. Many plans for chicken coop are found online to give you basic ideas on starting your project. You will find out in your research that location is really an important consideration when building chicken coops to avoid having sick and unproductive poultry. The three factors that you should look into are sol drainage, air circulation, and accessibility to water facilities. The drainage will prevent the formation of muddy areas, which could cause filth and be a reason for diseases. Meanwhile, if the coops do not have good ventilation, it can cause unpleasant odors, which can be harmful for human health. Lastly, make sure that you have a nearby water source to be able to replenish your chicken’s water needs daily and conveniently. You can even install an automatic watering system for added convenience if there is an available nearby water source. Lastly, keep the coops clean as often as possible so that your chickens live in a healthy environment, which will yield to top quality eggs for everyone to enjoy.

Whilst pets are wonderful to have they do have their problems. Dogs will bark of the neighbours, some pets can be very expensive and veterinary bills can be very expensive and what do you do with your cat when you want to go away for a week’s holiday?

The perfect pet for a family may well be chickens. Chickens don’t bark at the neighbours, they aren’t expensive, they rarely get sick and if you work it right it’s not a problem having chickens when you go on holidays.

And as well as that chickens are very productive providing you with a fridge full of wonderful free range eggs, and the result can be some delightful omelettes for dinner. There’s many reasons why chickens may be the ideal family pet.

And whilst it is true that you can’t sit a chicken on your lap to pat at night we still find that adults and particularly children adore chickens.

But as is the case with other pets you need to research a little about keeping chickens before you buy your first one. The primary consideration is where you will keep them. They live in a chicken coop, which is occasionally called a henhouse or a chicken house. There are many chicken coops available for sale although the cheapest way to get your coop is to build it yourself.

The chickens will sleep in the coop at night but generally are allowed out of the coop during the day, in many cases to run free around your garden. If they do this they will clean up many of the nasty bugs in your garden, though they may scratch the soil and peck at your flowers as they do.

If you have tomatoes planted you do need to protect them as they love to peck ripe tomatoes.

Or else you can provide a dedicated chicken run around the hen house where they can roam during the day.

It’s important, if you plan on keeping chickens, to understand some of the feeding requirements. To ensure an adequate supply of eggs they need plenty of calcium and protein. You can supply the protein from any source, though it’s possible to get dedicated high protein feed, and calcium can often come from shell grit added to their food. You will need a good feeding and watering device.

And going on holidays isn’t a problem. We can comfortably go away for one to 2 weeks after we have left our chickens with sufficient food and water.

Without doubt keeping chickens is a great way for the family and in particular the children to enjoy having pets. Although there is plenty to learn it’s fun and rewarding and the children will love having their chickens. So learn a bit more about housing and feeding them and then start looking for your first hen.

And then you’re on your way to a lifetime of healthy free range eggs delivered to you by some happy healthy hens.

Whilst pets are wonderful to have they do have their problems. Dogs will bark of the neighbours, some pets can be very expensive and veterinary bills can be very expensive and what do you do with your cat when you want to go away for a week’s holiday?

The perfect pet for a family may well be chickens. Chickens don’t bark at the neighbours, they aren’t expensive, they rarely get sick and if you work it right it’s not a problem having chickens when you go on holidays.

And as well as that chickens are very productive providing you with a fridge full of wonderful free range eggs, and the result can be some delightful omelettes for dinner. There’s many reasons why chickens may be the ideal family pet.

And whilst it is true that you can’t sit a chicken on your lap to pat at night we still find that adults and particularly children adore chickens.

But as is the case with other pets you need to research a little about keeping chickens before you buy your first one. The primary consideration is where you will keep them. They live in a chicken coop, which is occasionally called a henhouse or a chicken house. There are many chicken coops available for sale although the cheapest way to get your coop is to build it yourself.

The chickens will sleep in the coop at night but generally are allowed out of the coop during the day, in many cases to run free around your garden. If they do this they will clean up many of the nasty bugs in your garden, though they may scratch the soil and peck at your flowers as they do.

If you have tomatoes planted you do need to protect them as they love to peck ripe tomatoes.

Or else you can provide a dedicated chicken run around the hen house where they can roam during the day.

It’s important, if you plan on keeping chickens, to understand some of the feeding requirements. To ensure an adequate supply of eggs they need plenty of calcium and protein. You can supply the protein from any source, though it’s possible to get dedicated high protein feed, and calcium can often come from shell grit added to their food. You will need a good feeding and watering device.

And going on holidays isn’t a problem. We can comfortably go away for one to 2 weeks after we have left our chickens with sufficient food and water.

Without doubt keeping chickens is a great way for the family and in particular the children to enjoy having pets. Although there is plenty to learn it’s fun and rewarding and the children will love having their chickens. So learn a bit more about housing and feeding them and then start looking for your first hen.

And then you’re on your way to a lifetime of healthy free range eggs delivered to you by some happy healthy hens.

If you are considering keeping chickens at home then you’re well on the way to making the best decision you’ve ever made. There’s so many reasons to keep chickens it’s difficult to list them all. Primarily though, kids love chickens and they will produce for you a wonderful product every day, eggs.

But before you start looking to buy some chooks you need to find out a little more about what you house them in. They are generally housed in chicken coops, or what are sometimes called a henhouse or chicken house.

It doesn’t matter if you buy your chicken coop or build a chicken coop yourself. It’s quite cheap and not difficult to build a henhouse, it’s really not a lot more than a garden shed with some modifications.

The modifications that you will need are firstly that there are nesting boxes available in the chook house for the chickens to lay their eggs. Make your nesting boxes only a little bigger than the size of a chicken. If they’re too big you’ll find two chickens battling for position in the same nesting box. And make them easy to clean.

And as chickens like to lay where it is dark make sure the nesting boxes are relatively dark or they will lay somewhere else darker, for example in the corner of the chicken coop.

And you will need perches as well. Chooks sleep off the ground standing up, and if you put a bar around 75 millimetres by 50 above the ground they will perch there to sleep.

And you will of course need to provide both water and food, generally inside the chook shed, though this is not essential.

If you provide food and water in the chicken coop you will need to make sure that it is not underneath the perch or the chicken droppings will foul the food.

Of course some responsibilities come with keeping chickens, in particular cleaning the henhouse. You need a nice soft material on the floor of the henhouse, my preference is sawdust which soaks up droppings, though of course needs to be removed from time to time. And it makes a wonderful fertiliser put it on the garden.

The best part of keeping chickens is collecting eggs every day. Organic free range eggs taste better than supermarket eggs and you’re never left with too many as you will always find neighbours happy to buy them from you.

So there’s good reasons for keeping chickens as pets for the children. There’s many animals that make good pets are very few if any that provide you with a useful product to eat as well.

And chickens certainly are a fine companion for children, ours absolutely love their chickens.

So spend a little time researching keeping chooks and consider the type of chicken coop you will need, whether you will build it or buy it, where you will put it and how you will clean it, then get yourself some chickens. You won’t regret it.

If you want the perfect pet, both a wonderful companion for the children as well as a productive pet then the obvious solution is to keep chickens. Chickens make a great pet for children, are fun to have around, will help clean up the garden of nasty pests and provide you with the perfect product to eat, namely free range eggs.

The keeping of chickens is not just restricted to country folk. Many suburban dwellers keep chickens and delight from those wonderful free range eggs.

The keeping of chickens is often subject to rules and regulations, for example it is often prohibited to keep roosters and there are also sometimes regulations about the number of chooks you may have and where your chicken house may be located.

But after you’ve found out what you can and cannot do there are no other reasons why dwellers of suburbia are unable to keep backyard chickens in suburbia.

I am often asked how many chickens to have and what breed of chickens to buy.

This depends of course on your own choice, but a general rule is that a good laying hen will lay around 300 eggs each year, or around 5 or 6 a week, more in summer than winter.

You can then look at how many eggs you require to determine how many chooks to keep.

If you have too many eggs, as we always seem to find, you will also find that there are plenty of people close by who are happy to buy them from you, it’s very rare for anyone with chickens to have fresh free range eggs going to waste.

Using this figure most people find that 3 or 4 chooks is sufficient.

And then there is the question of what breed to buy and this depends on why you are keeping chickens. Are you keeping chickens for their looks or their eggs or their companionship?

Because there is no doubt there are some wonderful fancy looking chickens available. Our kids love fancy chickens and so we have some wonderful pure white silky bantams. They don’t lay large eggs so are really there for their looks.

But they do look great.

We have Isa Browns for their egg laying capacity. They do not sit on eggs very well and this means they are producing eggs for more days of the year, so are excellent layers. But they won’t hatch chicks for you.

Having chicks is a wonderful experience and kids love it. However there is a downside, namely that you will have to decide what to do with the roosters, and unless you want your brood of 3 or 4 hens to grow to 10 or 15 you will also have to find something to do with the new hens.

However these are small problems when compared to the delights of keeping chickens as pets, and also of having those wonderful, tasty and fresh free range eggs to eat every day.

Peter’s website is at http://www.chickenhouses.net.au

The kids would like a pet. You’ve considered dogs but they bark loudly, mess up the lounge and poop in places you don’t want them to. You consider a cat but they catch native animals and aren’t environmentally friendly. Have you considered chickens?

There’s so many reasons why keeping chickens is such a great hobby, and why chickens make such wonderful pets. You’ll never hear a chicken barking, and although a rooster crows there is absolutely no need for you to get a rooster. And kids love having chickens, I know my kids spend hours playing with the chickens.

And on top of that you have an added bonus. Eggs.

Lots of people never think about getting chickens as a pet when it comes to choosing a pet for the kids. As long as your council allows you to keep chickens it’s well worth considering. But there are some things to think about before you rush out and buy your hens. You need a good chicken house to house your chickens.

Chicken houses need not be big if you only have 3 or 4 hens. It will need a good sheltered nesting area where they can lay their eggs as well as perches for them to sleep on at night.

It’s not hard to build yourself a henhouse. It’s basically just treated timber (for outdoor use) and some wire mesh, and some materials to cover in part of the henhouse so they have some shelter at night. Usually don’t need a floor as it sits on the ground.

And a small henhouse for 3 or 4 hens, if you add wheels one end and handles the other, can be moved around the garden so that the chicken droppings can fertilise the lawn in different spots from time to time. And there’s no reason chickens can’t free range around the garden during the day.

Building a chicken coop is the perfect handyman project. Get together with the kids one afternoon, after finding a simple set of plans on the Internet, and start building your own chicken house. It shouldn’t be expensive or difficult to do and it’s a great way to spend some quality time with the kids.

So grab that hammer and nails, go round up the kids and spend the weekend having some quality time building a chicken house. Buy your hens and you’ve got the perfect solution to finding a pet that will keep the kids happy and the fridge stocked with eggs.

Then all you need to do is learn how to make omelettes and you’re happy as well As the kids.

If you are considering keeping chickens at home then you’re well on the way to making the best decision you’ve ever made. There’s so many reasons to keep chickens it’s difficult to list them all. Primarily though, kids love chickens and they will produce for you a wonderful product every day, eggs.

But before you start looking to buy some chooks you need to find out a little more about what you house them in. They are generally housed in chicken coops, or what are sometimes called a henhouse or chicken house.

It doesn’t matter if you buy your chicken coop or build a chicken coop yourself. It’s quite cheap and not difficult to build a henhouse, it’s really not a lot more than a garden shed with some modifications.

The modifications that you will need are firstly that there are nesting boxes available in the chook house for the chickens to lay their eggs. Make your nesting boxes only a little bigger than the size of a chicken. If they’re too big you’ll find two chickens battling for position in the same nesting box. And make them easy to clean.

And as chickens like to lay where it is dark make sure the nesting boxes are relatively dark or they will lay somewhere else darker, for example in the corner of the chicken coop.

And you will need perches as well. Chooks sleep off the ground standing up, and if you put a bar around 75 millimetres by 50 above the ground they will perch there to sleep.

And you will of course need to provide both water and food, generally inside the chook shed, though this is not essential.

If you provide food and water in the chicken coop you will need to make sure that it is not underneath the perch or the chicken droppings will foul the food.

Of course some responsibilities come with keeping chickens, in particular cleaning the henhouse. You need a nice soft material on the floor of the henhouse, my preference is sawdust which soaks up droppings, though of course needs to be removed from time to time. And it makes a wonderful fertiliser put it on the garden.

The best part of keeping chickens is collecting eggs every day. Organic free range eggs taste better than supermarket eggs and you’re never left with too many as you will always find neighbours happy to buy them from you.

So there’s good reasons for keeping chickens as pets for the children. There’s many animals that make good pets are very few if any that provide you with a useful product to eat as well.

And chickens certainly are a fine companion for children, ours absolutely love their chickens.

So spend a little time researching keeping chooks and consider the type of chicken coop you will need, whether you will build it or buy it, where you will put it and how you will clean it, then get yourself some chickens. You won’t regret it.

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