Thursday, 30 August 2012

BUILDING A CHICKEN COOP REVIEW- NEVER THOUGHT IT WILL BE SO EASY



I recently decided of building a chicken coop of my own. By the way I own a farm house now, which I recently bought and shifted to. As a child I was born and raised in a city. Until recently I have always lived a city life. It was kind of boring and monotonous to for me. I always wanted to live in a country side and close to nature.


I thought having a chicken coop will complete my farm house so I decided to a little research about this. I went to the markets and found out about the costs involved in getting a ready made chicken coop, it was way out of my budget. So I thought of carrying on my research online. And that’s when I came across Bill Keene’s building a chicken coop. It was like a blessing in disguise. Never thought I would find something as amazing and precise.

As Bill Keene says, building a chicken coop was one of the best decisions that I have ever made. Looking at the cost of the book I quickly decided to go ahead and place an order. I couldn’t wait to start building my own chicken coop. When I read through the contents of the book, I realized that it could be so easy to build one on my own. In fact I used to think that it is not an easy job.

With the guidance provided in Bill Keene’s building a chicken coop not only I got an idea about the costs involved but I was able to save a considerable amount of time and money on the material that I bought for building it. Bill has mentioned many materials which are cheap and durable at the same time. I never though I could use common material such as boxes. And because he has used such a simple language to explain it all, I think even my 8 year old can do it without any hassle.

Since I had no knowledge on this subject, I thought its going to be hard to get my head around the contents of building a chicken coop. For a guy who was raised and spent most of his time in a city life will have little or no knowledge about building a chicken coop. Thanks to Bill for making it easy to not only design a cop of my choice but also explaining and guiding about how and where it should be placed.

Since Bill Keene has a history of many years in regards to poultry farming, the book is full of useful tips and tricks that can make your chicken coop safe from predators like coyotes, hawks and cats. Also he has a lot to share when it comes to what food the chicken must be fed, how to keep them healthy and keep laying eggs.

I must say that this book has helped me not only in building a chicken coop, but taking care of my chicken, deciding the space and dimensions and deciding upon how many chicken I should have. Today, I and my family enjoy the natural organic eggs for the breakfast. Our chickens always are in the pink of their health. I had my in laws over last weekend. My father in law couldn’t believe me when I told him about how I built my coop. Now he wants me to build one for him.
Buy it now here :)

Tuesday, 28 August 2012

How to make chicken coop plans : DIY


An interesting information on how to do it yourself chicken coop plans. Very thourough and an exciting piece of article. Dig in peeps :)

Hot Tips in Designing Chicken Coop Plans

by Rief Zar Fieq
A hen house, also called a chicken coop, is a great project that you and your family can take on. On the Internet, there are hundreds of chicken coop plans that you can choose from. It makes things easy but nothing replaces the joy of designing your own. One benefit of modeling your own coop is the reduced cost. Although buying structural plans saves you time, designing your own allows you to exercise flexibility; you can customize your chicken coop to your heart's desire. Below we will show you the key focus areas that need your attention when drafting your own designs.
The first thing you need to do is to decide what type of chickens you will raise because different breeds have different needs. For example, layers will give you a large number of eggs so this means you need nesting boxes. They are also clean-legged and this means they can withstand wet conditions. On the other hand, the table breeds, the ones you raise for meat, are not as active as the layer breed and this means they can live in smaller spaces.
The size of the fowl will also play a critical role in your design. Your plan will take shape once you are decided on your intent. The feeding habit and the number of chickens you want to raise will also affect the overall design since movement is imperative for chickens. Lastly, if your purpose for raising chickens is to have a steady supply of eggs, you need to have a provision or space for nesting boxes. If you are raising poultry for business, consider future business expansion.
Usually, hobbyists build chicken coops in their backyards. A common pitfall when designing one is not considering the location where the structure will be situated. The terrain is also a factor to look at. A mobile coop will not work in hilly or rugged farmlands. Eliminate fancy designs that will not work in your space. If your backyard lot is even, a mobile coop, one that has wheels, will work perfectly and you can move it about easily.
Maintenance and materials are also important components of your chicken coop plans. Cleaning up chicken manure will be one of your daily responsibilities so ease of cleaning should be kept in mind when designing your hen house. Sloping the flooring will give you leverage in cleaning. In terms of location, it is best to have the chicken coop at the top of a slope facing south. This will let the sun dry and warm the coop. The materials you should use should have good insulating properties. Again, the type of chicken will be a deciding factor for this. Mongolian chickens need 10 to 30 degrees of temperature while the others don't. During winter, you will definitely need extra heating sources. In a nutshell, you should consider every aspects before designing the coop for your chickens comfort.
If you want to build your own chicken coop, the most important thing you should have is the plans for the coop. But if you don't know how to design your own chicken coop plans, you can consider to get the complete chicken coop plans available on the internet. So you can follow the ready made plans to build your own chicken coop on your backyard with no doubt.
Article Source: EzineArticles.com

Hope you get valuable information out of this article. Very good if you already implementing it. DIY is the most cost effective way to make a hen house/chicken coop :)