Helpful Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Chicken Coop Designing Tips
For anyone who's planning on designing and building their own chicken coop, there are a few important details to include. As long as you have a basic idea of what you're doing and take time to perfect your design before starting to build it, everything should turn out fine. Of course before you can start building anything you need to finish the design of the DIY chicken coop which is the toughest part. One of the first and most important decisions you need to make is how much square footage you're going to need for the coop.
Of course this decision should be largely based on the number of chickens you have to hold in the coop. It should be smaller sized but large enough that the chickens will have room to run around in and won't be squashed up against each other. Lighting is also crucial on any DIY chicken coop. Lighting is also important for any DIY chicken coop project, and one of the best ideas is to have the lighting installed with a timer.
Lighting is important in chicken coops, especially during winter months, because it helps with egg production and will also keep the chickens warmer at nighttime. Even just a couple of lights installed in the top of the coop will be enough and by having them set on a timer they'll go off automatically. This will also save with energy costs and help with egg production during the winter months. A built-in heater or other aesthetics can be particularly important depending on your setting.
For those people who live in an urban area, there are a few other aspects that are important to get figured out. Whereas in more rural areas this is not such a concern, if you're living in or near a larger city and the birds were to escape you wouldn't want them to end up on the road and get hit by a car. The number of nest boxes you should have per hen is five. Keep them about ten inches apart as this will give the hens adequate space to roost.
Hens don't like to be kept too close when they're roosting and having space between them will keep them from fighting. You should keep the roosts at least two feet off the ground. Even if this is something you've never tried before, you can complete a DIY chicken coop project in just a few weeks. Building a DIY chicken coop can be pretty easy if you set out a structured, detailed plan for yourself.
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"The number of hens (not nest boxes) you should have per nest box (not hens) is five." Although, I have found that they will all tend to lay in the same next box, sitting on top of each other.
I was reading about Hoop Houses on Homesteadearth.com and they were talking about a hybrid Hoop House, Meets Green House, Meets Worm bin Thing! Awesome idea because they all intertwine with each other! The Worms make casting that help the plants grow, and some plants can help feed the chickens, Also the extra Worms can be feed for protein to the chickens and then the egg shells go to the worms for calcium, which I hear helps them reproduce making more worms!! I need to make a flow chart for this! lol
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