Why Do Chicken Coops Need Roosting Bars?

It is a chicken's natural instinct to fly up off the ground at night to keep away from predators. Normally chickens will go back into their chicken coop at night of their own accord. There was one occasion where we must have shut the door to our chicken coop in the morning without realizing, so when I went to shut them up I found that they were some on top of the shed, some on top of a fence and a couple up a tree (I'm not quite sure how they managed to get up there!). So I spent an interesting evening trying to round them up to get them back into their coop.

When they are in the coop, although they are perfectly safe in there, they still instinctively want to roost. When locating your roosting bars you need to bear in mind that a fair amount of manure will accumulate underneath. The most practical roosts are able to be removed from the coop during cleaning.

You can make sure that you locate your roosting bars appropriately by downloading chicken coop plans.

Why Keep Chickens?

There are many reasons for wanting to keep chickens. For me it is about wanting to be responsible for producing food for me and my family and knowing where our food comes from. I personally don't want to be a part of a system of intensively rearing animals where chickens are packed into tiny cages where the only thing they have to do is to peck out their own feathers. My chickens are able to roam free, forage about for bugs and to explore their surroundings. I often have comments that our eggs are better than those bought in supermarkets, and I am sure that this is as a result of the life that our hens have.

It does require a certain amount of work of course. You will need to make sure that you clean out the chicken coop on a regular basis. The chicken manure is great for the garden though!

The biggest expense when first starting out is your chicken coop. However, you can save yourself a lot of money by building one yourself. This is made a whole lot easier of course if you have plans available. Fortunately, to make life easier you can download chicken coop plans here.

Is a Mobile Chicken Coop Right For You?

If you are thinking about having a mobile chicken coop instead of a standard one, then there are number of issues you need to think about. The first thing to think about is how many chickens you intend to keep - any more than six then this might not be for you. A mobile chicken coop has to be small for it to be practical. If you are intending to have a run attached to your chicken coop then you may find that the spot where it is located will quickly lose its grass and become rather muddy, particularly during the winter months. A mobile chicken coop will avoid this as you can move it around your garden.

If you want to give your chicken coop a good clean out then this can be quite problematic with standard coops. However with a mobile chicken coop you can move it nearer to the house to make this process easier. It often helps to move it onto a paved or concreted area.

With all the moving about you do need to make sure that it is properly constructed otherwise you will find that it will quickly collapse.

If you are looking to build your own mobile chicken coop then you could download mobile chicken coop plans.

Choosing the Right Bedding for Your Chickens

One consideration when raising chickens is what sort of bedding you are going to provide for them. A factor in making this decision is what you are going to do with it when you have cleaned out your chicken coop. If you are a keen gardener then the bedding with the chicken manure will make a useful addition to your compost heap. There are basically three options:

1. Straw - generally quite cheap. Rots down well. Can get a little messy in the winter months.
2. Wood shavings - Generally clean. Bit more expensive. Takes much longer to rot down.
3. Shredded newspaper - extremely cheap. Rots down well, but can get very messy if not cleaned out regularly.

Making sure your chickens have a clean coop ensures that they are at their best and that they continue to be productive.

What Do You Need to Build a Chicken Coop?

When you are building a chicken coop you need to consider the needs of your chickens. So here are the essential elements of a chicken coop:

1. Your chicken coop needs to protect your chickens from the elements. You need to make sure that your coop is waterproof and windproof.
2. It needs to be secure. Depending on where you live in the world there will be predators who will be keen to get their teeth into your chickens.
3. Your chickens will need ventilation in order to stop them getting too hot in the summer.
4. You will need to have roosting bars for your chickens to sleep on. They tend to prefer slightly rounded bars.
5. You will need a "pop-hole" - small door for the chickens to go in and out of your chicken coop.
6. Your chickens will need somewhere to lay their eggs, so you will need to provide nesting boxes that are sheltered and provide the chickens with some privacy.

I hope this gives you some ideas for building your own chicken coop. For more ideas on building a chicken coop you can download chicken coop plans.