Everybody loves eggs. They’re one of the most versatile foods you can have in the fridge. And everyone loves pets. So why not combine the two and keep chickens. That way you satisfy the urge to get a pet, and you’ll also be getting plenty of eggs for the fridge.
It seems that all kids love chickens. I have kids and chickens and they spend hours patting them, feeding them and collecting the eggs. Chickens are relatively clean, easy to keep and cheap to feed, and if you only have been they don’t make a lot of noise. Let them free range and they will feed on all those nasty bugs in the garden that eat your flowers.
But before you head out to buy yourself some chickens you have to consider how you will house them. Let’s talk a little about chicken coops .
Of course you need to decide how many chickens you are going to have in your chicken coop. 3 or 4 hens is really quite sufficient to the average household, and if you are keeping this number than a simple portable chicken house that can move around the garden is quite sufficient.
There are also regulations in some places governing the keeping of chickens as well as the size of chicken houses and you should check this out first.
The fastest and possibly the cheapest way to get a chicken coop is to build it, provided you’re familiar with the right end of a hammer and you’ve got a few nails. It’s not that difficult, you need some treated timber, some chicken wire and a few bits and pieces and you can have a chicken coop built in an afternoon.
Although not essential it helps to provide an enclosed area for the hens to nest. This is where the eggs will be laid.
At night chooks need to roost to sleep, so they need some perches above the floor of the chicken house to do so.
A simple design that is easy to build is an A-frame design. You can make the perches by running timber rods from one side of the coop to the other. Make sure that the perches are under cover so the chickens are out of the weather when sleeping stop
If you put handles on one end and wheels on the other it is then easy to move around the garden, and you move it every few days to fertilise different areas of the lawn.
There is generally no problem in allowing your chickens to roam the garden during the day, although it is important to make sure they have returned to the chicken house at night and to close the entry door. Even in the middle of the city it is possible to find foxes and foxes while a chicken for dinner.
If you’ve got kids they will absolutely love having chickens of their own, and will also appreciate the eggs to eat. But make sure, before you buy your chickens, that you do some research to establish what size your chicken coop needs to be to house the number of chickens that you are considering.
All you have to do is get stuck into a simple handyman job building your chicken coop or buy a good one and then you can be comfortable knowing that you always have a fridge full of eggs.
Tags: chicken coop, chicken house, chook houses, hen houses
