Article By Andrew Alford
Besides the chicken coop plans, finding the best location for your coop will determine whether you and your chickens will be satisfied with your chicken coop efforts. Building a chicken coop in the right situation and position leads to more happy, more healthy chickens and leads to them laying more eggs.Find a well protected area in your yard. This depends on how large your yard is after all. If you've a lot of space, you might want to think about building a coop where you can simply have an eye fixed on it. You may also build a lightweight chicken coop if that's more handy to you.
Consider what predators there are in your area. That includes domestic predators like your neighbours ' pussies or dogs. Wild predators will often include raccoons, foxes, badgers and rats. But do not forget the threats from the air. Hawks can also pose a danger to your poultry. If you know that there are hawks in your area you will want to think about building a covered run. If the plans you pick don't include a covered run you'll have to modify them to your needs.Additionally, picking the right fence to go with your home-made coop will be a major asset in shielding your chickens.
If there are a lot of predators that may dig their way underneath, you'll have to build your chicken coop far enough into the ground to deter the strongest-willed predator.Another thing to contemplate when building a chicken coop is that your chickens need a good deal of daylight. Make certain to position it in order that it faces the sun so long as possible throughout the day. Building a chicken coop in overly shady areas isn't such a great idea.
If your chickens do not get plenty of sunlight, you will have to install electric lighting, which is not extremely cost effective.While your coop should be well ventilated, it should not be too windy either. So if you live in a windy area, consider building the chicken coop near to the house or a grouping of trees that break the wind a bit.
The same is true for very wet climates. If you get lots of rain, position your chicken coop so it is about as much protected as practical. Also you do not want to build the chicken coop so that rain can flow down and flood the chicken coop.It does not take plenty of work to build a chicken coop, but there are a lot of things you will need to observe. This is especially so for those only starting out that have no idea of the different dangers to lookout for.
If you are building a chicken coop and would like to know more about the most effective way to locate it. Andrew Alford has a new blog with some great data all about chicken coops
