Starting your own flock in the backyard can be a joy once you get the hang of things. As it is, you need to go over many important consideration to successfully do so. One such consideration is the chicken house design if you are going to build one yourself.
Chicken coop doesn’t have to be so complicated. In fact, if you have a grasp of basic woodworking skills, you can easily build one yourself over a weekend. It has to meet some requirements however, to foster optimal growth and development of your flock.
As a guideline, you need to go over these things:
SPACE
Chicken house has to have ample space for the chicken to move about. Therefore, depending on the number of chicken you are planning to keep, you must decide early on the size of your chicken coop. Also, in choosing the right size, you need to give ample consideration to the feeders. The chicken should have enough room to gain access to their source of food and water.
Sanitation is also an important issue in this case. Make sure you have a chicken house design that is easy to clean and has enough room to facilitate proper sanitation.
PROTECTION
Depending on your location, your chicken may face the danger of being attacked by different predators. Snakes, foxes and coyotes are the common ones, among others. You need to make sure the coop has the right design to fully protect the chicken against such dangers.
One way of doing this is by installing fences. Solid and durable fences put in place should be able to keep most form of predators out.
LIGHT
Light source is a very important aspect in planning a chicken house design. Light will provide the much needed warmth during the colder months or winter time. It is also a fact that chickens won’t lay as many eggs during those months with shorter days. The light source will help in optimizing the egg laying capacity of a chicken.
DESIGN
The internal design of your chicken coop should be well suited for your purposes. For example, if you want to optimize egg laying, then it is a good idea to add some laying boxes that are off the ground as this fosters the comfortable egg laying of hens.
Another important thing to take note of is the roosting area. Chickens has this habit of roosting at night. It is a good idea to have a specific place in the chicken house where they can sleep comfortably enough. Setting the roosting bars above the nesting boxes is a good idea.
The chicken house design should be specific and works well for your purpose. This is why, s always good to have a very good coop plan to help you in constructing a DIY house for your flock.
