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August 19th, 2011 by Peter Doohan

If you’re going to be keeping hens there are some basic items of equipment that you will need, most of which are essential, though not all. Here are the few items you need to buy, build, or have at hand:HousingAdequate space for a run or penFeeder (one unit or more, depending on the actual number of hens)Drinker (at least one or more in case you will be keeping many hens)Feed bin, which must be safe from pest and vermin accessFeed scoopBeddingNest boxesAdequate number of perches

Additionally, a boxful of food supplements and medical supplies should be readily available. These items include:Poultry tonic and spice (mineral and vitamin supplement)Citricidal (good for common ailments such as cold and cough)Cider vinegarPowder against termites, lice, and fleaFlubenvet or Verm-X formulations for regular de-worming treatmentVaselineDavinova C (calcium supplement) and/or limestone flourGarlic power (for keeping chickens in good health and reducing the odor from droppings)

The best protection against animal threats

If you have an enclosed chicken coop for the chickens, do a quick check around the edge of the farm to see if there had been attempts by animals to break in or dig under.

Farm security books pinpoint not only foxes, but, depending on where you live, giant lizards, pythons, and also pine martens, badgers, and birds of prey as a threat to the chickens. Toward reducing the risk of attacks or intrusions, you need to install an electric fence. Check its voltage every now and see if it is working safely as required or you might end up killing your neighbor’s dog with theelectric wire.

When spring comes, watch out for foxes, which are known to be around at this time of the year as they have to feed their young and show them how to forage for food from livestock. Keeping your chickens locked up at night will greatly improve your chances against fox attacks. See to it that your coop is made of strong and durable materials. Foxes have been known to break into wooden coops.

Putting male urine along all pathways or other means of intrusion is a good deterrent, as has been human hair stuffed into old pair of rubber tights and left lying around the outside sections of the coop or perimeter of the pen.

For added protection, and if your budget permits, you should consider investing on a Fox Watch deterrent device.

See to it that all your bins are secure and that there is not much food leftovers that may encourage foxes to forage in and prey on the hens instead.

The Chicken coop

Building and maintaining a coop with wheels often goes a long way to providing you with flexibility. You could easily push it around the garden, thereby allowing your chickens a nice, grassy patch of ground for them to scratch away and permitting the previous patch to recover and re-grow some grass again.

Nonetheless, you may decide to keep your coop in a permanent position with the area of the pen large enough for the number of chickens you have. You will discover for yourself that even with a pen larger the grass will suffer from all the scratching and droppings. To allow your chickens more access to a constant supply of crisp, green grass, you may cordon off a section to allow the other parts to re-green themselves. You may be helping the place cope with the demand by sowing purslane, dandelion and clover seed to add variety to plant growth your fowls may nibble on. Introducing purslane in the hen’s diet more, scientists say, often results to increases in the yield of their eggs.

Chickens need shade

When it gets hot, especially during the summer, make sure that you allocate an area, preferably an edible undergrowth or bush, so the chickens will have a place to retreat. This might just be a modern recommendation, though, because most of the time during the day the chickens perform their natural habit of sprawling out sunbathing. They often gather and lie on their sides, with wings expanded, in a dust bath to cool off.

Chickens do dust bathing

Having a natural tendency for cleanliness, chickens preen themselves at great lengths. Moreover, they indulge in dust bathing and often create their bathing areas either in grassy areas, in large plant pots, or underneath plants. If you find that they have inadequate access to such good spots, you may consider providing some that you might need to anyway during the winter, when some parts of the penned area is either too muddy or too firm.

One practical solution involves using a deep cat litter tray that is filled with soil and sand, toxin-free and completely safe, in the same way as you prepared one for children’s sand pits. Dust bathing helps chickens keep parasites away or in constant check. From experience you will learn that the outbreaks of red mite, fleas, and lice can be treated by letting the chickens do some dust bathing. The dust bathing trick also helps cool the chickens down during the warmer months of the year.

Shelter extensions

You will be interested to discover too that chickens will insist on venturing out of the coop, even if there is a strong gale blowing or the rains comes thrashing down. It’s good practice to keep an area into which they can run to for shelter against sudden changes in the day’s weather. Growing some shrubs, as long as they are not poisonous, will offer them protection. Certain ground coverage will often come ready if the chickens need to dash for cover when they spot a bird of prey gliding down.

If you take up all these ideas you should have happy healthy chickens which lay you yummy nutritious eggs.

Find out more about keeping chickens on Peter’s website, as well as information about nesting boxesand how to fence a chicken coop

August 7th, 2011 by Peter Doohan

Finding the best hens and sourcing them can be troublesome . But acquiring them from chicken breeders, local keepers and farms are good starting points. There’s more than meets the eye, though. As a beginner you really should know what factors to go looking for when choosing a hen. Some, if not all, of your questions can be answered by asking your local breeder or keeper.

Selection Factor 1: Finding the Best Provider

Try going over local trading papers or journals that more frequently feature stock and pet sections. You will refer to Google and zero in on the desired subjects and subjects. Browse through the pages to determine if there any hens that are up on sale. Widen your search thru local newspapers running advertisements listing hens for sale.

Other handy tips:

– Try asking neighbours and friends if they know any of their buddies and acquaintances who keep hens.

– Go to the Net and see whether there are chicken breeders near your locality you might go to for a visit.

– Consider a trip to the Battery Hen Welfare Trust (BHWT) web site to discover if there are available rescue hens that need a new home.

Selection Factor 2: The Chicken Sort of Choice

Don't you think that with the many strains of hens available, you must ask what to pick ? First, you want to resolve and decide what is it particularly that you would like out of your chickens”fresh eggs on a regular run, a pet for your leisure or entertainment for your chums, or for meat . Different breeds, as was the wisdom of seasoned breeders say, are “ideal for certain things.” Here are a few tips:

Types of Good Layers

Toward meeting your desire for hens that produce a good supply of eggs, those that are advertised as POL or point of lay is a good selection because they are typically 18-22-week-old birds. The perfect breeds include:

– Warrens, which lay between 250 to 300 eggs yearly

– Rhode Island Reds (200 eggs yearly )

– Black Rocks (250 eggs yearly )

– Marans (200 eggs annually )

– Bluebelles (200 eggs yearly )

– Orpingtons (200 eggs yearly )

Good Table Chickens

If you're attempting to find chickens that are excellent for eating, table birds do nicely . The ideal breeds meeting these requirements are:

– Sussex

– Wyandotte

– Dorking

– Plymouth Rock

Pet or Show Birds

Many chicken breeds, in most parts of the Earth, are thought to be docile, beautiful, or unusual (uncommon ) in appearance. Breeder manuals and mag say the bantam variety as the most ideal chicken that fits the factors . Bantams serve as the tiny version of the preferred big breeds and are presumed appropriate in locations where there is less room for nest boxes. The preferred pet or show breeds include:

– Araucana, which lays blue eggs famous for their beauty

– Cochin

– Dutch Bantam

– Pekin

– Sebrights

– Silkies

Selection Factor 3: Vaccination-certified Hens

It is your responsibility as owner-entrepreneur to be certain that the hens you acquire from your supplier had been vaccinated against common fowl illnesses such as Mareks, Newcastle, transmissible laryngotracheitis, fowl pox, and mycoplasmosis, amongst others . Checking out explanation in a vaccination certificate stands consistent to your own interest.

Also, keep a watchful eye on tell tale indications of physical weaknesses . Find out by closer observation if the hens are alert and bright-eyed. The healthy ones stand with tails up, have had clean bottoms, and show no discharge from their noses and beaks. Moreover, check the legs and feet, and make sure that the hens had smooth scales and robust legs.

Selection Factor 4: Last Preparation Checks

You need to be sure that your prepared facilities duly matched the sort of hens and the purpose for which you are raising them. Run the check list one by one to make certain that not an item is left out.

Before leaving your house to collect your hens, make sure that the coop is ready . Ensure that the feeders and drinkers had been filled out and full.

Think previously about the sort of carrier you are going to use. If a special pet carrier isn't available, a card box is satisfactory . But do ensure that there's enough breathing holes already in place and the box bottom has been duly braced . See to it the box is neither too big for the hens to have so much space to move about during the trip or too little that they're too crowded in or cramped beyond ordinary comfort.

Selection factor 5: Choosing a chicken coop.

You need to make sure you choose a good chicken coop for your chickens. Even if you get everything else right your chickens won’t be happy if they have a damp or cold or draughty house. Find out more about chicken coops on my website.

Peter has a website all about Chicken Houses where you can get more advice about chicken nesting boxes to keep your chooks healthy and happy and laying eggs

categories: chickens,chicken coop,chicken coops,keeping chickens,chicken house,henhouse

February 18th, 2011 by Matt Carpenter

There are ways where you could save money in owning chicken coop. One of those ways is to build your own chicken coop. However, building your own chicken coop may require you time and effort but the good about it is that you will be secure that you can save money than to buy those expensive chicken coop at the market. Commonly, those that are sold in the market are commercially made which means that it’s not really that durable and quality. But building your own chicken coop will give you the assurance when it comes to durability and quality since you are the one who will be buying the materials. Here are some of the materials you need in building chicken coop.

Lumber: This is use as the body of the chicken coop that’s why it’s very important. You could use your old lumber if you have one or you could buy new sets. If you are saving money, then you could use those old lumbers that you have. But if you want to buy new sets of lumbers then you could buy them at any lumber hardware. This is available in different sizes. That’s why you need to know the appropriate size for building chicken coop.

Chicken Wires: This also another important metrials that you need to buy since this will enclose the chicken coop that you have build. There are different types of chicken wires that you could have. You could either have those made of aluminium wires or plastic. The whole in those wires also have different sizes. Just buy those that would be comfortable for your chicken especially for hens that are laying eggs. When you buy this, you buy it by meters. So, make sure that you know how many meters you need to buy for you chicken coop.

Carpenter Tools: These are very important since this will help you build the chicken coop that you want for your chicken, if you don’t have these carpenter tools, there would be no way that you could build chicken coop. Here are some of the carpenter tools that you might need; hammer, fencing pliers, shovel, and fencing cutter. Then also buy mails for you will need it as well.

You could search the internet for other possible designs that you want or you could create your own design/pattern.

Learn more about Chicken Coop. Stop by Matt Carpenter’s site where you can find out all about Chicken Coop and what it can do for you.

January 22nd, 2011 by Kor Rassad

From far away Ancona, In the Province of Ancona, Italy, the popular Ancona chicken was sent to England in the early eighteen hundreds, followed in the late eighteen hundreds by a trip to America. From its origins in Italy to spreading around the world.

In Italy, the chicken can be found in browns, reds and white. This is probably why some copper color, once in a while, shows up in the hackles of the neck. The spangled color has come suspected mingling over the centuries of the Black Leghorn and original Mottled Leghorns. But the Black Leghorn passed on its greenish black feathers (purple tint also can be seen) tipped with white as well as its yellow, featherless legs and four well spaced toes. Toes are important? Yes, they are! Like human toes and those of many other mammals, toes help with keeping balance. Earlobes? Chickens have earlobes as well! And the Ancona has those, in the color of white.

Chicken combs on this chicken are of two types… Rose combed and, in the hen, a single tilted comb while the rooster’s is straight up. Avoiding chicken killers is the job of the bay colored eyes!

There are Red Australian types, Bantam and many large and smaller kinds. They are pretty common. The Australian variety is red with white specks on the neck area feathers.

Moulting (losing feathers) is natural and as these feathers grow back in, the white tips will grow back larger, allowing the age to be determined quite easily. The six pound rooster is a bit larger than the hen, who weighs in at a mere four and a half pounds. She is a great egg producer and as a pet, living eight years makes them about perfect.

About once a day during the laying season, the Ancona will produce one egg, totaling one hundred sixty to one hundred eighty a year. Occasionally tinted eggs will show up. As the hens eat, the food they consume changes to egg production in a very satisfactory manner. This should please the owner!

The hen is not too broody but does raise strong little chickies fast and if a few are hand-raised by the owner, they do make nice pets. They are friendly and will follow around.

As stated earlier, the hen is quite an active, busy little bird, unlike the rooster, who chooses to wander around at a slower pace. Both, however, can fly over a fence so build the chicken yard with lots of thought. Keep them in and wild critters out. Both hen and rooster prefer wide open spaces. More room to chase those bugs! Being unaffected by normal cold weather will enable a sufficient chicken house to be built. This is where the nests will be and provide protection from the nasties that prey upon them.

In doing research, there can be found a funny piece of information. There is an online game of magic that uses the Ancona Chicken as a pet, although it is a non-fighting pet, that can be called forth to follow the warrior around. He wont assist in combat, however! Why don’t chickens like people? They beat eggs! (snicker, chuckle!).

To continue reading more about Chicken Coops, and other Chicken Breeds, visit ChickenCoopAdvice.com

January 11th, 2011 by Elaine Jeans

There are countless Chicken Coop Plans to choose from on the World Wide Web. How do you know what to look for? What things should you avoid? What are the important things to remember? The fact is, most designs are cheap, ineffective, and will probably cost you a lot of money in the long run due to extra supplies and annoying maintenance costs. Remember to look for these 4 important things when designing your own chicken coop. These reminders will definitely help you greatly.

Easy cleaning is top priority. The chicken coop should be easy to keep clean. Most chicken coop blueprints fail in this department. A good design will always allow for easy maintenance, and efficient cleaning. Be particular and look for downward sloped floors, for proper drainage. Be sure the main doors can be opened inwards.

Secondly, suitable ventilation should be considered. A well-organized chicken coop design will always allow for sufficient ventilation. Poorly ventilated chicken coops will spell disaster for your chickens. If the coop has sliding windows, make sure they can be opened easily. The door must be easy to open but secured as well. A good door, whether it is made out of plexi glass, or wire mesh, should not jam or get stuck. There must be adequate windows to allow for plenty air to circulate inside the henhouse. Good ventilation will keep your chickens healthy and kept dry.

Thirdly, proper lighting must be in place at strategic locations. An ample light source is always a plus when designing a chicken coop. Using electric or fluorescent bulbs will make this so. One advantage of a properly lit chicken coop is the fact that it can supply much needed heat during cold seasons or cold nights. Make sure you are not using lamps that give off too much heat or else the chicken will die.

Fourth, the use of strong construction materials is recommended. Using high quality wood and materials will be cost effective in the long run. Thick wire mesh should be used if you plan to use wire mesh for your windows and doors. The last thing you would want is for a predator to eat through your chicken coop to get your precious chickens.

Obviously there are many other things to keep into consideration when you are looking for strong and cost effective Chicken Coop Designs. If you keep these four tips in mind, then you are good to go. Your chicken coop blueprints will always depend on your budget and the number of chickens you have. You don’t need to buy expensive materials to build the best chicken coops. You just need to find the best coop blueprints for your budget and plans. Discover the exact chicken coop blueprint for your particular needs, there are more than a dozen effective and cheap ones out there.

Get Plans For Chicken Coops within minutes online. Visit us at Chicken Coop Plans Download.