The chicken keeper who erected his first chicken coop thought it was easy and uncomplicated. Unexpected troubles were everywhere. Many chicken keepers’ initial coops had problems, some bigger than others.
Those problems can make chicken keeping difficult and depressing. Chicken keepers must know what every chicken coop needs to have to keep healthy and happy chicks to avoid this.
1. The air needs to circulate in the coop, so windows and lots of them
If space allows, add a few windows to your coop concept.
Windows that you can close and open can help you keep your chickens cool in the summer and winter without fans or electricity coolers or heaters.
2. Easy access to dark spots can help you clean the coop
All chicken coop sections need frequent cleaning and maintenance. The typesofchicken.com crew recommends adding an extra access point to your first chicken coop to make cleaning easier.
If you have enough space in the coop to move about and collect eggs, you’ll save yourself time and effort to do other things like entertain your hens.
3. What About the Run?
The run around the chicken coop should be larger than the coop itself, in that way you chickens can peck and play in a safe space. Make sure that you close the run on every side, and if you have flying predator problems it would be nice to close off the top of the run with some chicken wire in order to provide sunlight and extra protection to your chickens. You run needs to have room for your whole flock to move freely, have dust baths and for you to place some toys and play with your chickens.
4. Old leftover materials are good to use for building your coop, but how old?
Many chicken keepers tend to make the mistake in using leftover building materials that are too old and can give you a lot of headaches when getting your chickens hurt or sick.
Make sure that the wood that you use for building your chicken coop is not rotten; that can cause mites in the coop and your chickens to peck at it, eventually running away or getting sick. Also, for the metal parts, rust is a big no-no.
Don’t put rusty metal materials even for the roof not only where your chickens can have pecking access to it.
Rust is in brownish – red color and as we have already said in some of our previous articles chickens especially enjoy pecking at red stuff which means that if you put rusty objects near them the chances are they will peck at them and eventually hurt themselves or get sick.
5. Extra Space for New Chickens in Your Flock
Remember to create a section to your chicken coop for the newcomers.
Bullying occurs practically every time you add a new chicken to your herd, making this crucial.
Many chicken keepers add a movable wall to the coop for new chicks to minimize bullying and give them time to adjust.
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