Friday, April 1, 2011

How Complicated is it to Build Your Own Chicken Pens Or Chicken Runs?

By Johnathan Brown


Surprisingly building your own Chicken Pens is not complicated at all.Perhaps you have referenced the net and saw the substantial costs of typical pre-built chicken pens. If you made up your mind to build your own, you will need some really good plans for a chicken coop. A fine collection of plans can help you save a lot of funds for the reason that you would only pay for the cost of the materials and a few hours of your time. You do not need to spend too much of your time hence a quality set of plans will help make this task easier. Beneficial plans should address the following areas.

Security Issues

Once your chicken coop is installed and operating, you need to be able to protect your birds from possible predators. You'll need excellent chicken wire fencing that will make up the run (the outside area of the chicken house). This fencing will be set in the ground deep enough so that predators cannot dig under the fence to acquire access

Feeding the Chickens

High quality plans for chicken coops/chicken pens will help you put together the feeding places in the structure. You will need to determine how much space it will occupy. Remember that you will would need to freely access the feeding areas to supply food and water. These areas will need to have to be accessible for cleaning up also.

Good Air-flow

Chickens will have fresh air and sunlight to be productive. Plans for chicken coops will allow for these needs during the constructing process. They will need to have adequate warmth during the winter season and cooling during the summer. Windows need to be built so sunlight can shine all the way through the structure.

Size and Space

You will need satisfactory measurement to fit your chickens in comfort. It's often advisable to have at least ten sq ft per chicken. The size will depend of the number of chickens you choose to raise. You also need to account for the size of your yard and local laws that may reduce the size of you chicken house.

These were just a couple of guidelines when it comes to building your own chicken pens or chicken coops. Sensible plans are essential if you plan to build your own. It will prevent a lot of frustration and make your job much simpler. It would be a shame to spend a day making a coop only to discover the hen house isn't spacious enough.

Most pre-built chicken pens/chicken coops cost anywhere between $500 to several thousand dollars. With a set of smart plans and a few materials, you can make your chicken coops for a small percentage of that price.




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