Building An A-Frame Chicken Coop
A backyard chicken coop is a great idea for any household to have. Free eggs will save you a heap of cash, and if you’re up to it you can even breed chickens for meat. A common design of chicken coop is the a-frame. This post offers you some pre-construction suggestions, and will show you the next phase to simple, effective a-frame chicken coop plans.
Coop And Flock Size
Naturally it’s very important to give your chickens sufficient space to scratch and peck. A-frame coops will generally hold about 5 chickens. You might consider a bigger design if you’re not prepared to build this style of coop large enough to give at least 3 square feet per chicken.
Other easy coop designs are:
– The “chicken ark” or tractor, and that’s generally a two-storey a-frame coop.
– The box-shaped coop with separate nesting area.
Many of the good quality, internet-based chicken coop plans will offer you several coop designs within the single package.
Planning Your Backyard
It is often simplest to assemble the a-frame coop on-site, even though most coops are designed to be portable. It simply will save you time, effort, and it allows you to observe how things are going whilst you construct. If something doesn’t look right you can adjust it right there and then.
Before you start building, ensure that you do the following:
- Consider the amount of light is available in your garden. Chickens have very vulnerable sleep cycles, and the sun is the ideal way to get them in to a good rhythm. Place the coop so that there’s ample natural light each morning.
- What kind of predators inhabit your region? You’re going to need to either predator-proof the coop, or secure your entire yard. Dogs, foxes and snakes are often the commonest invaders. Most chicken coop plans will show you how to build in the necessary precautions.
- Think about the distance to resources. You might want to be close to electricity if you want to breed chicks and installing a warming lamp will help significantly with this. For most people though it will be enough to be close to the water supply.
A well designed A-frame coop will never be expensive to build. It will accommodate multiple perches, a nesting area along with a location for the birds to eat and drink.
Fresh air is important for the health of your flock. It offers the necessary oxygen to the birds and in addition moves out the stale air. An A-frame coop built from wire mesh typically provides adequate fresh air. These can usually be purchased as a chicken coop kit.
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