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Anyone into farm, Kennel or Chirch Coop Building? Buying a load of books and stuff, still trying to learn. Anyone from Alabama?
I'm from Alabama, but I have no idea how to build a chicken coop. The chicken farmers here have houses, not coops. However, you might want to check with your state's farm extension service.
I am building one now. I bought plans on E-bay for $15. They are decent plans. So far I have spent nothing. I am half way done. It willo house 8 chickens. IF you do not have leftover lumber laying around it will cost about $200 to build.
You can build a chicken coop out of durned near anything. Everything depends on your weather, protection, if you will try to overwinter them or butcher them come fall, and what sort of amenities you want/need.
We built a small coop behind our garage so that we could pop a heat lamp through the wall and keep them warm. Electricity is a GOOD thing for the winter, to not only provide warmth but light for laying during the winter months.
We also built chicken tractors - portable henhouses/yards on skids - for our laying hens to be mobile throught the garden, eating bugs and grass and providing manure between the rows for next year. We ran dowels across the inner tops of the coops so that the chickens can roost. We had to build the tractors to be sturdy, to not only keep the chickens from running all over the yard but to keep them safe from predators (we have LOTS of predators).
The 'garage' coop now houses the roosters that will be slaughtered in the fall for the freezer. Do you need/want a walk-in coop as well as a walk-in yard, to gather eggs and do clean-outs? Remember that the bigger the coop, the more heat you will need in the winter. We built wooden "chicken doors" that slide up and down on tracks, and are locked open with a wooden 'pin' thru a hole in the 'slider', and 'people doors' that are hinged and locked shut with rotating wood pieces on center screws.
Remember that chickens will decimate a chicken yard in no time, and that it will have to be cleaned out as well. We have a short (3 ft high) chicken yard on the garage coop, but framed a fold-back top so that we can enter the yard and clean it when necessary. Being able to lock the chickens in as well as out for cleaning, egg gathering, feeding, etc, is necessary.
We incorporated several ideas to accomodate our needs, the size of our property, the number of chickens we have (20 - 10 roosters, 10 hens), and the type of weather we have. We have one rooster with five hens in each tractor, and the other roosters are getting freezer-fat in their coop. At the end of summer, we can bring the tractors into a pole barn stall, near water and an electrical hookup, put in the lamps and keep the tractors out of the snow - while still giving them a chance to get out on nice days.
Do you have acreage I hope?
Do your neighbors a favor and make sure you house it far away from where they can smell it. they reek and the smell travels. Oh yeah and DON"T get a rooster. Those things are so gdarned loud at 4am.
Chickens don't "reek" unless the bedding is done improperly.
In most cases, a chicken tractor is a better way to go than a fixed coop. The one I built used hardware cloth for the sides to eliminate problems from predators. It is surprising how fast costs go up in building even a simple tractor.
If you consider a tractor, weight is a major issue, unless you have a tractor to pull your tractor.
The Backwoods Home forum isn't as comprehensive as the Countryside Forum, which has a separate section for poultry, as well as goats, cattle, rabbits, etc.
Be aware that you cannot raise chickens as inexpensively as commercial growers, and that as long as chicken in the stores is $1/lb or less, you better like tending chickens and butchering, cause you are going to be losing money.
Have you ever butchered a chicken? If not you are in for one Hell of a surprise! My dad always made us watch him wring their neck and then we had to take turns holding the head and body across a stump while he chopped the head off with a hatchet. Every once in a while he'd skip the neck wringing and go straight to the chopping.
Now THAT is when they reek. The hot water on the feathers creates a wonderful aroma of yuck.
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The chicken farmers here have houses, not coops. However, you might want to check with your state's farm extension service.
