Chicken coop requirements!

If you are getting chickens there is ALWAYS one thing that you will need. What is that? A chicken coop! Seems simple, right? Well, this week and last week I found out it wasn't quite as simple as some people might think it is. It is pretty simple but you really need to think out your design. You might be in a hurry to get chickens because you are excited. Well, this is good but you can't get them in a hurry. If you do you might come across some problems like: not enough ventilation, the coop isn't big enough, the chickens are eating their own eggs, there are dead rats that are torn to bits, the chickens are sleeping in their nesting boxes and food bowls, the chickens are becoming aggressive and tearing out each other's feathers, the coop isn't easy to clean, dirt and chicken poop is in the water, the chickens are tearing up the garden, and so many other things that can become a problem if you don't think about what you are doing when you are doing it. 

Let's go over some of these problems and come up with simple solutions. 

First of all you will want to have at lease four square feet for each chicken in the coop. If you don't have a run you will need to have ten square feet per chicken in the chicken coop. That will solve the aggressive behavior towards each other. It will also help with the ventilation, and it will help with getting them to sleep in their roosting area. Another way to prevent them from sleeping in their nesting boxes is to make them smaller. Make them 12" by 12". This will help with this because they will get the idea in their head that this is a place to lay eggs and not to sleep because they like to sleep in a more open area. It will also help if you only put one nesting box for 4-5 chickens because they will learn that it is a  special place that they can't always get to be in. 

A way to solve the poop and dirt in the water and food bowls is to raise the bowls 6-8 inches off the ground. The problem was that they were kicking the dirt and poop into their bowls. 

You never really want to not give the chicken supervision in the garden. It is great to let them be in there but watch them so they wont tear it up. 

You don't have to set traps to get rid of predators and to take care of the rat problem. In fact I hope and I ask you please not to. They all have a life just like we do. And to everyone who thinks rats are "nasty" they really aren't. I have two of my own and I rarely even have to give them baths because they groom themselves 95% of the time that they are awake. Another reason for you to know they are not nasty is because your chickens ate them as a tasty treat. Unless you think the chickens are "nasty" then the rats aren't either. If the rats smelled bad or had a disease the chickens wouldn't have eaten them! And it isn't their fault if they have the disease. A way to solve this problem is to have a floor on the coop or have wire about five inches into the ground. This will solve the problem without killing anything and anyone. 

When you build the coop make windows for ventilation but make sure that the chickens will stay warm in the winter and at night. This is by far the most tricky thing there is to think about! 

Good luck to everyone who is going to build a coop! 

Here is my drawing of the coop that my family and I are going to build: 

I don't know why this was so hard to draw but it really was!

Thank you all for reading this post. I hope you enjoyed it and I hope it helped you,

Coco