Farming chickens whether for their eggs or for their meat as well is a great way to produce food for your family.
In these economic and environmentally aware times it is great to know where your food has come from without paying the exorbitant prices that some supermarkets seem to charge.
What's even better is that the whole family can be involved too - making it fantastic fun from the time that you build your own chicken house to deciding what meal to make from the eggs that you have collected.
But It can also become a complete nightmare if the chicken coop that you have made is not up to scratch.
If you do nothing else, please take heed of these three essential tips when you look to build your own chicken house - that way you can all enjoy the experience! 1- Get A Plan Most people think that building a hen house is just a case of throwing together a couple of pieces of timber, a bit of netting and adding in some chickens.
They then wonder why their hens soon sulk, stop laying and sometimes even keel over dead! Or worse still, they don't allow for any sort of security and they keep losing their flocks to predators like dogs, foxes, snakes, opossums, stoats, weasels and yes, even owls! Like us, chickens need a certain amount of space, light, air, and water.
You also need to be able to access the coop with the minimum of effort.
It is incredibly difficult to account for all of these if you choose to build your own hen house without a proper blueprint that allows for all of these.
2 - Get A House That Suits Your Flock Whatever your budget and however you choose to house your flock, whether you build your own hen house, buy a pre-made one or get a contractor to make one for you, make sure that it fits your site, the size of your flock, that it is secure enough for the predominate predators in your area and that the windows are positioned in the right place to grab the maximum sun in your area.
3- Get A Hen House That Suits You Too! Not only do the chickens have to live in it, but you also have to be happy to work with it.
There is no point having a five star hotel for the chickens if it is going to give you pain to collect the eggs or clean the coop out.
We've all got tales of the times that we have hit our heads or jammed our fingers collecting eggs from those those darned heavy lift doors? Let's not mention the back-ache from constant stooping to clean out the coop!