How To Have The Best Coop For Your Urban Chickens
Urban chickens are a growing trend in many communities.
More and more cities are allowing residents to keep a few hens now.
Because your space is more limited than if you were keeping chickens on a farm, there are some special considerations you need to consider when choosing or making your chicken coop.
Urban Chickens And Their Coop Size
For one, the size of your coop is an important factor, especially the height.
If not for ventilation consider your head height if you intend to walk into the hen house.
In some cities, there are regulations in place on how tall a chicken coop can be and how large it can be.
Before you choose or build the chicken coop of your dreams, check with your city to make sure local ordinances allow the kind of house you are thinking of getting for your birds.
After all…
You don’t want to go building or buying a chicken coop only to find that the size is not regulated to your area and have to take it down again.
That would not be good.
And I don’t want to see the look on your face if I did not warn you first.
Hen House Portability
Because you are living in the city or suburbs, having a movable or more portable chicken coop could be a more suitable solution might be a good thing.
If you decide to move to a different home, a portable coop will allow you to easily move it to your new home.
Moving one house to another…
I like that.
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Also, having a portable solution allows you to move the bird’s home to wherever you want in your yard.
Which weather-wise is a good idea?
As when the weather is hot, move the hen house into part shade.
And in the cooler months move it into the sunnier side of your yard for your urban chickens.
This is especially useful if your neighborhood has a lot of stray cats.
Being able to move your coop to a different location in your yard keeps your birds safe and allows your birds to explore your yard.
And moving the coop around will also allow your hens to eat any bugs that are around.
Don’t keep the movable hen house too long in one spot as they will eat all the grass and leave a big dust patch but if however, you don’t mind this, no problem.
Hen House Safety
Make sure your birds are safe and happy.
Choose a coop that is strong enough to keep your local predators out and your chickens in.
Unless they have found a way of breaking out like picking the lock or something…
Local predators in cities are likely to be neighbours cats, dogs, stray cats, raccoons, and other similar animals.
Now…
If you have burrowing predators, you may want to consider installing a wire mesh floor to protect your hens from these burrowing types of predators.
Yes… They can be a pain…
The other idea is if you don’t want to install a wire floor which I am not too crazy about.
It is to dig a trench where the chicken fence will be, attach a strip of wood to the bottom of the wire, and proceed to dig it into the ground.
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So even if the burrowing predators do decide that they have you licked with the underground break-in, they find that they have been foiled as they only find more chicken wire to contend with.
Make sure you burrow it fairly deep as the predators are likely to burrow deeper.
Design Your Own Chicken Coop
Instead of purchasing a kit that you put together or an already built one, you may want to consider designing one on your own.
If you design your own, you can include personal touches to it.
Like chandeliers…
No.
Let’s not get carried away here.
Too much dusting.
You can even design it, so it matches the rest of your home.
You can also add in things that will make your bird-keeping that much easier.
For example, you can add things that will make cleaning a breeze.
Perhaps you can add a slide-out tray under the nesting house, so you can simply pull it out to clean it.
Or, you could add in an egg collector system to make collecting your eggs every morning a breeze for your urban chickens…
That’s if you want