Читать книгу Hobby Farm Animals - Chris McLaughlin - Страница 52

If your desire to keep chickens exceeds your ability to buy or build a standard chicken coop, don’t worry: chickens can adapt to simple accommodations. If you keep them dry, safe, and out of drafts, they’ll be happy. Consider the following inexpensive options.

You can build chicken accommodations into existing structures, such as your garage or back porch, the kids’ abandoned playhouse, or an unused shed. Build coop-style quarters, or house your chickens in cages. Show-chicken fanciers often cage their birds in wire rabbit-style hutches.

It’s best to forgo keeping heavy-breed chickens if they must live in cages; continually standing on wire floors will likely damage their feet. Allow 7 square feet of cage floor space for each light-breed chicken or 6 square feet per bantam. Place a 2-foot-by-2-foot sheet of salvaged cardboard in one corner so inhabitants can rest their feet; replace it when it gets soiled. Caged chickens appreciate roosts—affix them at least 6 inches from the floor—and boredom-squelching amusements, such as toys.

A large wooden packing crate fitted with a hinged roof makes a dandy indoor or outdoor coop. Prop the lid open during the day (if you keep flying breeds, you’ll have to fashion a screen) and close it at night. Outdoors, install a latchable dog door in one side and attach a small fenced run.

If appearance doesn’t matter, fashion a funky, cost-effective walk-in coop out of tarps, a welded wire cattle panel (or two), and scrap lumber. It’s amazing what can be done with plastic tarps if aesthetics don’t count.

Did You Know? If it’s possible for a chicken to hurt itself on something, it will. This is important to remember when building a coop. Get down on your hands and knees—at chicken level—and really look at the finished coop to try and spot chicken hazards, like a stray piece of sharp wire poking out.