Chicken Coop Guide

by chicken house plans on Thursday, February 18th, 2010 | Comments Off

Building chicken coop is not an easy task, but rather a challenging hassle. If you want to know how to build a chicken coop and you are novice, then you are not alone. Many people, who desire for keeping chickens, need a chicken house, but ignorant about the dos and don'ts of the coop built. If you are also willing to design a beautiful coop for your favorite chickens, then this article is worthwhile for you. Using the underlying tips and implementing them to your design plan of a hen house, will be not only a safe abode for your chickens, but also an eye-pleasing property of your backyard house.

Safe Abode For Chickens

Your precious chickens need protection from the hazardous elements like predators and severe weather conditions like water entering into the coop from rainfall or snowfall, deadly heat of a summer season and deadly cold of winters. Some changes and amendments to your chicken house will surely ensure safety for the chickens. A well-ventilated coop withstands in hot and dry seasons. If the fresh air circulates throughout the coop, the chickens will get the oxygen, a vital force of life and it will prevent diseases due to stagnant air.

Use quality material for the construction while building the chicken house. The sturdy windows and doors ensure protection from theft of your chickens and no predator can forcefully open the windows or doors of the chicken house to swallow the chickens. Use thick wood and wire mesh for the fencing to protect your backyard chicken coop from trespassing by the predators.

Maintenance Of The Coop

A well-built chicken coop provides ventilation in hot seasons and assures warmth in the colder seasons. Install insulation for warmth in the colder seasons and by this your chicken house can have dryness in wet seasons. For better warmth in nights, install electrical lightning a system in the coop.

These are a few essential tips to be considered while building a backyard chicken coop. To build a perfect and complete chicken coop, you should follow certain professional DIY guide that will cater to the needs of your chick coop built.

Building A Backyard Chicken Coop can be an easy and cost-effective task if follow professional chicken coop plans. Chicken coop is an abode of the chickens where they lay their eggs. The built up of the coop requires certain material and size that affects the hygiene, cleanliness, productivity of the chicken.

Click Here to Learn more on how you can build cost-effective chicken coop by following easy step by step plan.

Brad Brown is an experienced chicken coop designer and has designed more than 100 chicken coops with best standards.

Does anyone know if there is a good guide on the day to day care of a chicken coop with 25 chickens?"?

I can't find my chicken book right now to tell you what one I have, but here is some links for you.

EXTERNAL SYMPTOMS FOR DIAGNOSING POULTRY DISEASES

http://archive.msstate.edu/dept/poultry/diagext.htm

Poultry diseases - common symptoms

http://www.dpi.qld.gov.au/poultry/5114.html

Spotting disease early.

http://www.canadianpoultry.ca/spotting_disease_early.htm

Poultry health.

http://www.welphatchery.com/poultry_health.asp

Directory of Federal and State Veterinary Offices

http://www.aphis.usda.gov/vs/birdbi.../stateinfo.html

Find your local Avian Veterinarian

http://www.aav.org/vet-lookup/

Sour Crop
By Dr. David J. Kersting, D.V.M.
From The American Cockatiel Society's Online Magazine

http://www.browneggblueegg.com/SourCrop.html

Poultry Medication Guide

http://www.penpages.psu.edu/penpage...01/2980183.HTML

FDA Approved Animal Drug Products

http://dil.vetmed.vt.edu/NadaFIrst/NADA.cfm

FDA Approved Animal Drug Products
Online Database System
Drug Product Abstract

http://www.goatworld.com/health/med...andamprol.shtml

MEDICATIONS - Most commonly used.

Terramycin (Oxytetracycline) - safe; use @ 200 mg. To 1000 mg. (1 Gm.) per gallon water; withdrawal time - 5 days.

Aureomycin (Chlortetracycline) - use exactly as Terramycin.

NF 180 - not water soluble - must use in feed @ 100-200 Gm./ton.

Neomycin - good against E. coli bacteria. May use in water or feed.

Gallimycin (Erythromycin) - water or feed, good against Mycoplasma. Withdrawal - 1 day.

Amprolium (Corid) - for treating coccidiosis; very safe. (See recommended dose under coccidiosis).

Sulfaquinoxaline or Sulfamethazine - water or feed; less safe; somewhat toxic to bone marrow. Withdrawal - 10 days.

Tramizol - wormer, 20 mg. Per bird per day (1 Gm. powder per gallon water for 1-2 days).

HANDBOOK ON POULTRY DISEASES
Simon Shane, Ph.D.
School of Veterinary Medicine
Louisiana State University, USA

http://asasea.com/po36_97.html

Necropsy Dissected Chicken Parts. (warning graphic pictures)

http://department.caes.uga.edu/poul...dent/lab202.cfm

ON-LINE PUBLICATIONS BY TOPIC
POULTRY DISEASES

http://www.ansci.umn.edu/poultry/resources/diseases.htm

Hova-Bator Intructions Download

http://www.gqfmfg.com/company/downl...rderid=&userid=

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" Plans for a 19th century chicken house are available free at
http://www.tartergate.com/chicken.php ( you will need adobe to open )
Modeled after the chicken house built by Joy Tarter's grandparents in 1895, plans for "Mammy's 1895 Chicken House" include an architectural layout of the house, a complete list of required materials, and full-color photos depicting the Tarter's re-creation. "

http://www.tartergate.com/

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A Cheep and Easy Chick Brooder
This may come in handy for you all who will be receiving day olds. Be sure to scroll down to the bottom of the page to see the pictures.

http://www.poultryhelp.com/brooders.html

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Turkeys

Turkey Rearing/Feed Program

http://www.millerhatcheries.com/Information/Turkeys/turkey_rearing.htm

Turkey Management

http://interactive.usask.ca/ski/agriculture/animals/poultry/poultry_management.html

Raising turkeys

http://www.agric.nsw.gov.au/reader/poultry/a509.htm

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This site has diagrams of...
Respiratory System of the Chicken
The movement of sternum and ribs during respiration
Male Reproductive Organs & Urinary Tract
The digestive system
Reproductive organs of the female bird

http://www.iacuc.arizona.edu/training/poultry/species.html

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This site has everything you ever wanted to know about chicken feet.

http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/eggs/res13-feet.html

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Here are some links for home butchering of poultry.

I can not stress this enough.
>>>>Warning some pictures are graphic!<<<<

Home Processing of Poultry

http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/livestocksystems/DI0701.html

Butchering

http://www.siteupgrade.com/poultry/butcheringpoultryfinal.html

A flock of your own.

http://www.gatewaytovermont.com/thefarm/slaughter.htm

This NebGuide provides complete step-by-step instructions with pictures for home processing of chickens.

http://www.ianr.unl.edu/pubs/foods/heg144.htm

Field Dressing Poultry: A Beginner's Perspective

http://www.feathersite.com//Poultry/Stuff/Yonder/FieldDressing.html

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Here are some links to help you determine when you butcher if your meat is safe to eat.

Warning these sites have pictures some people may find disturbing.

Avian Necropsy Techniques

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/VM009

A Picture Guide of Chicken Feed Withdrawal

http://www.engormix.com/e_articles_...ustry.asp?ID=52

This site has slides of a necropsy .

http://ag.ansc.purdue.edu/poultry/s...tomy/sld001.htm

Poultry Disease Diagnosis

http://www.msstate.edu/dept/poultry/pub1276.htm

Poultry Necropsy Basics

http://ohioline.osu.edu/vme-fact/0012.html

necropsy info:
http://www.angelfire.com/ar2/rojo1/post.html (how to necropsy)
http://www.angelfire.com/ar2/rojo1/postmort.html (how to examine findings)

anatomy info:
http://www.msstate.edu/dept/poultry/pics/anatomy.jpg (anatomy)
http://ulisse.cas.psu.edu/4hembryo/female.html (hen reproduction)

Merck site for help diagnosis/gen'l info/photos:

http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/index.jsp

Excellent pictures of normal chicken anatomy.

http://department.caes.uga.edu/poul...dent/lab202.cfm

Here is the merck veterinary manual

http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/index.jsp

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How to pick-up a chicken

The wings should be held together, over the back, the legs held
by the fingers. A frightened or fractious bird can be calmed by
covering its head with a cloth.

http://www.iacuc.arizona.edu/training/images/handling.gif

WHEN RESTRAINING BIRDS, REMEMBER THAT THEY CAN SUFFOCATE,
IF THE BREAST BONE IS NOT FREE TO MOVE IN AND OUT!
Diagram showing movement of sternum and ribs during respiration:
A. Inspiration
B. Expiration
C. Sternum (keel)

http://www.iacuc.arizona.edu/training/images/diag.gif

http://www.iacuc.arizona.edu/training/poultry/index.html

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TIPS FOR HATCHING HEALTHY CHICKS

1. Egg collection. Gather eggs at least twice per day. This removes eggs from a contaminated environment and reduces exposure to hot or cold weather. Hot weather promotes preincubation of the embryos resulting in poor hatchability and chick quality. Cold weather, below 50 F, will also reduce hatchability.

2. Sanitation. Remove adhering dirt, nest litter, or stains with a soft, clean cloth or sandpaper. If an egg requires more than two wipes to get it clean, then it should either be discarded or washed with a sanitizer. Use a sanitizer or disinfectant such as Lysol™ to disinfect the eggs.

3. Storage. Store eggs in a cool environment. The optimum temperature range for storage of hatching eggs is 55 to 67 F. When storing eggs less than 10 days, use the upper part of the temperature range and when storing for longer periods use the lower part of the range. If possible, maintain relative humidity between 75 and 80 %.

4. Selection. Inspect the eggs for quality. Eggs with moderate to severe shell deformation and eggs that are filthy should not be incubated. Shell problems usually result in too much moisture loss during incubation which dehydrates and kills developing embryos. Even worse, these eggs are very susceptible to bacterial penetration and contamination. One contaminated egg may spread contamination to every egg and embryo in the incubator.

5. Incubation. Incubate chicken eggs at 99.5°F and about 60% relative humidity. Ideally you should have two incubators. One for incubating the eggs until the first egg pips, and a second incubator to be used only for pipping and hatching. The pipping and hatching process can produce a lot of contamination. Eggs in the incubator that are not scheduled to hatch until several days later are susceptible to contamination when there are older eggs in the same incubator that are pipping and hatching.

6. Pulling the Hatch. Take the newly hatched chicks out of the hatching incubator as soon as they are dry. Leaving them in the hatcher for several hours after hatch could result in heat stress and/or dehydration.

7. Brooding. Provide the chicks with feed and water in a clean, heated environment. For the first week, chicks need a brooding temperature between 90 and 95 F. Drop the temperature 5 F each week until you reach 75 F.

Care of Eggs Before Incubation Begins
Fertile eggs should be incubated within 7 days after they are laid. The number of eggs that hatch begins to decrease if held too long. If it is necessary to hold the eggs before incubation, keep them at a temperature of 50 to 65 degrees F. Refrigerator temperatures (around 45 degrees F) will kill the embryo. The embryo may resume development if the temperature is above 75 degrees F. It is best to have an incubator ready for the eggs when you pick them up.

http://ohioline.osu.edu/b633/b633_3.html

Receiving eggs in the mail.

Receiving The Eggs - Make sure any broken eggs are immediately removed from the carton and container.
Make sure that ALL EGGS are pointed small end down. The air sac is suppose to be in the larger end.
Let the eggs set in the tray or container small in down, flat surface for at least 24 hours. This allows everything to hopefully go back into proper pos