People rear chickens in the backyard of their homes for variety of reasons. Besides taking us closer to nature, maintaining a chicken farm at home gives us as much sense of achievement as growing vegetables in the garden. It is also entertaining to watch chickens moving around in the garden. It will give a lot of satisfaction and happiness, if one visualizes that it is chickens that give fresh eggs for breakfast all through the year.

However, in order to ensure sound health for chickens and optimize production of eggs, certain conditions such as quality of poultry feed and weight of the hens need to be fulfilled. In addition, the output of eggs also depends considerably on the duration of sunlight that is available daily. Chickens will, normally, start laying eggs anytime from twentieth to twenty-first weeks and keep on laying eggs for a little more than a year.

The quantity of eggs and their sizes will be optimum during this period. One can ensure the health of egg-laying hens and the number of eggs that they lay by providing requisite quantum of light. Sunshine speeds up the production of eggs. In other words, as the daytime increases so also the yield of eggs.

This explains why there is a natural rise in production of eggs between December 21 and June 21 and thereafter, shows a gradual decline from June21 till December 21, when production of eggs picks up again.

In order to ensure that hens get enough light even during the months when there is less sunshine, it is necessary to provide electrical connection to the ‘coop house’ that one constructs for the chickens. This way, there will not be any dearth for eggs anytime during the year.

One can switch on the light in the coop house as the daylight wears out, thereby ensuring that the light is provided to chickens ranging from 16 to 17 hours daily. It is ideal to adopt this method progressively, compensating for the fading natural sunlight during reduced daytime. This method may boost up the production of eggs by 20 to 30 percent as compared to the production when additional lighting is not provided in the coop house.

The general principle is not to provide bright light on growing birds and not reduce light on adult egg-laying hens. Some of the tips on a good lighting arrangement include:

1. Provision of lighting for appropriate duration daily;

2.ensuring minimum intensity of light; and

3. usage of recommended color.

For best results, the egg-laying hens should have adequate light ranging from 16 to 17 hours every day. The lighting should be sufficiently bright so that it is possible to see clearly the level of feeds while standing over the feeder. The ideal color of light is either yellow or orange tint. These shades can be easily obtained if incandescent bulbs are used.

Another option is to use either ‘warm-white’ fluorescent tube light or a halogen light that emits a yellowish tinge of light. A well planned chicken coop house will make it simpler to create a favorable atmosphere for hens to be comfortable and healthy. Lighting is one of the most important factors to get eggs from the hens regularly.

Another critical factor is to ensure good health for chickens. A properly designed coop house will safeguard hens from numerous hazards such as ‘predation’, theft, direct sunlight, rain, wind, heat, cold, extreme dust and abrupt changes in temperature.

In order to derive maximum pleasure, the inside of the chicken coop house should be planned in such a way that feeding and looking after chickens are simple and secured. A well planned and easy to maintain chicken coop house will give immense satisfaction of maintaining chickens in the backyard of the house.

People who raise chickens know that one of the most important things about raising chickens is the design of the chicken coops. Building a chicken house should not be done without taking the design of the chicken coops into account. It is important for numerous reasons.

First, in order for a chicken to grow properly, its home needs to meet certain standards. Building a chicken coop that is only favorable to the chicken owner will be less successful than one that is favorable to both the chicken and the owner. There are many factors that can affect not only a chicken’s growth rate, but also the chicken’s ability to lay eggs.

One example of a condition that will negatively affect both factors is a coop that is not dry. If a hen is wet it will not only be unhappy, but it will be stressed, and lay less eggs. One way to avoid a wet coop is to make sure that your chicken house includes windows.

Along with reducing the moisture in the coop, windows also provide good ventilation for the chickens. Screens should be installed on the windows of the chicken house to ensure that the chickens do not get out. There should also be a type of screen on your coops to prevent rodents or wild birds from harming your chickens. A good material to use would be wire netting or mesh.

Other important factors are ensuring that the coop is noise free, safe, and away from distractions. When designing your chicken coops, one thing to keep in mind is the amount of time you will be able to spend making sure that the chicken always has access to fresh water.

If this seems to be an issue, a design that may be more logical is one that includes an automatic watering system. If that isn’t an option, ensure that your design has enough space to accommodate water feeders that can hold gallons of water at a time.

Another thing to keep in mind is the affect of light on your hens. Light encourages hens to lay more eggs, so having an additional source of light through an electric source will be more effective than daylight alone. Another factor to take into consideration is the method you will use to feed your chickens.

If you don’t have the time to constantly make sure your chickens have an access to fresh water, and have decided to use an automated watering system in your design, it also might be a good idea to use an automatic feed dispenser. This is important because since chickens have extremely quick metabolisms they must be well fed. When chickens feel hunger they also feel weak, which could cause them to catch a disease.

Chicken houses and coops must be able to withstand changes in weather. It is important that a chicken house can provide both shade for the chickens during the summertime, as well as windbreaks in case of a strong wind. The house should also be large enough for you to enter that way you can walk around the inside of the chicken house with ease, and thus take better care of the chickens.

Designing a chicken coop is much more than something that is aesthetically pleasing, and all of these factors should be taken into consideration before building.

DIY Chicken Coop Building Guide

If you are looking for a DIY chicken coop building guide, make sure to check out the Building A Chicken Coop ebook by Bill Keene.

Keene has been a chicken farmer for a few decades and he knows the ins and outs of raising chicken. Click on the link below to visit his web site right now.

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Hens can be grown at your house easily, but maintaining them includes so many factors to consider as they are vulnerable to diseases more often. There are some things which will help to keep them healthy and looking good.

Even the house design needs to be taken care which is at utmost importance in maintaining them. Several factors need to be considered in your hen house design in order to keep them safe and healthy. There is a predefined design in building a hen house even though there are several designs you can choose from.

Two schools of thought have succeeded in giving different views of their own. In those, the first school explains that, the chicken coop should have more ventilation but that makes hens feel sick due to extreme weather conditions. On the flip side, another school explains that hens do not like poor ventilation. So which one should you follow?

Nonetheless, each school has its own predefined design and their explanation as follows. For backyard chicken coop, this was mostly observed in rural areas and it consists of small chicken den which is mobile and large fencing surrounded. Hens can roam freely in this type of design.

This type of coop allows hens to hunt insects on the ground which which will feed them and keep them healthy. It also provides good ventilation to the hens and it can be constructed easily.

Nesting boxes on the other hand is very a very simple design and you can find it in any hardware store. This design consists of a hinged roof and making it very easy to collect eggs on a daily basis and also for cleaning purposes.

When you want to clean it, you simply open the roof and take the boxes out and then hose them down with water. It helps you to maintain a hygienic condition for the hens.

The factors you have to consider when building a hen house are as follow:
1) Build material – Always go for good quality materials when constructing the hen house. Use a strong mesh for windows to avoid rodents and predators from breaking it. Use concrete flooring when possible because it is easier to clean.

2) Ventilation – By having good air circulation, it helps in maintaining better health for your poultry as hens cannot tolerate wet and damp conditions. Ensure that hen den is airy enough to have free ventilation for them.

3) Lighting – Try to have more lighting for your hen house. Electric lights is the best option because it will make the hen feel comfortable at night and during winter times.

4) Hygiene – This is the most important factor in preparing a house for your hens. An ideal hen house should be very easy to clean and maintain. A clean and healthy environment for your hens will help them to lay more eggs.

DIY Hen House Building Guide

Do you want to know how to build a hen house for your back yard?

If you do, check out the Building A Chicken Coop manual by Bill Keene. Bill is an seasoned chicken farmer with more than 20 years experience.

His guide was written to teach you how to build a small, medium and also large chicken coop on a shoestring budget. For more information, click on the link below and see what Bill has to offer.

==> Click here to visit Building A Chicken Coop now!