Chicken Coop

A chicken coop is a permanent house for a small flock, with a roof, perches to sleep on and nest boxes to lay in. Fixed housing means the birds come home to one place rather than the house moving to fresh ground. Stood against sectioned garden fencing, the flock can be let into one bed at a time once its crop is finished: in a single pass the birds eat the residue, take pests off the surface, scratch the top two or three centimetres (an inch) and manure it, doing most of what a tiller and a bag of fertiliser would. Eggs and meat come out of it all year.

Two inputs must not fail: fencing and water. A coop short of either is in trouble within days, and water demand climbs with heat, so the supply is sized above the average draw. Floor space is argued over: one standard allows about 0.3 square metres (3 sq ft) of sheltered floor per bird, another 0.14 sq m (1.5 sq ft) indoors plus 0.75 sq m (8 sq ft) of run. Take the larger indoor figure where there is no run. Set it on high, well-drained ground facing the sun so floor and run dry out, and ventilate without draught - openings high and angled upward carry damp air and ammonia out without blowing across the birds.

Because the house never moves, the ground around it never gets the rest that moved housing gives. It goes bare, compacts, and becomes a standing reservoir of worms and disease unless the manure is carried out to the beds rather than left where the birds stand. That carrying-out is the real recurring job, along with keeping litter dry and adding bedding before it cakes rather than after. Predators can take a whole flock in one night, so run wire is buried about 30 cm (12 in) down and turned outward against diggers, the run is covered against hawks and every opening screened. Heat is the other danger: without shade and spare water, birds eat less, drink more and start pecking one another.