The number of chickens that you intend to have in your flock will determine the size of your coop. Birds that are raised for meat or hens raised to lay eggs require approximately two square feet for each inside the coop. The coop must contain one nesting box for every four or five egg laying hens within the flock. There should also be six to ten inches of perch space inside the coop for every bird. Each chicken also requires approximately 8 to 10 square feet of yard space. You should build your coop on a high spot. This ensures that the coop and the feeding area are not full of puddles after a rainstorm.

Draw your design on paper according to the space required for your flock. Your design should include a door so that you can collect the eggs and clean the coop. This design will help you to determine the dimensions of your coop and the amount of building materials required to construct it.

An A-frame design that is four feet by eight feet can comfortably house four or five chickens and fit in a backyard. Take two pieces of lumber that are 48 inches long and two pieces that are 96 inches to construct a rectangle. Miter the corners of four pieces of 48-inch long lumber to form an A-frame at either end of the rectangle. Attach two pieces of 96-inch lumber at the top point of the triangle, one piece on either side of the point. Connect the pieces together with glue, screws or nails to form a triangle. Cover each triangle-shaped end with plywood. Cut a hole that is 12 by 16 inches in one piece of the plywood to serve as a door. Cut a piece of plywood 30×48 inches to act as the floor for half the coop. Cut two pieces of plywood 32×48 inches and nail them to the A-frame at the same end to act as a roof over the floor. Hinge the roof to make it easier to access the eggs and clean the coop. Install a round dowel inside the house to act as a perch. Place one or two nesting boxes inside as well. Cover the floor with straw to keep the chickens warm.

The remaining portion of the coop, except the floor, should be covered with chicken wire and secured with staples. The open floor will allow the chickens to free range. You can easily reposition this coop within the yard after it’s finished.

Larger coops should be constructed so that they face a southerly direction. This will aid ventilation in the summer and heat the coop during the winter. The roof should slope away from the door. Cover any windows or openings with chicken wire to keep the chickens in and predators out. Install a latch on the door so that you can secure the coop if necessary. Secure the nesting boxes and perches along the walls. The perches should be three to four feet off the ground and the nesting boxes should be filled with straw.

Chickens aren’t picky about their coop. They will be happy as long as they have a safe place to lay their eggs and avoid unpleasant weather.

To determine the best way to rid your chickens of the mites, it also depends on how many mites are there. If there are just a few, the chicken house just needs to be washed down with poultry shield. To be sure that the mites are really gone, it’s also good to use several other products made to kill red mites. This could also help to prevent them from coming back too soon.

However, if the problem is very serious and there is a huge mite infestation, more drastic measures need to be taken. This process could take two or three hours to complete so it’s important to allow that much time before getting started.

The entire chicken house needs to be cleaned out. Any loose bedding and other materials should be removed. Take down the house as much as possible and remove most parts including the pop holes. Take apart everything that can be unscrewed. There are automatic pop hole openers available to remove the pop holes.

If the house has a felt roof, this definitely has to come off. The mites could easily make a home right under the felt, and there could be thousands of them. A pressure washer or high pressure hose will be needed to wash down the whole house and also the parts. A perfect job should take at least 45 minutes to complete. No cracks should be missed because the mites could still congregate in one crack.

After about 15 minutes the house should be dry. If there are any mites coming out yet, the wash needs to be done again to get the leftovers. Once again, let the house dry and check for mites. This should continue until no more mites are seen. Once this finally happens, it is the time to put in fresh bedding. Also, use a good bit of diatom on the bedding and into each perch so that the perch is all white from the diatom. This will prevent the mites from crawling over the perch to reach the chickens.

If the roof was felt, wait about two weeks before re-felting. Plastic should be used in the meantime to keep the house waterproof.

The diatom should still be used for several days whenever it starts to wear off. Even if the red mites are still around, another mix of poultry shield should be sprayed into the places where they appear. Once they are really gone, the diatom should still be used for several weeks to keep them away.

The first step in maximizing your hens’ output is to choose a breed designed for heavy egg production. Rhode Island Reds are famous for their egg-laying capacity, laying approximately 250 to 300 eggs per year. Leghorns are another popular choice, as are hybrid varieties. Hybrid chickens are a cross of two breeds with an even greater egg output than either parent. It’s not uncommon for some hybrids to produce 300 to 350 eggs per year.

Next, it’s important to keep adding chicks to your flock every year to maintain egg production levels. Chickens reach their peak fairly early in life and begin to drop off after a few years. Whether or not you choose to give older birds away, eat them or keep them as pets is a decision you will have to make as your flock grows. If consuming your older chickens in an option, consider a dual-type bird that will produce less eggs, but also have better meat, such as the Plymouth Rock.

Even chickens specifically bred to lay a lot of eggs will be affected by environmental factors. Light plays a big role in production, so have a bulb on a timer in the coop, and keep the interior comfortable and dry. This will fool hens into thinking its summer year-round, thus minimizing their winter slow-down. It should be noted, however, that a significant temperature difference between the interior of a coop and a run can be harmful to birds. Unless you experience sustained temperatures well below freezing in the winter, it’s better to let hens adjust to the cold than heat a coop.

Hens also require a balanced diet to convert their energy into eggs, so provide feed meant for laying hens at all times, even if your hens forage in a yard. Most feed stores sell specially-prepared pellets and crumbles that will deliver every nutrient a hen needs in an easily-digestible format. It’s also wise to leave out oyster shells as a calcium supplement for sturdy eggs.

Water is vital for hens producing an egg every day, so ensure that they always have access to fresh, clean water. Hens drink twice as much water as they eat, and can be quite picky about what they will drink. This means emptying and refilling the trough daily to eliminate any debris that falls in over the course of the day. If your hens are not staying hydrated, egg production will dry up to accommodate. Clean water also helps prevent disease and parasites, which drain the energy of hens and can also slow down egg-laying.

Back in the days when many families relied on chickens for their very survival, maximizing egg output during the winter months could mean the difference between a meal or starvation. Nowadays, most urban homesteaders aren’t in quite so dire circumstances, but would still like to achieve the best results possible for the resources they put into their chickens. With these simple guidelines, a small flock of five hens should be easily able to provide for a family of four every day of the year. Before you know it, you may find yourself with more eggs than you know what to do with!

Choose Breeds Wisely:
Unlike in the country, your chickens won’t have acres to roam around on. Because of this, you don’t want to choose breeds of chickens that need a lot of space. Do not rush into buying your chickens. Although there may be numerous sales, you may end up with the wrong breed or possibly only roosters. Before you buy your chickens, do research and order them from a reputable source; a quick online source will yield plenty of results.

Care & Housing:
Don’t be fooled, even if you live in the city, there are predators out there that would still love to prey on your chickens. Chickens, no matter where they live, need a coop that can be opened and closed, roosts, and laying boxes. Your chicken house doesn’t have to be very big, it just needs to have roosting poles and a door that can close. If you decide to get chicks, you will need to only let them out in a chicken pen for a short period of time. Hawks and other prey seeking birds can and will easily swoop down and snatch your chicks; don’t let that happen, keep your chicks safe. A chicken pen needs to be constructed so that your little ones will have enough room. Most importantly, until your chicks become of size, it needs to have a roof to protect them from flying predators.

The less room your chickens have, the more maintenance you’ll need to do. The chicken house should be cleaned out as often as possible, as should the area that the chickens have to roam in. Just like humans, chickens don’t want to sleep or live with tons of their own manure around. Your chicken house will also need to have bedding; in most cases, chickens will be happiest in straw. Be sure to change your bedding as needed so that it remains fresh.

Feeding:
If the area you allow your chickens to roam is lucrative, they’ll be able to find plenty of bugs and worms. Regardless, you’ll still need to feed your chickens. Chicken feed can be found at most feed stores and the type of feed you’ll need to feed your chickens will vary depending on their age.

If your chickens do not have access to grass or an area where they could potentially dig up bugs, you’ll want to supplement their diet with foods such as fresh greens, crushed egg shells, warm oatmeal mash, weeds, and if you can, snails and or slugs.

Raising chickens in the city is perfectly reasonable as long as you’re willing to take the time to provide your chickens with excellent tender loving care.

Illness and Disease

A goat can become ill then shake it off but if one member becomes sick over and over again, the immune system is probably not as strong as the others. This can lead to disease that can spread like wildfire among the herd. Watching this member closely and removing if necessary can keep an infestation of illness from attacking the entire herd.

There are three types of disease that producers need to be aware of in meat goats. Johne’s Disease, Caseous Lymphadenitis (CL) and Caprine Arthritic Encephalitis (CAE) are common incurable diseases that attack herds. Johne’s Disease or Paratuberculosis is an infection that strikes the small intestine and is very contagious. Only mammals with four stomach chambers fall prone to this strain of infection. An outward sign is if a goat begins to shed hair profusely or the coat becomes mangy and dull. Left unattended, wasting and diarrhea can follow. This is a sure sign that death is eminent.

CL or Caseous Lymphadenitis is a bacterial infection that is also contagious and can occur from wounds, scratches or licking an area where pus has formed. Not as life threatening as Johne’s Disease, herds have to be checked often for sacs of pus around the jaw area and ears. This is a way of life for goats but left unchecked, can infect an entire herd. The good part is that it is curable with isolation and treatment. Once the infection is gone, culling can end and they can return to the group. Currently, there is no vaccine to ward against this infection. Flies can easily transmit the tainted pus from one goat to another so frequent checking is necessary.

CAE or Caprine Arthritic Encephalitis is a disease of the nervous system that is passed through milk of an infected doe to her kid. Thought to be caused by a virus with no feasible way to control, kids should be immediately culled after birth to prevent the threat of CAE. Once artificially weaned, they can return to the herd that has been tested for CAE and given a clean bill of health.

Natural Signs of Weakness

There are other reasons for culling when trying to raise the best goat meat possible. Aging goats that are over six years old begin to have a difficult time chewing and walking. Without being able to keep up nourishment or interact with the rest of the group, their presence becomes unsustainable. Culling does not suggest that goats must be put down but separated from the well performers. Other reasons for culling include aggressive goats that bring stress to others, female goats with poor nurturing skills and runts that never seem to grow.

Raising meat goats can be rewarding and profitable but only if there is diligence in observing signs that must be addressed and culling when necessary. If the situation is questionable, cull to be safe rather than sorry.