Chicken Hutches Are They The Right Choice?
Choosing the right set of designs for your chicken hutch can become incredibly frustrating considering the amount of plans that are found out on the internet for chicken coops, hutches and tractors, it can become a little overwhelming.
To help you sort through all of this you have to ask yourself – how much room do I have to keep chickens and how many would I like to keep?
Now some people like to have a sort of production set up with lots of chickens and a large coop so they can sell eggs and chicks. Others are more into a mode of supplying their family and friends with fresh eggs and meat while others are just looking for a way to be a little more self-sufficient.
If you’re not looking to raise a large flock for eggs to sell or give away or maybe you have limited space, a hutch will provide your chickens with what they need without compromising what you want.
Chicken hutches are small, quick and easy to put up and it won’t use up a lot of your time to construct it. Another great feature due to the size is they are relatively inexpensive for you to build. It is also a great way to go if you’re just not sure if keeping and raising chickens is for you but you’d like to try and see.
Chicken Hutch Tips
Easy Access for Chickens
Accessing the hutch through a properly built doorway is essential for healthy well kept chickens. This gives them a sense of security and keeps them from getting stressed out. This is the reason for having a correctly sized doorway for your chickens to pass through with the ability to do so easily. Installing a door or door flap will add to the sense of security and will also give additional protection from the elements.
Keep it off the ground
Because you are not able to enter a hutch like you can walk inside a coop you should raise the hutch off the ground by at least a foot. The logic is you’ll access the hutch through the roof for cleaning and gathering eggs, so raising it to whatever level is convenient for you is the idea here.
As soon as you have your hutch off the ground you’ll need a ramp to give easy access to the door for your chickens. It’s a good idea to make the ramp removable so that you can remove it at night – no sense in making it too easy for the predators!
Easy Access
To make your job of keeping your chickens house clean and gathering eggs you’ll want to install hinges on the roof, making it more of an access hatch. Unlike larger chicken houses hutches are made to be small so as a consequence they need to cleaned more often, having a the roof so it opens easily will help you to keep it clean.
It also makes it easy to replenish food and water supplies, so the importance of this step can’t be over stated!
Added Security
Dealing with predators when you have chickens is a given. Something you can do to help discourage any would be predators is to put a latch or even a small pad lock on the hinged roof of the chicken hutch to stop predators like raccoons from opening the roof and helping themselves.
