maintain chicken coops
Since we’ve gone over a great deal of the information you need to successfully build a chicken coop with our chicken coop plans, it’s time to talk about one last factor, maintenance. Since you’ve put in a good effort getting your coop up and running, it would be a shame to let it start to disintegrate over time due to lack of care. Fortunately, maintaining and repairing a chicken coop isn’t all that difficult provided you stay on top of things regularly.
Here are some of the main things you should know about.
Pay Attention To The Door
Since the door is one area of the coop that’s going to be constantly moving as you go in and out to feed the chickens, it’s something you’ll want to watch and maintain regularly. If the latch is becoming loose, be sure you fix this immediately so your chickens don’t find a way to escape out.
If you find that you’re regularly having issues with it, you may want to consider either replacing the door altogether or else just finding a more secure latch and being sure it’s bolted to the door properly.
Each farmer will have their own preference when it comes to the opening door so figure out what works best for you.
Regularly Check Your Fence
Another aspect of the chicken house that should be monitored at least once a month is the structure of the fence. If you do have predators that come around frequently, they may attempt to get in which can impact the stableness of your fence, calling for some rebuilding if necessary.
Some fences are also quite prone to falling over after so much time, so walk around and test various areas of the fence to see how well it’s standing up still.
Check The Feeders
Keeping a close eye on the feeders located in the chicken coop is also vital since these will be used on a daily basis. In some cases if the feeders are very beat up it could be a signal you should consider installing another one into the coop as the chickens may be constantly fighting over food and picking at the feeder.
You also want to watch how your chickens are responding to the feeder height. In some cases you’ll get chickens who prefer a feeder to be slightly lower or higher than how you placed it, so adjusting this as time goes in is important for the overall comport of your chickens.
Usually it just needs to be adjusted an inch or two, but this makes a huge difference in how easily they can access their food.
So, don’t neglect the maintenance of your chicken coop. If you decided to go with a mobile chicken coop you’ll find that maintenance does tend to be quite a bit easier since you can just move the coop to wherever you are. If you didn’t, than that just means regularly planning maintenance into your weekly or monthly schedule as you see fit.