Advice and pointers regarding............................

[Chicken Woman]

You will want at least one window that you can open for good air exchange in the hot months and it is always helpful for natural light year round.

Your biggest concern should be making sure no preditors can dig under your coop. I didn't think we had any preditors until I got chickens and then they magically appeared !

I had red fox almost everyday even in the middle of the day !

I was sure glad we built our coop on a existing cement pad that had been here for a dog run from previous owners. It sits directly on the cement and then we put in a wood floor with some linolium (sp) scrap pieces from Lowes.

There is nothing worse than having your birds slaughtered !

Electricity issues are only a concern if it is a cold climate. I have cold hardy birds RIR"s that got frost bite on combs this year. I followed advice on this site and believed they didn't need heat.

BIG MISTAKE

I now have a heat lamp on a sensor that comes on at 34 degrees and goes off at 42. Sensor cost $14.95 at Lowes. They sell for $30.00 online at poultry supply sites. It is well worth the power it cost to know my birds are not being damaged .

Better safe than sorry as you could loose birds to frost bite.

Good luck and have fun with your birds

 

[invalidsession]

Thanks to everyone for the kind words and advice. Taking on board what you have said I will do the following; Add some form glazing to allow natural light to enter the coop, ensure (as far as humanly possible) that the run attached to the coop is strong and secure. I will check out some cold weather hardy breeds because electricity is not an option right now, the proposed coop is over 100yds from the nearest outlet but I will check out those "Tap" lights as one contributor suggested. With regard to raising young chicks, (excellent thought, Thankyou) I have a large stable block with electricity that may prove entirely suitable for this purpose. Perhaps I could use one of the stalls ? With the simple addition of some netting across the gate bars this should be ideal.
Moving right along, I have done some extensive reading both on this and other related sites but your help would be appreciated regarding different breeds of chicken and they're suitability. We live in mid MO, (Eldon) and the winters are generally short and sweet out here. I would ideally like to produce around 3-4 dozen eggs per week. Your personal reccomendations and experiences would be invaluable in this regard.
Thanks everyone !!!

Chris.