12 Months in a North Iowa Backyard. One Polar Vortex. Here’s How the Hoover’s Coop Held Up.

12 Months in a North Iowa Backyard One Polar Vortex Here’s How the Hoover’s Coop Held Up

On a rural property outside Mason City, Iowa, sits a 10-Bird Hoover’s Lean-To Easy Clean Coop and Run It’s been there for nearly a full year, holding a small flock of backyard chickens through some unpredictable weather conditions Now, 12 months later, the coop is holding up just as well as we expected While the inside has been cleaned on a regular schedule (the coop has been home to two Rhode Island Reds and two Light Brahmas this year), the outside underwent no

Comfy Nests

Perhaps the greatest joy that comes from keeping backyard chickens is the wonderful gifts hens leave in their nests Some are huge Others are small One may be long and skinny, while others are nearly round They might have light or dark brown, white, or even blue or green shells An occasional one may sport speckles Those eggs are beautiful, diverse, fresh and nutritious

 

Providing clean, safe and comfortable nests encourages hens to lay where eggs are easy to collect That involves putting enough nests in the right places and collecting eggs often

What Type of Floor Do You Want in the Run? Choosing the Best Chicken Run Flooring

If you have spent any time raising backyard chickens, you already know the coop gets most of the attention The run, though, is where the real action happens After housing chickens in seven different coops over the years and experimenting with all kinds of layouts, one detail kept proving more important than I expected: the chicken run flooring Picking the right floor for the run is one of the most overlooked decisions in coop design, yet your birds will spend the majority of their waking hours standing, scratching, and foraging on it

What Do You Need in a Chicken Coop? Your Essential Equipment Checklist

Your chicks have arrived, your coop is built, and now you want to give your flock the best possible life The trouble is, walk into any farm store or scroll through a poultry catalog, and you will see shelves of gear that all look essential So, what do you need in a chicken coop, and what is simply a nice-to-have that can wait? The good news is that the real list of must-have coop equipment is short, affordable, and easy to get right the first time Let’s walk through exactly what your chickens need to stay

Tips on Keeping Your Coop Clean

Your chickens may be pretty and clean themselves, but without your help, they probably won’t keep their coop clean  Cleaning the coop doesn’t have to be a major ordeal though  There are a few things that you can consider when designing your coop that will help to keep it clean  There are also some things that you can quickly do each day that will take less than five minutes

Coop Design

Are you thinking about building a coop from scratch or modifying the one that you have to make it better?  There are a few things that you can do inside