It is difficult to explain how charming chickens can be for someone who has never had any or have taken interested in these animals. But they are super charming! They have a fun and interesting behavior, they are in infinitely many different races and colors and are very versatile as pets. And which other pets can by the way pay for their living by daily giving freshly laid eggs?

You do not necessarily need to live in the country to get chicken – the vast majority of municipalities will allow you to have at least a handful of chickens in the urban area. Turn you to the Environmental Health Department to find out what applies to where you live!

Chicken houses can be built in a thousand different ways, but common to them all is that they should be bright, dry, well ventilated but not drafty, have lighting, perches, fertilizer bin and nests. If you have a roomy outhouse, you can make it into a chicken house. Building new is of course the very best, but it can get expensive if you don’tknow what you’r doing. And a chicken house don’t need to be so fancy.

In terms of size, there are certain rules and standards to follow, for example, that one must have a minimum of one square meter of floor space per five hens while they have an unlimited amount of outdoor space. But I do not think you should stare yourself blind about these kinds of thing. If you have a frost-free hen house you can make it large and roomy but if you have a colder house for them it shouldn’t be larger than that the hens themselves can warm up themself toghter during the winter.

The cold is not that dangerous for the chickens, although of course they cannot handle lots of sub-zero temperatures during a long period of time. Moisture is much worse, and when you give additional heat should you remembered that you might also increase the moisture / condensation in the henhouse. My chicken coop is not frost free, and when it is the coldest I have a heat lamp on it. But it becomes much more wet and messy on the floor when it is lit. So I don’t light up the lamp until the outdoor temperature is creeping down to -10 degrees or colder. Down to -5 degrees in the hen house I think is acceptable for a short time. But then one can get problems with drinking water that freezes and breaks frozen eggs.

If you want to find out more how to build a good, stable and inexpensive chicken coop I suggest you check out The How To Build A Chicken Coop Guide. It have given all the knowledge I have today when it comes to my chickens and it’s definitely worth checking out if you want to build your own chicken coop.