Chicken Coop Alternatives

 

If you’ve got some feathery friends or you’re looking at buying some, then you’ll need an Aviary.

Aviaries are large enclosures used for the safe housing and protection of birds. They give the birds more room to move and fly about compared to being cooped up in a small cage.

Although the traditional chicken coop can be a great home for your chooks (as you can see here), sometimes it’s just not big enough.

 

Aviaries are a great alternative

Simply add perches and boxes where the hens can lay eggs and that’s a DIY hen house for you. Aviaries, like sheds have become multi-functional structures.

An aviary is not just limited to being used as a home for birds. 
This can even be used as kennel for dogs or shelter for some other small animals.

Check out the Chooky Hilton created by one of our customers for his chooks...

Making chicken coops out of the available aviaries is a practical thing to do, since the aviary already has wire mesh for parts of its wall.  The mesh would be suitable as ventilation to air out the smell of droppings, etc...  

This type of hen house where you have open-sided coop is called a fresh-air house. Some breeders believe that chickens are resilient but can be affected by poor air quality, darkness and close confinement thus the development of the fresh-air house.

The other type of hen house is the closed houses with doors.  This is the traditional hen houses where it has walls with windows, hatches and doors to serve as ventilation for the structure.  This type is used by owners, who prefer to keep their chooks in a controlled-environment coop to avoid illness in outdoor weather.

So if the traditional chicken coop isn’t for you, an Aviary will do!

Getting a do-it-yourself aviary will provide your chickens a walled area where you can board them in a typical fresh-air house since aviaries have wire mesh. You just need to fabricate the boxes for which the hens will be laying eggs.  Add some perches and your aviary would be good to go as chicken coops.  It will provide a great and safe environment for your poultry.  Aviaries vary in size so you can plan out your space depending on your livestock.