Field Guides & Blueprints
Search our library of 237 practical articles.
Building a Coop Dashboard in Home Assistant: Temp, Door, Cameras, Alerts
A Home Assistant coop dashboard is one screen that answers a single question — “is the flock safe right now?”…
Cleaning and Washing Fresh Eggs: The Right Way
The right way to clean a fresh egg is, most of the time, to not wash it at all. A…
Roost Material Showdown: Lumber, Branches, and What to Never Use
The best roost material for chickens is plain untreated softwood — a pine, spruce, or fir 2×4 laid flat. It’s…
Coop Heater Thermostat and Cube Switch: Run Heat Only When It Matters
The most important safety upgrade for any coop heater is not the heater — it is the thermostat or cube…
Dirt-Floor Coop Done Right: Drainage & Dig-Proofing
A dirt-floor coop only works if the water leaves and the diggers can’t get in — get those two things…
Warm vs Cool LED Coop Light: Color Temperature for Laying and Calm Birds
For a coop laying light, use warm white in the 2700K to 3000K range. It triggers laying perfectly well, keeps…
Do Cold-Hardy Chickens Even Need a Heater? Where the Line Actually Is
For most backyard flocks, cold-hardy chickens do not need a heater. A healthy adult bird in a dry, draft-free, well-ventilated…
Sand Coop Floor: When It Wins and When It Freezes
A sand coop floor is the easiest floor in the world to keep clean — until it freezes, and then…
Why a Flat 2×4 Beats a Round Dowel Roost in Cold Weather
A flat 2×4 laid on its wide face beats a round dowel roost in cold weather for one reason: it…
Keeping Chickens in a Small Backyard
You can keep a happy flock of three to six hens in a backyard as small as a few hundred…
How Much Roost Space Per Chicken? Linear Inches by Breed
Give each standard-size chicken 8 to 10 inches of linear roost length. Bantams manage on 6 inches each, and broad…
Sealing a Plywood Coop Floor to Clean in Seconds
A properly sealed plywood coop floor cleans in seconds because nothing soaks in — droppings and spilled feed sit on…