With no regard for whether you like to keep chickens as pets or as part of your plan to start a poultry business building a chicken coop is important. Of course you usually have the option of purchasing a readymade coop but those are expensive given the indisputable fact that they cannot take the heavy thrashing that chickens can dish out on them. This is the reason why you must build your own coop using straightforward chicken coop plans.

Many people who are serious about raising chickens or beginning a poultry farm frequently begin with hiring a professional wood worker to build their chicken coops. The biggest problem with this is that carpenters can be dear not to mention that you are going to find yourself in trouble when you need to patch up the coop. Oftentimes this can lead to a lot of disappointment.

The best way to make life simpler and save some cash is to build your own coops. This can be a difficult task if you’re not a talented carpenter but I have managed to break it down into a step by step process. The methods I use have been honed after a number of years of building chicken coops.

There are many reasons why people are choosing to build chicken pens. One reason is the cost of a premade chicken coop could be out of their budget. One more reason is they would rather spend a little time raising chickens and not building chicken cages. The good news is if you follow a good plan, you can build a chicken house in a short period of time and save a large amount of money in the process.

You could be wondering if there are such stuff as easy to build chicken shacks. They do exist provided you follow the plans as specified and have the materials needed to build it. The materials are common items you’ll be able to find in your local ironmongery store. Those items may consist of wood, aluminum, steel, chicken wire, wire mesh, etc. You also do not need any specialized tools.

Here’s a recipe for making simple to build chicken enclosures.

1. You need to know how many chickens you are raising and the design you would like for your home.

2. Then you want to find the right plan that fits your requirements. If you want a large elevated coop, then you need to choose the plan for large elevated coops.

Even on lifting there are two schools of thought; some say that a fork is best on light soils, and a spade on heavy, whereas others advocate using a spade whatever the soil.

A spade, if used carelessly, may cut through tubers which a fork would miss, but there is much less chance of breaking tubers as the whole weight will be supported on the blade. If a fork is used, some part of the tuber may resist lifting, as the finer roots have not been removed, and severe damage may be caused by the uneven pressure.

On balance I think a spade is best. Cuts should be made all round the tuber, about 6 to 8 in. away from the stem, gently lifting the tuber an inch or so each time the blade is inserted to loosen the hold of the fibrous roots. Finally the spade should be driven down and under the tuber, and the tuber firmly lifted from its bed, as you grasp the stump of the stem with the free hand to prevent sideways movement.

Paxillus involutus is one of the most abundant mushrooms. Its cap is viscid in the centre and woolly at the edges and in colour is almost identical to its short stipe. The yellowish flesh has a slightly bitter taste and smell. If it is bruised the whole fruit-body turns a rust colour and later brown.

However, this mistake can be avoided if some care is taken. llylopillts felleus is characterized not only by its bitter taste, but also by its pale pink tubes which, when bruised or old, become a rusty brown and are never yellow-green like the tubes of the ripe fruit-bodies of Boletus edulis. These tubes are at first white and angular, whilst the stipe is covered by a network of veins.

It is recommended therefore that Paxillus involutus should not be collected. Paxillus atrotomentosus is often seen on the stumps and dead roots of coniferous trees. It is not poisonous, but is a poor quality. The taste and smell of its flesh is bitter and acidic.

Perhaps this is the most controversial point of all, as the ability to discern colour varies intensely with the individual, as does personal preference.

One of the most unsatisfactory statements ever made was to the effect “that the colour should be typical of the variety”. It is unsatisfactory inasmuch as it meant that if a variety was of a poor or indeterminate colour, its merits had to he judged on a condition which in itself was not desirable. In all other characteristics judges do not make much allowance for inherent faults in the particular variety, so that it does not appear to be logical to choose a different basis for judging colour.

This is not such an easy question to answer as so many points will affect the issue. If the plants have been grown for garden display, particularly if they were raised from divided tubers, there is no urgency unless it is more convenient to clear the ground. The plants may well be allowed to continue blooming until the frost does finally settle the problem for another year.

The verticillum wilt is soil borne, and may be troublesome in houses in which tomatoes have been grown in a previous season. In both cases the tubers can sometimes be saved by cutting away the diseased parts until clean flesh is reached, but this is not always possible. All debris and the rotted tubers should be destroyed by burning, and the soil in which they have been grown removed and replaced by fresh soil.

The most common, dahlia mosaic, is transmissible by greenfly and occurs amongst certain other of the sub-order Helianthea (to which the dahlia belongs), being thus transmissible from these also; however, this is unlikely to be a serious risk as such plants are somewhat rare. The main symptoms are yellow-green banding along the line of the vein, which in extreme cases causes the resemblance to a mosaic which prompted the name. It is often associated with a bumpiness in the texture of the leaf.

If it does get into the cutting beds, then remove the damaged plants to prevent it spreading throughout the bed and increase the ventilation. Out of doors other bacterial and fungoid diseases may affect the dahlia. Two of them, fortunately extremely rarely seen, cause the comparatively quick collapse of the dahlia, usually at ground level.

Incidentally I do hope that it has been made clear that, when referring to tubers, the actual fleshy root portion is meant, not the crown or stem, and that each dahlia plant will produce a group or clump of tubers. It is unfortunate that the gardener invariably refers to the whole clump (which consists of stem, crown and a group of tubers) as a dahlia tuber-the chance of confusion the whole, as for example, in the chrysanthemum, where the term “stool” is used to signify the whole plant after lifting.

Rotting tubers make themselves evident in several ways. A wrinkled tuber in an otherwise plump clump, should be suspect immediately. Brown or grey “mould” is, of course, a grave danger signal, but by the time this appears usually the danger has reached serious proportions, so it cannot be considered an ideal guide.

Softness is also a danger sign. The outer skin in this case will usually peel off with only slight pressure from the fingers to reveal the corruption beneath.

Cortinarius armillatus is a neat-looking species and easily recognized at first sight. Its relatively sturdy fruit-bodies have a brick-red or reddish, rusty brown cap, with yellow, later cinnamon brown gills and a brown, club-shaped stipc, decorated with vermilion red broken stripes, which are remnants of the cortina. Its flesh lacks any specific taste or smell.

Cortinarius armillatus is associated with the birch trees of mixed forests and grows in an acid soil. Its fruit-bodies sometimes grow in small groups on mossy cushions or between fallen rotting leaves and needles. This species is usually classified as edible, but like the majority of Cortinarius, it is rarely collected. Its characteristic feature is the red striping on its stipe; these preclude any possibility of confusing it with other mushrooms.

Fortunately, it can be easily distinguished from other purple edible gill fungi. Pluteus cervinus is one of the most common red- spore mushrooms which grow on stumps and rotting wood. Its relatively large fruit-bodies have a light to dark greY or greyish-brown cap, surmounting a thin, white stipe which is longitudinally streaked with thin dark fibrils. The gills arc prominent and stand free from the stipe.

Out of doors nicotine can be used to control aphis and thrips, but would appear to be more reliable, used either in spray or dust form, as it is effective at much lower temperatures than nicotine, as well as being rather more lasting in effect. Alternatives are derris, which does not appear to be very effective, and the phosphorus group insecticides. Most of the phosphorus group, although extremely effective against a wide range of pests, are dangerous to use, and protective clothing and masks must be used.

They have not true stomachs, so that they inject a little of their digestive juices into the plant sap, together with the virus, and suck hack the pre-digested sap, greatly to their advantage, but also greatly to the dahlia’s detriment.

Attack by aphides is usually marked by twisted and distorted foliage, so that if these symptoms are seen investigate the under surfaces of the leaves: it is almost certain that a small colony will be present.

Metaldehyde (meta-fuel) bait is an almost complete answer; this can either be purchased as a ready made up compound, or mixed at home by crushing one bar of meta-fuel into a fine powder, mixing with water and about 4 ozs bran to form a crumbly mash.

The common clone now grown in the Lampongs in southern Sumatra is ‘Belantung’ with large leaves and small fhiits; it shows some field resistance to foot rot; it is said to have taken over from `Djambi’ as the latter was very susceptible to foot rot in the Lampongs around 1930.

The flowers have no perianth and 2 -4 minute stamens are borne on each side of the ovary in hermaphrodite flowers and are 1 mm long with small anthers with two sacs. The ovary is globose, one-celled, oneovuled, surmounted by 3-5 rather fleshy stigmas, covered with papillae, white when receptive, later turning brown.

The fruit is a globose drupe, 4-6 mm in diameter, with a pulpy pericarp, borne in spikes 5-15 cm long. Each spike may produce 50-60 single-seeded fruits. The unripe fruit is green with the exocarp turning red when ripe, and drying black. The seed is 3-4 mm in diameter with a minute embryo, little endosperm and copious perisperm. The weight of 100 peppercorns varies from 3 to 8 g and is usually about 4.5 g.