The device of the chicken coop for broilers
Broilers are one of the most sought-after birds among poultry farmers. This species is characterized by active weight gain and large dimensions. Before you start breeding broilers, you need to equip them with a place of residence. The main advantage is that a large area is not required to keep birds. A chicken coop for broilers is quite simple to construct with your own hands, if you adhere to all the recommendations, especially since in our age of advanced technologies you can use a video in which everything is described in detail.
DIY chicken coop for broilers
What should be the building
A do-it-yourself broiler coop has many advantages over purchased bird housing. Firstly, this way you can significantly reduce construction costs. Secondly, the premises will be adapted for a certain number of birds, and thirdly, self-built housing for chickens is much stronger than store-bought counterparts.
Housing Standard Requirements:
- small size;
- high quality illumination;
- optimal sizes for convenient placement of cells;
- reliable protection against the penetration of rodents and predators.
Containers for food and drink should be located in different parts of the chicken coop (in no case in one). To ensure the appropriate temperature regime in winter, it is necessary to install electric lamps. One of the important nuances in building a chicken coop with your own hands is the location. It is advisable to install the room on dry, sandy soil. If the soil is wet, it must be covered with sand, after drying it out.
Besides artificial illumination, the room should have enough windows to provide access to sunlight. Optimal natural light is essential for the health of broilers. To protect the chicken shelter from drafts, some plant hedges along the walls. It is better to build a chicken coop on a hill so that after precipitation the moisture does not accumulate, but flows down.
When keeping chickens in winter, there must be a vestibule in the hen house. It should be insulated from the outside with metal sheets, and a layer of foam plastic should be laid between them and the wall. From the inside, the vestibule is trimmed with sheets of plywood or fiberboard. The roof is insulated with mineral wool. Windows should also be well processed: cover up all the cracks, it is advisable to insulate the slopes if the openings are large.
Calculations and schemes
An important point on how to make a chicken coop for broilers with your own hands is drawing up a construction diagram. Before drawing up a project, you should decide on the number of chickens. Unlike layers, broilers are kept in small premises. Planting density per 1 sq. m is 50 chickens or 5 adult chickens. Based on these parameters, you can make accurate calculations and draw up drawings.
Recommended to mount cells in 2 tiers to save space. The bottom row should be located no higher than 1.5 m from the flooring.The chicken coop can be of any shape, depending on personal preference. It is possible to build a chicken coop for broiler chickens from wood or use a brick for construction, then the structure will be more durable and frost-resistant.
Before building a chicken coop for farm broilers, it is necessary to prepare all materials for construction in advance. Walls, roof and chicken coop floor must be insulated. Also, at the planning stage of the building, it is necessary to outline the place of the ventilation system and determine its type. The ventilation system can be of 3 types:
- natural;
- supply and exhaust;
- automatic.
The room will be small, so a natural ventilation system will suffice. Such a system implies ventilation by opening the door and dormer window. It is very important to position it correctly so that the chickens do not get caught in a draft, so you should make a note immediately in the planogram. The location of the window will depend on the location of the cells. It can be located on the roof or above the front door.
Laying the foundation
First of all, after all the drawings are outlined and the project is drawn up, it is necessary to make a foundation. It is he who will protect the premises from penetration. rodentsthat carry the infection and all kinds of predators. To do this, dig holes 300 cm deep and put a wooden formwork, then pour concrete and wait until it dries completely.
A plank floor is laid on top of the concrete foundation. Roofing material can be used for waterproofing. A simpler option is possible, without a foundation, but it is only suitable for keeping chickens in the summer. To make a wooden building warmer, it must be upholstered on the outside with iron sheets.
Requirements for arrangement after construction
To build the structure itself is only half the battle; it is also necessary to process it correctly. We need to disinfect the walls. Processing can be done using:
- lime;
- a weak solution of potassium permanganate;
- special disinfecting composition.
High quality ventilation will help in winter to ventilate the room from ammonia vapors that accumulate during the overheating of the litter and droppings. In winter, it is important to provide chickens with good lighting; for this, fluorescent or LED lamps should be installed in the chicken coop. It is advisable to make a gable roof. Another important rule regarding how to build a chicken coop with your own hands for broilers is to insulate to the maximum, then the number of chickens will delight with good production performance at any time of the year.
Internal furnishing work
The next stage is do-it-yourself beautification of the poultry house from the inside. Initially, illumination is done. Optimal placement of LED lamps - 1 lamp per area 3 x 2 m. Mostly broilers are kept in tiered cages equipped with trays for collecting feces, feeders and nipple drinkers, which can be mounted both outside and inside. Cages should be larger than those for layers.
Insulate the floor with straw or sawdust bedding. In the future, such a litter will become excellent fertilizer for the garden... The litter is periodically changed in the summer, and in the winter they put 8 cm of sawdust or other biomaterial and gradually add it as needed. Ultimately, by spring, its height reaches 30 cm. In the cages, the floor and trays for collecting feces are made at a slight incline.
The outside of the cages can be equipped with a chute for collecting eggs. The key to the well-being of chickens is thorough hygiene of the room, cages, feeders and drinkers. To cleanse the cells, it is necessary to transfer all livestock for a while to another place and disinfect it with soapy water or a solution of potassium permanganate. Then the cells are dried using a building hair dryer. To protect the livestock from parasites, it is necessary to put boxes with ash and gravel in each cage.
Place for walking
For the most part, broilers are kept in semi-dark rooms, however, if you equip them with free range in the summer, you can improve the quality of meat and reduce feed costs. To do this, a hole is made from the poultry house right in the front door. The sizes are calculated based on the largest individuals. In winter, walking should be limited, so it is important to equip the manhole with a lock.
The walking area should be surrounded by a fence so that the chickens are not attacked by predators and do not stay in the same area with other domestic animals. Above you need to make a canopy that will protect the bird from rain and heat. The walking area can be equipped with portable feeders and drinkers.
Feeders and drinkers
Feeders and drinkers can also be built with your own hands from scrap materials. The constructions are best done of the automatic type. Broilers need enough feed, so you need to make sure your feeders are full at all times. This is not very convenient, especially if you have a large household and a lot of things to do. Chickens also have a habit of crawling into feeders with their paws and scattering feed, which makes it unusable and is quite costly for your pocket, so a hopper feeding system is ideal.
Depending on the size, such a feeder can hold an amount of feed, which is enough for a minimum of knocking. It is profitable to bet nipple drinking systems... This allows the hens to have free access to water and keep it clean. Such a system is very easy to construct with your own hands. From a large plastic tank, water is fed into flexible hoses, and from them it enters the nipples, and then into the drip pans. In winter, you can put an ordinary boiler in the water tank to heat the water.
Final part
It is not difficult to build a chicken coop for broiler chickens with your own hands. The main thing is to draw up a plan in advance, make drawings and a project, and determine the dimensions. You can use step by step photos with instructions. All sizes will depend on the number of chickens. Unlike egg-oriented pestries, broilers do not require a large room. One of the most important nuances is the arrangement of the bird house from the inside. In advance, you should think about the location and type of the ventilation system. Its location will depend on the location of the cell batteries. You can clearly see how exactly a house for chickens should look like by looking at numerous photos on the Internet.
A self-built house for pestles will cost much less than a purchased one. It is quite possible to independently calculate the optimal sizes suitable for the livestock. Another plus is the reliability of the design, because in stores you can often find a Chinese counterfeit. The safety of such structures is a big question.