Do-it-yourself construction of a chicken coop for 10-20 chickens
With the decision to breed chickens, the question immediately arises about their place of residence. You can build a chicken coop for 10 chickens or 20 chickens with your own hands. The main thing in this process is that the correct drawing is definitely needed and the arrangement of the premises inside in accordance with the conditions required for breeding and keeping chickens. So that in summer it is as comfortable as possible and in winter the hens are warm, comfortable and cozy.
Do-it-yourself chicken coop for 10-20 chickens
Design phase
When designing a future chicken coop, you should decide what kind of poultry breeding you intend to do. If you only adhere to summer growing chickens, then a portable design is quite suitable for you - a mobile shed, which can, after the end of the warm season, move to another place the chicken coop with your own hands for 10 chickens. It is not difficult to make such a room with your own hands, even without a preliminary project and drawing. One has only to provide for the dimensions necessary for the residence of 10-20 common chickens or broilers, and a place for walking the poultry.
The situation is a little more complicated when you intend to breed and keep chickens and broilers all year round. Then the construction of a chicken coop should be approached more carefully and thought through all the design details in the drawings to the smallest detail.
A home-made chicken coop with your own hands for 10 or 20 chicken heads with a rooster differs only in size. If there is free space on the site, many recommend building a room with a margin, for example, if you want to breed broilers later. The standard size of the required area is calculated based on one square meter for two to three adult chickens.
A preliminary project and a diagram with dimensions will help you imagine how the future structure will look like.
Before drawing a suitable drawing, you should decide on the dimensions of the structure. Taking into account the minimum indicators of the area required for living, with the calculation of the place for drinking bowls and feeders, building a chicken coop with your own hands for 10 chickens will be at least 5-10 square meters, while the size of a spacious chicken coop for 20 chickens will require at least 15 square meters. For broilers, these figures can be increased. The optimal height of the structure, which ensures the comfort of birds and your stay there, is two meters.
When designing, a vestibule can be included in the drawing plan, which reduces heat losses in winter.
The most popular are the buildings that include the inner room itself and the adjoining walking area fenced with a grate. In cold seasons, the bird can stay inside, if desired, going out into the fresh air.
The walking area is calculated depending on the size of the width of the hen house itself and for a hen house with a width of 2 meters, the average area is 6 * 2 square meters.
In the absence of drawing skills, you can make a poultry house according to ready-made photo schemes with dimensions. Projects do-it-yourself chicken coops you can also watch the video.
Selection of location, selection of foundation and materials
When designing a chicken coop, its location must be of no small importance, there must be a strong foundation on which the house will stand, and suitable materials are needed from which it will be made.
Location
As a place for a future chicken coop with your skillful hands for 20 layers, you should choose a small hill, which will save your building from excessive dampness. The best option would be a well-lit area with a walking area on the south side.
If possible, position the house to leave extra space that can be used to expand the house later.
Foundation type
If a capital rather than a mobile structure is chosen as a place for keeping chickens, it is better to choose a foundation for it, which can be made by hand according to one of several possible options.
Strip and pile foundations have proven to be highly reliable, but these are high-cost structures, which are more suitable for building houses in terms of price and fundamentality.
Columnar foundations are cheap and easy to build. This is the most commonly used simple option to do it yourself when building poultry houses, which copes with a small load on the structure and does not require large financial investments.
Materials (edit)
Among the materials for the construction of the walls of the hen house, you can choose the following.
Brick is the most expensive material, which also requires additional heating costs. However, the brick structure is the most durable. Performing a chicken coop with your skillful hands for 10, you can take this material.
Foam blocks are an expensive building material that provides the greatest comfort, so a chicken coop for 20 chickens can be made from it. The building made of it is compared to a building made of brick, it should serve for a long time.
Wood - is chosen by the largest number of summer residents, as it allows you to reduce the cost of heating the building.
Construction technology of a wooden poultry house
The following step-by-step instructions will help you make a warm wooden poultry house for 20 chickens with your own hands on the basis of a columnar foundation.
Foundation
Before construction, it is necessary to make a drawing of a spacious chicken coop for 20 chickens. When preparing the site, the site is marked with pegs connected with a rope. Thus, the perimeter of the future building is indicated. You can see how it looks in the photo.
Further, the construction technology includes in stages:
- removal of the upper soil layer with a thickness of 0.2-0.3 meters,
- digging holes for each pillar up to 1.5 meters deep based on their location at a distance of 1-1.5 meters from each other,
- erection of pillars located 0.2-0.3 meters above ground level,
- laying roofing material and logs, strapping, followed by laying on the logs a double layer of roofing material or other material protecting the tree from decay.
How the process of tying a columnar foundation takes place can be found in the photo and video.
When building a columnar foundation for a future chicken coop, it is important to maintain a weekly interval after the construction of the pillars in order to allow the solution to gain a foothold. As lags, a 100 * 150 or square bar is usually used. The resulting space between the pillars and the ground is covered with gravel.
Floor
The easiest option would be to lay simple planks directly on the logs when building a chicken coop for 10 layers of hens. The variant with floor insulation of two layers that is needed for better heat retention, however, it is more acceptable for year-round keeping of poultry.Eco-or mineral wool is usually used as a heater. A layer of hay or straw, sawdust or sand is already laid on the finished floor.
Walls
The wooden chicken coop is built according to the frame method, which uses load-bearing beams measuring 7 * 7 cm, plywood or board. Vertically placed racks are nailed to the support along the perimeter of the building, and horizontal crossbars are nailed to them. Outside and inside, the walls can be sheathed with laths or plywood. Walls, like the floor, can be insulated yourself.
Roof
The most acceptable option for a roof, considering the drawings, is considered to be a gable, which allows you to equip an attic and store inventory and feed there. Some people prefer gable or flat roofs, which are less practical in use.
For a gable roof, bars are nailed at a distance of 0.5 meters, roofing material is placed on them and the structure is covered with a suitable material.
The gable is done by installing the rafters at an angle of 40 degrees.
Internal arrangement and microclimate
DIY arrangement inside the finished poultry house is of no small importance for the comfortable keeping of poultry.
Ventilation system
Many builders recommend thinking about designing a ventilation system even before erecting a roof, especially when it comes to artificial ventilation devices for which a diagram of their correct location is required.
When equipping a building with a natural air ventilation system, holes are made on two opposite walls:
- a hole is cut on one side at a distance of 0.2 meters from the ceiling,
- on the opposite side of the house, the ventilation hole is cut with your own hands at the same distance from the floor.
If desired, artificial electric fans, or a device operating on the hood principle, can be installed in these cut holes.
The most difficult ventilation system involves the laying of plastic pipes with a diameter of up to 1.4 m, one of which is lowered down almost to the floor, not reaching 0.2 meters, and the other is fixed under the ceiling and brought out to the roof. Through a low-lying pipe, air will be drawn in, and the second will act as an exhaust as you can see in the video.
Lighting systems
The correct arrangement of the windows will be their device in the direction of the south or southwest side. It is worth making window spaces so that they open and serve as an additional source of light and ventilation of the room. Windows are usually located at a distance of 1.1-1.2 meters from the floor. Their size should not be less than 0.5 * 0.5 meters.
Lamps with a power of up to 40 W are suitable as an artificial light source for the poultry house, directing the light towards the perches, feeders and drinkers, but you should avoid direct light on the nests.
Among the novelties in artificial lighting are devices with timers (there is a diagram on the Internet) that set the time for turning on and off the light.
Perches, nests, feeders and drinkers
As a rule, do it yourself perches for laying hens it is necessary from bars measuring 4 * 3 cm or slightly thicker, smoothing the upper edges. They are mounted at a distance of at least 0.3 meters with an optimal pole length for 20 chickens at least 6 meters or more for broilers.
It is worth placing a waste tray directly under the perches, which simplifies the procedure for caring for the poultry house.
Laying nests can be open or closed with an optimal size of 0.3 * 0.4 meters or more. The best material for making them with your own hands will be wood. Their number must be calculated from how many layers will live. For a livestock of 20 layers, there should be enough of them in the amount of 10 pieces.