Rules for arranging a chicken coop
The external and internal arrangement of the chicken coop is one of the primary tasks facing a farmer who decides to breed chickens. Naturally, you will have to do all this with your own hands. The quality and production indicators of the chicken livestock will directly depend on how to equip the chicken coop and how comfortable conditions the owner will create for them.
Arrangement of a chicken coop
Temperature regime and illumination
Most chicken breeds do not tolerate frost very well, so it should be done well insulate the winter poultry house... Frequent hypothermia leads to diseases of chickens, which reduces their performance. The optimum temperature in the chicken coop is 12-17 ° C. Various electric heaters are used to heat the room in winter, although often a thick mat on the floor will suffice.
In spring, the litter can be used as fertilizer; a layer of sawdust or straw should be placed on the floor. The height of the layer should not exceed 8 cm. In case of contamination or dampness, it is not removed, but each time a new biomaterial is added. Eventually, by the spring, there will be a 30-centimeter layer of litter on the floor. It must be periodically agitated with a pitchfork so that it does not lose its looseness.
The essence of the litter is that during the decomposition of biomaterial and droppings, heat is released, which maintains the thermal regime at the required level. Arranging a spacious chicken coop inside with your own hands includes a simple ventilation system. When the litter decays, in addition to heat, ammonia vapors are released into the air, which can cause poisoning if the room is not well ventilated.
In the cold season, chickens are walked only in a specially equipped place. The area should be fenced and covered. It is best to set up the access door directly from the house to the outside. The manhole must be locked, because at -12 ° C they cannot be let out into the street. Maintaining optimal temperature conditions in winter increases productivity by almost 40%.
Wall insulation
In winter, chickens do not lay, because their body produces eggs only for reproduction. In order for the chickens to rush all year round, the internal lighting... The optimal daylight hours are 14 hours. If this threshold is exceeded, the chickens will not have time to rest, and then the egg production will first increase, and then sharply decrease, and maybe even completely disappear.
Initially, the walls should be insulated. To do this, from the outside, the walls are upholstered with metal sheets. From the inside, they make insulation with mineral wool, and chipboard sheets are laid on top. In addition to the walls, the roof also needs to be insulated. This can also be done with mineral wool. If there are many windows in the room, they must be carefully processed and all the cracks must be closed so that they do not blow out of them, to make slopes, this will be additional insulation.
Ventilation system
Before equipping a high-quality chicken coop, it is necessary to do all the calculations and sketch out a building plan, in which, at this stage, determine the location for ventilation... Ventilation systems are divided into several types:
- natural;
- supply and exhaust;
- forced.
The natural system implies ventilation by opening doors and an exhaust window located above the doorway or in the ceiling. It is very often used by novice farmers and for chicken coops with a small area with a small number of chickens.
Supply and exhaust ventilation system of premises is a type of the first type. It is a structure of 2 pipes. One of them sucks in air and is located in the immediate vicinity of the nests, and the second supplies air from the street to the room and is located as far as possible from the nests and perches. The forced system is most often used on large poultry farms. To design it, a fan is inserted into the window and connected to the network.
Sleep poles
In natural habitat, chickens sleep in trees. To make their living at home as comfortable as possible, it is necessary to properly arrange the chicken coop inside. The main attributes of the poultry house are nests and roosts. Before proceeding with the arrangement, it is necessary to draw drawings and carefully calculate everything. Perch can be of several types:
- multilevel, when the poles are located at different heights, so that individuals do not stain each other with droppings, it is necessary to arrange the tiers at a distance of 30-40 cm;
- it is very easy to do it yourself in one row at the far wall of the poultry house, this design is perfect for a chicken coop with a small area;
- a perch on a vertical support, is one or more mounts on which the sleeping rail itself lies;
- portable roost.
Standard sleeping rails are made in several steps. To begin with, they select and equip a place. The right choice is in the far corner of the house, out of draft. The distance from the floor will depend on the direction of the breed, for example, for laying hens, the optimal height is 70-80 cm, but for meat breeds, for example, broilers - 50-60 cm. , along which they will go up.
For hens, the main thing is to make the perches higher. For laying hens to have good performance, they need constant physical activity that strengthens their muscles. Pole climbs are a great exercise for laying hens. Further, the arrangement of the chicken coop with your own hands involves the construction of nests.
In essence, the nest is a special container equipped with a nut to prevent eggs from falling out on the floor. Every farmer should know that chickens will not immediately perch and nest. You will have to spend a little time to accustom them to nests and poles by manually planting them. In about a week, the birds will get used to it and will climb into perches and boxes themselves. In order for the training to proceed as quickly as possible, it is necessary to make the poles and nests comfortable.
How to make a nest
It is best to choose the most secluded corner in the room for arranging nesting sites, with dim lighting. A hand-made nest should be placed at a height of no more than 50 cm. You can make nests from any available materials. It can be baskets, buckets with a depth and width of 40 cm, and a height of 35 cm.
You can construct boxes made of wood. The main thing is to spread a thick enough bedding... The softer it is in the nest, the faster the chicken will get used to it. Eggs should not be removed when the hens are in the house, otherwise they will lay elsewhere and it will be very difficult to train them to nest again. In the step by step photos, you can see the various nest designs. The size of the nesting sites will again depend on the size of the chickens.There should be enough space in the nest so that the pestle can freely turn an extra centimeter will not hurt.
To the nest, as well as to the perch, it is necessary to attach a ladder along which the hens will climb. One container is enough for several individuals. On average, there are 4-5 chickens per 1 box. For layers, more nests should be provided, at the rate of 2 birds per container.
Drinking and feeding system
The next important stage in arranging a chicken coop with your own hands is feeders and drinkers. To ensure that chickens always have access to clean water, it is best to use nipple system, which you can very easily recreate with your own hands from scrap materials. For this you will need:
- nipples;
- transparent flexible hoses;
- drip trays;
- square PVC pipe;
- twenty-liter bottle.
The bottle will act as a dispenser. Holes are made in the pipe into which the hoses are inserted. Nipples are attached to the hoses, which in turn are attached to the walls. Place drip trays under the nipples. You can do without them, but then all the liquid will be on the floor, as a result of which the humidity will increase, which can lead to infection of chickens with various infectious diseases.
In the photo you can see the diagrams of various feeders. They are divided into several types:
- tray;
- grooved;
- bunker.
For chickens, hopper feeders are the best choice. They may be a little more difficult to perform than trough and grooved ones, but with them it is possible to save time and money on feed. The fact is that chickens have a tendency to scatter feed on the floor, as a result of which it becomes unusable. Automatic feeders are designed in such a way that food is protected from contamination and scattering, and the bunker also contains the amount of feed, which can be enough for a day or even more, therefore, you do not need to constantly fill it up.
Automatic feeders are available in a wide variety of materials. The most popular are PVC pipes and wooden ones. The construction made of wood will be much more difficult to perform, however, and will last much longer. To make it, you will have to make drawings on paper, and then transfer them to a tree and cut out the details. The size of the feeders will depend on the area of the room, as well as on the breed of chickens, for example, for broilers it is necessary to build a system of larger dimensions than for layers.
Final part
Equipping a chicken coop inside with your own hands is not an easy task. However, if you use all the recommendations in the article and watch a video on this topic, you will definitely succeed. The first step is to draw up a building plan, where to display the locations of nests, perches, feeders and drinkers.
Depending on how large the room will be and the number of chickens in it, you should decide on the type of ventilation system. Of course, for example, the natural system has many disadvantages, but with the small dimensions of the room, there is simply no point in making a forced one. In too large rooms, you will have to install several fans in order to be able to ventilate the chicken coop well.
The internal arrangement also includes insulation work. Chickens do not tolerate cold very well, therefore, the walls should be insulated inside and outside, and a warm mat should be placed on the floor. If the air temperature in the hen house drops below 12 ° C, then you should use electric heaters. You can find out in more detail about wall insulation, as well as information about arranging a chicken coop inside, in the photo and from the corresponding video.