How to make a chicken shed
The first task facing a person who has decided to breed poultry is building a poultry house. The chicken shed should be dry, spacious enough, well ventilated. Before making a convenient shed for chickens, it is initially necessary to sketch a building plan on paper, calculate the dimensions, focusing on the planned livestock, the method of keeping, and so on. To do this, you can watch a visual video on the Internet in order to understand how to build a shed for chickens with your own hands.
Barn for chickens
Basic Provisions
Any seasoned poultry farmer knows how to build a chicken shed and where to start building. There are certain standards that must be adhered to when building structures with your own hands:
- for the construction it is necessary to use only high-quality, durable materials: brick, wood, concrete blocks;
- the main task is to make the living of chickens in the barn safe from all kinds of predators: foxes, weasels, rats;
- even at the stage of construction, offices for perches, nests, feed, etc .;
- the layout should include hygienic aspects;
- the size will depend not only on the number of individuals, but also on their size, for example, for broilers, the average stocking density is 1 individual per 1 sq. m;
- need to take care about the ventilation system, heating, as well as illumination.
Do-it-yourself construction of a chicken shed begins with determining the location of the building, which can be seen in any video. It is recommended to put the chicken coop at a remote distance from the living quarters so that the unpleasant smell does not interfere, and on a small elevation so that in the spring the melt water cannot flood the structure. The sizes will depend on the number of chickens. The optimal density is 5 individuals per 1 sq. m.
How to make a summer barn for chickens? If you are going to build a summer shed for broiler chickens, then you need to make a rather high partition, at least from a simple net, because the birds are quite lively and can easily move out of place and easily fly over a low fence. You can put birds in the same barn with other animals, for example, if you are keeping goats, the main thing is to correctly distribute the area and make partitions. It is recommended to plan windows in the construction of the chicken coop, because birds need 15 hours of daylight hours to increase egg production. This will help save money on electricity in winter, especially since no lamp can replace natural light anyway.
For wintering, the shed for chickens must be insulated, so the material for the walls should not be thinner than 15 cm. In addition, it is necessary to insulate the floor, roof, walls from the outside. Heaters and humidifiers should be installed in advance. The optimum temperature in the chicken coop should be 25 ° C.
Laying the foundation
If the foundation is not included in the building plan, then it must be placed on a small hillock, or the outer walls must be upholstered with a metal profile or steel sheets. Such manipulations are needed in order to protect the chicken coop from the penetration of all kinds of predators. If your plans include building a chicken shed with a foundation, you can make it columnar.
First you need to mark the perimeter. Then they begin to dig out the ground to lay the pillars. The depth of the pits should be at least 50 cm, the width will depend on the material used. In the grooves you need to tamp the sand and install the pillars. The foundation is made of foam blocks or bricks. If the room will also contain chickens, it is preferable to make a foundation from blocks.
Frame and construction insulation
The frame is made of wooden beams. It is laid on the foundation pillars and fixed. Further, the frame of the walls should be constructed from the edged boards. The frame should reflect everything that is shown on the plan. In the side frames, you need to outline the doorways and windows. All boards are held together with long nails. The frame is reinforced with OSB. Such a move will make the building more stable and durable. All material is fastened with nails. When the work is completed, it is necessary to treat the walls with an antiseptic.
After upholstering the outside of the shed, you need to insulate them. In order to make the chicken shed warm with your own hands, you can use foam sheets, mineral wool or sawdust as insulation. It is important that there is a warm floor in the barn. It is best to make it out of wood. The cracks should be filled with straw or sawdust.
At the entrance, it is better to equip the vestibule with your own hands, so that in winter the cold air cannot freely enter the chicken coop and it is warm inside. Under the roof from the inside, the hen house is insulated with felt. Unfortunately, even complete floor insulation, walls and space under the roof does not guarantee one hundred percent frost protection, so heating devices will still have to be installed. Heaters should be installed in a location that the hens will not have easy access to. Heating systems are a combination of film materials and metal. These heaters save electricity.
Internal arrangement of the building
The maintenance of most breeds involves free range. To create the necessary conditions, you need to make exits from the poultry house to the street. To do this, you should equip a small door, which will serve as an exit to the walking area. The area should be surrounded by a fence, and a soft mesh cover should be made on top.
In the photo of all kinds of models of chicken coops, you can see the standard arrangement of a poultry house inside. You should immediately take a part at the far wall for perches and nests. Chickens need roosts for sleep. You should not put the poles one above the other, because the individuals sitting on top will smear the lower ones with droppings, as a result, all birds will tend to climb higher.
It is very important that an extractor hood is installed in the chicken shed. Especially in winter, the room should be well ventilated so that ammonia fumes from the waste products of chickens do not cause them to be poisoned or infected. In addition to window openings, the poultry house needs to be equipped with additional illumination, for which you will have to bring an electrician to the shed. The wires should be out of reach of the hens.
Even at the planning stage, you should think about how the room will be cleaned. It is recommended that when laying the floor, make a slight slope with your own hands so that when washing the floors, dirty water flows from the barn onto the street. Also, trays for collecting faeces can be attached under the perches, which greatly simplifies the task.
Another of the important points of the internal arrangement is drinkers and feeders. The best option to use for drinkers nipple systems, and make feeders bunker... Automatic feeders save time and money at the feed. The main task of these feeders is to protect the feed from spreading and contamination.
Room for chicks
Adult birds are less susceptible to temperature extremes than chicks. In the first days after birth, a separate keeping of chickens is recommended. In the room where the chickens are located, you need to provide round-the-clock illumination. The air temperature should be 36 ° C.
For broiler chickens, you can design a special cage - brooderequipped with a heating system, illumination, feeders and drinkers. A brooder needs to be washed well, so wood is most often used to make it. To facilitate the cleaning procedure, the floor is made of fine mesh. Keeping in such cages assumes constant heating, for which infrared lamps are installed.
In order to always be able to adjust the temperature, an additional thermostat must be installed. Before starting work, you need to draw up a plan and make drawings on paper. Everything that is not clear can be seen in the video in which poultry farmers share their experience with beginners. After drawing drawings on the tree, they start cutting the plywood board
On the side walls, guides should be made for installing a removable bottom, then all the parts are connected at pre-marked points. When the frame of the container is assembled, a net is fixed to the bottom. The finished brooder should be equipped with:
- thermometer;
- containers for water and food;
- lamps for heating.
Generalization
Building a poultry shed is the most important thing. The dimensions of the building will depend on the number and breed of birds. For example, to keep broilers even in the country, it is necessary to allocate them a rather large area, because birds have a large constitution and already weigh about 3 kg in 2-3 months. For such representatives, the recommended stocking density is no more than one bird per 1 sq. m. In the conditions of a summer residence, you can use the old barn, which was left from other animals, having correctly converted it to the needs of poultry. To equip a winter poultry house, you need to take care of insulation. You need to insulate the shed from all sides:
- the walls are upholstered with metal sheets with the laying of foam panels;
- the floor can be insulated with corrugated board;
- the ceiling is insulated with felt.
From the inside, the poultry houses should be equipped with a simple ventilation system, access to the walking area, perches where sweet dreams come to the birds, as well as feeders and drinkers. For feeding, it is better to prefer automatic structures. They allow you to save maximum time and ensure constant access to feed, which is very important when keeping broilers who must eat ad libitum.
After birth, chickens are kept in separate warm rooms or a brooder is built - a special warm container with an infrared lamp for heating and round-the-clock illumination, you can find out about the details on many photos on the Internet. Some novice poultry farmers try to replace the construction with a cardboard box, but it is better when chickens and chickens are in the barn. This method is suitable only as a temporary brooder, but if you plan to breed poultry in the future, you will have to build a real house for chickens.