Small chicken coop: we build it ourselves

Keeping chickens today is not just a “fashionable” occupation, but also economically justified. This is a dust-free way to always have fresh, vitamin-rich eggs on hand, and tender meat that is not stuffed with hormones too. To do this, it is not at all necessary to keep a poultry farm. 10 laying hens are also capable of providing a family with food. The main thing is to create comfortable conditions for them, and this is impossible without arranging a cozy “house” for birds. Let's see how to build a small chicken coop with your own hands.

Before construction

“It makes no sense to build too spacious mansions for a modest number of birds”

The chicken coop will become the place where your nurses will be most of the time. Here they will have to sleep, hide from the cold and bad weather, lay eggs, and possibly hatch chickens, so the room must meet their needs, that is, be properly built. The best chicken coops are made from timber and boards. It makes no sense to build too spacious mansions for a modest number of birds. You will not be able to fully heat them or keep them in perfect cleanliness, and sometimes there is no extra space on the site. For self-calculation of the optimal area, adhere to the following standards: 0.5 m2 is allocated per head. Adjust the height of the building to suit your height. You must freely enter the room and clean it without unnecessary burden.

Where to put a chicken coop

 

Chickens are original birds. They like warmth and drafts are contraindicated, so the house should be located on a well-lit, dry, level area. You should not lower it into the lowland, as it will always be damp there. Gorka is also not the best place. It will be too windy for the hens. The best solution would be to build a chicken coop on a small hill, then even in heavy rains the water will quickly leave.

Spatial and orientational features

This may seem ridiculous to some, but such a structure as a chicken coop is very important to orient to the cardinal points. If its architecture is planned in a rectangular shape, then the long walls should stretch from west to east. Care must be taken to ensure that the windows occupy the southern part of the building, and the door opens to the east. The longer the daylight hours, the better the chickens will rush. If an extension in the form of an aviary is provided for the chicken coop, then it also needs to be taken out to the south side.

Space planning

We have already talked about how to calculate the area, so let's move on to the main premises. If the chicken coop is planned to be used year-round, then be sure to build a vestibule. It will become an additional element of room insulation. Due to its presence, cold air will not go directly to the birds.

Correctly calculate the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe aviary. Walking a chicken requires no more than a couple of square meters of land. A dozen birds will feel at ease in a fence of 2x7 meters.

peace

Chickens are shy birds. They are nervous for any reason, so you can’t build areas for outdoor activities or playgrounds near the chicken coop. It is a good idea to protect the bird area with a hedge.

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We start building

“It will be more correct to start construction with drawing up a drawing of the future place of residence of birds”

If you are thinking about how to build a small chicken coop with your own hands at minimal cost, take a four-sided beam as a building material. Ideally, its dimensions should be 100x150mm. Working with such material does not require professional skill.

It would be more correct to start construction by drawing up a drawing of the future place of residence of birds. So you can accurately calculate what and how much you need for this. Next, estimate the approximate weight of the building and select the type of foundation.

Foundation

Sometimes you can see that the chicken coops are right on the ground. This is the wrong approach. Damp and cold soil will cause many problems. In such a house it will never be warm, but there will be no end to parasites, rodents and insects.

A solid foundation pit for pouring is not needed. It is enough to go deep into the ground by 35 cm. We fill its bottom with a ten-centimeter sand and gravel pillow, after which we install a formwork knocked together from improvised boards. From eight-millimeter reinforcing bars we construct a mesh-frame, on which concrete of the M-300 brand will be poured.

It will take almost three weeks for the resulting site to harden, and they certainly need to wait.

Nuance

If you want to put a chicken coop on monoliths or columns instead of a foundation, then be sure to put a fence around the perimeter. Use iron sheets for this. For what?

Economic benefit. It is much cheaper to make columns from old brick than to fill in a full-fledged foundation. In extreme cases, you can generally use an ordinary stone. The main expenditure items for such a basis will be:

1. Cement.
2. Gravel.
3. Master OK.
4. Sand.

Protection. It will be difficult for ferrets, martens and other lovers of meat and eggs to get into the chicken coop through such a barrier, plus an additional source of ventilation will appear under the floor surface, which will be an excellent prevention of rotting of the wooden flooring.

floors

For flooring it is necessary to use natural materials of high strength. The floor can be made of adobe with the addition of straw, cement or plank. To ensure cleanliness in the house, do not cover the main surface with a thick layer of litter. The material of the latter can be:

1. Sand.

1. Chopped straw.

1. Sawdust.

In winter, the thickness of the protective layer should be twenty centimeters. In this case, it will also carry the function of a heater.

Walls

Even the smallest chicken coop should have strong walls. You can drive them out of brick, stone or cinder block, but these are quickly damp, “cold” materials that do not retain heat even with artificial heating. It is best to take timber or logs for the construction of a poultry house. They are dry, strong and reliable. Adobe bricks are also suitable. In a chicken coop with such walls, it will be cool in summer days and warm in the cold.

The process of forcing walls begins with the installation of a frame, which is sheathed with a board. It is rational to fill the resulting space with a heater, which can be used as: mineral wool, sawdust or dry straw.In addition to boards, lining, plywood, chipboard can become sheathing.

Ceiling and roof

The roof must also be made thoroughly so that it does not flow and does not let heat through. If you don't know how best to build the roof of a small chicken coop with your own hands, stop at the duo-pitch model. This structural form best drains water and does not accumulate snowdrifts. You can cover the roof:

1. Ruberoid.
2. Reeds.
3. Slate.
4. Tiled.

The ceiling will require additional insulation and chipboard sheathing.

Making a poultry house inside

Having built a reliable cozy chicken coop, proceed to its arrangement inside. If we talk about the main elements that should appear in the room, then perches are just one of them. To find out how many and how long perches are needed in your particular case, proceed from the calculation that the chicken needs at least 30 cm on the perch for a comfortable overnight stay. A rectangular bar with a section of 40x60 mm can be placed on the perches. So that the birds do not injure the paws, the corners on the perches must be smoothed out, making them rounded. The optimal mounting height of perches is from 60 to 80 centimeters. Distance span - 50 cm. The poles are not attached to each other. To facilitate cleaning, trays are placed under the perches.

If laying hens live in the chicken coop, then they need to equip places for laying eggs. For these purposes, boxes filled with soft sawdust are suitable. They are placed in secluded corners where no one will disturb the chickens by accidentally looking in.

Feeders along with drinkers are placed on a raised platform. If you cover the floor of the chicken coop with straw or other kind of bedding, then it will be much easier to clean the room.

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How to build a small chicken coop suitable for wintering chickens with your own hands

On warm days, chickens will stay in enclosures for a very long time. They will return to the chicken coop at sunset. In the winter cold, everything will change radically and the structure in which the birds will spend the winter should become a reliable protection for them from the weather. The cut of high-quality insulation will need to be especially puzzled by the creation of fruitful lighting. Chickens will not stop needing a long day of light, despite the dullness that prevails at this time of the year.

Dryness will be the main criterion for the quality of a winter chicken coop. High humidity at low temperatures will adversely affect bird health. Moisture provokes respiratory problems in chickens, and this, in turn, eventually destroys them.

Now about the dimensions of the winter version of the house. It should be half the size of summer. Here, 4 laying hens should coexist per square meter. This will not infringe on the rights of the birds, it's just that in the cold they closely huddle together and do not show a desire to walk around the territory. Heating a small chicken coop is much easier and more economical.

The number of windows in the winter version of chicken housing is just as important as in the summer, and maybe even more. They play a major role in lighting the room. They also need to be brought to the south. In the dark, the role of the sun is performed by artificial light.

Features of the winter design

The material for the construction of a warm chicken coop can be adobe, adobe blocks, wood, brick. Whatever you choose, the main parameter should remain the thickness of the walls. It is possible that the masonry will have to be done in several rows. Wall surfaces should not freeze through.

Particular attention is paid to the roof. The heated air rising up should not escape through it. In this case, it will be impossible to effectively heat the chicken coop space.In a winter poultry house, the roof must be made multi-layered, repeatedly alternating layers of roofing felt and wood chips.

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Ventilation in the chicken coop

The crown of the construction work on the arrangement of the chicken coop will be the organization of ventilation. In the summer, this task can be assigned to the windows. They can provide sufficient ventilation only if their total area is at least equal to 1/12 of the square of the floor.

If the windows are small, a ventilation window or a pipe with access to the roof will help improve air exchange. One of these holes is equipped directly above the perch, the second pipe can be brought out through the wall half a meter behind it. It will provide an additional supply of fresh air.

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How and how to light a chicken coop

In order for chickens to gain weight and lay well, exposure to the sun alone will not be enough; you need to properly organize the distribution of light fluxes inside the house.

Choosing lamps

Putting ordinary incandescent lamps in a chicken coop is pointless. Here you need products with completely different characteristics.

Luminescent models with a power of 60 watts have proven themselves well in lighting the chicken coop. How many will be needed in your case, calculate based on the following standards: each lamp should have 6 squares of illuminated area.

The second most popular are fluorescent types of lamps. So that their pulsating flicker does not irritate the eyes of birds, species with a pulsation frequency of over 26 thousand Hz are used in the chicken coop.

The lamps presented above can emit light of a different color spectrum and this is also able to have a certain effect on birds. It will not be superfluous to know that:

• blue light has a calming effect;
• orange stimulates the craving for reproduction;
• red will prevent excessive plucking of feathers, but will reduce egg production;
• green will accelerate the growth of young animals.

 

Today, more and more chicken coops are equipped with sodium lamps. They have a pair of lighting fixtures with different power, 50 and 70 watts, screwed into a common cartridge at once. Lamps of this quality do not sin with a pulsation of the light flux and can be switched on not only jointly, but also individually. This way of lighting has its advantages.

1. The brightness of sodium lamps is not less than that of fluorescent and fluorescent counterparts.
2. Uniform distribution of the light flux throughout the space of the house allows you to get rid of shaded corners.
3. There is always the possibility of controlling the behavior of birds.

Those who have ever wondered how to build a small but comfortable chicken coop with your own hands, know that poultry farmers have a practice of using lampshades. They are assigned several functions - protective and focusing. In the first case, the plafonds protect the lamps from damage by birds in case of accidental touching, in the second case, they help to project the light flux onto the floor.

Birds do not respond well to interruptions in the light regime. It is desirable that the light supply be carried out according to a stable schedule. Otherwise, the chickens will stop laying and shed until they are completely bald.

And another important point is safety. Since the air always has high humidity in places where birds are kept, it is unacceptable to do wiring, leaving open wires inside the house. This may cause a short circuit. All components of the wiring, including sockets and the switch must be taken out of the place of residence of living creatures. You can collect everything in a separate moisture-proof shield.

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Features of winter lighting

The lack of daylight provokes a slowdown in all vital processes in the body of chickens. Artificial light can significantly improve the situation. By lighting the chicken coop for 12 hours, you will increase the egg production of birds by a third.

Turning on additional lighting for a longer time begins in the middle of November, after the end of the molting period. Additional lighting of the room is carried out in the predawn hours and at dusk. The transition from light to darkness, as well as from darkness to light, should be gradual. To do this, the lamps are turned on alternately or they use a dimmer instead of the usual switch.

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Conclusion

In conclusion, I would like to note that there are an innumerable number of original and practical ideas on how to build a small chicken coop with your own hands, among which there are probably a couple of options that can intrigue you. What is a two-story chicken coop worth, which will help out a lot with a lack of space! A real masterpiece of architecture. In this project, the first floor of the building is given over to an aviary, and the second floor is made residential. Hexagonal, triangular, round and asymmetrical - modern chicken coops should not at all resemble a barn, so choose the one you like and get to work!

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Photo gallery: how to build a small chicken coop with your own hands

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