How to make a chicken shed

The first priority for a person who has decided to breed poultry is to build a house. The chicken shed should be dry, spacious enough, well ventilated. Before you make a convenient barn for chickens, you must first sketch a building plan on paper, calculate the size, focusing on the planned number of livestock, the method of keeping, and so on.To do this, you can watch a visual video on the Internet to understand how to build a chicken shed with your own hands.

Shed for chickens

Fundamentals

Any experienced poultry farmer knows how pic roit shed for chickens and how to begin construction. There are certain standards that you must adhere to when constructing structures yourself:

• for the construction you need to use only high-quality, durable materials: brick, wood, concrete blocks;
• the main task is to make accommodation of hens in the barn safe from all kinds of predators: foxes, weasels, rats;
• at the building stage, compartments for perches , nests , feed, etc.;
• the layout should include hygiene aspects;
• dimensions will depend not only on The number of individuals, but also on their size, e.g., for chickens, the average -1 individual planting density per 1 square.m;
• you need to take care of the ventilation system , heating, as well as illumination.

Do-it-yourself construction of a chicken shed begins with determining the location of the building that you can see on any video. It is recommended to put the chicken coop at a remote distance from the living room so that an unpleasant odor does not interfere, and at a small elevation, so that in the spring meltwater could not flood the structure. Dimensions will depend on the number of chickens. The optimal density is 5 individuals per 1 sq. Km. m.

How to make a summer chicken barn? If you are going to build a summer broiler chicken shed, you need to make a rather high partition, at least from a simple mesh, because the birds are quite lively and can easily be removed and easily fly over a low fence. You can place the birds in one barn along with other animals, for example, if you are engaged in the maintenance of goats, the main thing is to correctly distribute the area and make partitions. It is recommended to plan windows in the chicken coop design, because birds need a 15-hour light day to increase egg production. This will save money on electricity in the winter, especially since no lamp can still replace natural lighting.

For wintering, the chicken shed needs to 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 laying the foundation is not part of the building plan, then it should be placed on a small hillock or make upholstery of the outer walls 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 you plan to build a chicken shed with a foundation, you can make it columnar.

First you need to make the perimeter markings. Then they begin to dig up the earth for laying pillars. The depth of the pits should be at least 50 cm, the width will depend on the material used. In the recesses, you need to compact the sand and install the pillars. The foundation is made of foam blocks or bricks. If the chickens will be kept in the room, it is preferable to make a foundation of blocks.

Frame and thermal insulation of the structure

The frame is made of wooden timber. It is laid on the pillars of the foundation and fixed. Further, from the edged boards, a frame of the piers should be constructed. The frame should reflect everything that is depicted on the plan. In the side frames you need to outline the doorways and windows. All boards are fastened with long nails. The frame is strengthened 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 outer part of the shed, they need to be insulated. In order to make the chicken shed warm, you can use foam sheets, mineral wool or sawdust as a heater. It is important that the shed has a warm floor. It is best to make it out of wood. The cracks need to be laid 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 could not freely enter the chicken coop and it was warm inside. Under the roof inside the chicken coop is insulated with felt. Unfortunately, even complete insulation of the floor, walls and space under the roof does not guarantee absolute protection against frost, therefore, heating devices will still have to be installed. Heaters need to be installed in that place in which hens will not have free access. Heating systems are a combination of film materials and metal. Such heaters save energy.

Internal arrangement of the building

The content of most breeds suggests free range. To create the necessary conditions, you need to make exits from the house to the street.To do this, equip a small door, which will serve as an exit to the walking area. The area should be surrounded by a fence and covered with a soft mesh on top.

In the photo of various models of chicken coops, you can see the standard arrangement of the house inside. You should immediately take a part at the far wall for perches and nests. Perches of chickens are needed for sleep. The poles should not be placed one on top of the other, because individuals sitting on top will smear the lower droppings, as a result, all birds will tend to climb higher.

It is very important that a hood is equipped in the chicken shed. Especially during the winter season, the room should be well ventilated so that ammonia fumes from the waste products of chickens do not cause their poisoning or infection. In addition to window openings, the house should be equipped with additional illumination, for which you will have to spend an electrician in the barn. The wires should be outside the reach of the layers.

Even at the planning stage, you should think about how the room will be cleaned. It is recommended that when laying the floor do it yourself a small slope, so that while washing the floors dirty water flows from the shed to the street. You can also attach pallets for collecting feces under perches, which will greatly facilitate the task.

Another of the important aspects of the internal arrangement is drinking bowls and feeders.The best option is to use nipple systems for drinking bowls, and to make feeders bunker . Automatic feeders save time and money on feed. The main task of such feeders is to protect the feed from spreading and contaminants.

Chick room

Adult birds are less susceptible to temperature changes than chicks. In the first days after birth, a separate keeping of chickens is recommended. In the room where the chickens are located, it is necessary to provide round-the-clock illumination. The air temperature should be 36 ° C.

For broiler chickens, you can construct a special cage – the brooder , equipped with a heating system, illumination, feeders and drinking bowls. The brooder should be washed well, so wood is most often used for its manufacture. To facilitate the cleaning procedure, the floor is made of fine mesh. The content in such cells requires constant heating, for which infrared lamps are installed.

To always be able to adjust the temperature, an additional temperature regulator should be installed. Before you begin, you need to make 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 the drawings on the tree, they begin to cut the plywood plate

On the side walls, you should make guides for installing a removable bottom, then connect all the parts at pre-designated points. When the container frame is assembled, a mesh is fixed to the bottom. The finished brooder should be equipped with:

• thermometer;
• containers for water and food;
• lamps for heating.

Generalization

Building a barn for keeping poultry is the most important moment. The dimensions of the building will depend on the number and breed of birds. For example, to maintain broilers even in the country, it is necessary to allocate a rather large area for them, because the birds have a large physique and weigh about 3 kg in 2-3 months. For such representatives, the recommended planting density is not more than one bird per 1 sq. Km. m. In the conditions of the cottage, you can use the old barn, which remained from other animals, properly converted for the needs of poultry. To equip a winter house, it is necessary to take care of warming. It is necessary to insulate the shed from all sides:

• the walls are covered with metal sheets with foam panels laying;
• the floor can be insulated with corrugated board;
• the ceiling is insulated with felt.

From the inside, the houses should be equipped with a simple ventilation system, access to walking area, perches where sweet dreams come to birds, as well as feeders and drinkers.For feeding, it is better to prefer automatic designs. They save maximum time and provide constant access to feed, which is very important when keeping broilers, which should be eaten plenty. a lamp for heating and round-the-clock illumination about the details can be found on many photos of the Internet. Some novice poultry farmers try to replace the construction with a cardboard box, but it is better when hens and chickens are in the barn. This method is suitable only as a temporary brooder, but if in the future we plan to breed birds, you will have to build a real chicken house.