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A small plot of land does not allow starting a large farm consisting of pigs, geese and other animals. But this does not mean that everything is so hopeless. If you wish, you can assemble a mini chicken coop with your own hands, designed for 5-10 heads. For broilers, it is small, but layers will have to just in time. Moreover, to get fresh eggs, it is not necessary to keep a rooster in a small herd.
Design features of a small chicken coop
Helps out mini owners well chicken coop in the country, allowing several layers to be kept in the summer. A design feature of the poultry house is the minimum size with the maximum head capacity. What this means, we'll figure it out now. In summer, chickens go inside the house for the night, and to rush. They spend the rest in the aviary. To get a chicken coop for 5 chickens, you will need to put together a small wooden house from planks, plus twice the net walking area from it. Now, let's say the owner wants to have 10 chickens, but there is not enough space for an aviary on the site. In this case, the walk can be expanded at the expense of the place where the chicken coop stands, and the house itself can be made the second floor. An example of such a poultry house is shown in the photo.
To install a mini chicken coop for 5 heads, you need to find a place that is not blown by the winds. The site should be partially conceived and illuminated by the sun. A hill is good for a small chicken coop, from which you can organize the outflow of rainwater.
Now let's deal with the area of such a chicken coop. According to existing standards for 1 m2 it is allowed to place 2-3 hens. This means that the minimum area of a house for 5 heads should be 2 m2, and walking distance - 4 m2... For 10 chickens, you will have to build a house with an aviary twice as large.
As for the dimensions of the poultry house, the house with an area of 2 m2 made in size 1x2 or 1.5x1.5 m. For ten chickens, these dimensions are doubled.
What does a chicken coop for 5-10 heads consist of?
If you decide build a small poultry house in the country, it is better to make it portable. Of course, a ten-head chicken coop is more difficult to carry than a five-chicken house, but if you wish, you can do it. The mobile poultry house is convenient because it can always be moved to the right place. Let's say there is a lawn behind the house in the country. The chickens gnawed all the grass in the aviary in 2-3 days. The chicken coop only needs to be moved a couple of meters to the side, and fresh grass grows again inside the enclosure. The photo shows a diagram of such a poultry house. According to it, we will now determine what a small chicken coop consists of.
The basis of the portable chicken coop is a frame made of timber. On the left, a small house is fixed on the second floor. Free space under the house and on the side is reserved for the aviary. The side walls of the walkway are covered with a steel mesh. There is no floor inside the enclosure, which allows chickens to bask in the ground and peck at the grass. Above the poultry house, together with the aviary, is covered with a waterproof roof. Such a successful design solution allows chickens to walk outside in the rain.
Now let's look at what a small chicken coop consists of inside. So, there is a pallet under the house.It prevents droppings from falling into the enclosure when cleaning the perch. A box with two compartments, which act as nests, is attached to the side of the house. The poultry house and walk are equipped with doors. To make it easier for the chicken to get out of the house into the aviary, a small ladder is installed under the exit.
The sequence of work in the manufacture of a small chicken coop
Now we will figure out how to build a small poultry house. For clarity, we will present the order of work in the photographs. We have already agreed on the dimensions, so before starting construction, you need to decide how many chickens you can keep in your summer cottage.
Drawing up drawings
Before starting the construction of a chicken coop, you need to prepare drawings. The photo shows an example of a diagram with an aviary attached to the side of the house, and the house itself is on the ground. The dimensions for this drawing must be calculated individually, according to the estimated number of chickens.
A walk for five chickens can be made in dimensions of 2x2 or 1.5x2 m.If there is extra free space in the country, a large aviary is attached to the stationary poultry house. It will only benefit the chickens. There is an exit from the house to the aviary. Moreover, it is advisable to arrange the chicken coop so that the door is on the south side.
Walking for a mini chicken coop does not have to be rectangular. To simplify the task and save material, the diagram of a triangular enclosure in the shape of a house presented in the photo will help.
The video shows a frame chicken coop for 6-8 layers:
Making the foundation and floor for a small poultry house
It should be noted right away that a foundation is not needed for a portable chicken coop. The base is built only for a stationary poultry house. Even if your summer cottage is designed for 10 chickens, you should not pour a strip foundation from concrete under it. The wooden house is lightweight and the columnar foundation is the ideal base.
To make a columnar foundation, holes 70 cm deep are dug along the contour of the future poultry house. A 10 cm thick cushion of sand with gravel is poured onto the bottom. The columns are made from any material at hand. Masonry in two bricks is suitable, you can use concrete blocks or simply monolithic pillars poured out of concrete. If pieces of steel or asbestos pipes 10-15 cm thick are lying around in the country, you can also make poles from them. The pipes are simply installed in the pits, after which they are poured with concrete.
All pillars should protrude at least 20 cm from the ground, and be located at the same level. If there is an aviary under the house, then the height of the pillars is increased to 60 cm. A couple of sheets of roofing material are placed between the foundation and the wooden frame of the chicken coop for waterproofing.
The floor is laid only inside the house. Let the earth be better in the aviary. Chickens love to paddle and swim in the dust. A small chicken coop is made of wood, therefore it is better to lay the floor from boards. The best option for a small house is the pallet design. To do this, the floor is knocked down from the boards inside the house. A pallet with rims made of stainless steel sheet is installed on top. Above the pallet, a finishing floor is made of fine stainless steel mesh. Chicken droppings will fall through the slots into the tray, from where it is easy for the owner to throw it away.
Walls and roof of a small poultry house
So, we have come to the most important stage in the construction of a chicken coop - the manufacture of walls and a roof. Let's take a step-by-step look at how to make each part of the design:
- The construction of a small poultry house begins with the manufacture of a frame.It is knocked down from a bar with a section of 10x10 cm. First, the lower frame of the poultry house is assembled. Vertical racks are placed from it, after which the upper strapping is performed.
- When the rectangular frame of the chicken coop is ready, proceed to the installation of additional racks and jumpers. They form windows, doors and the floor of the house if it is raised from the ground. That is, in a house standing on the ground, the plank floor can be filled directly onto the lower frame. If a part of the aviary is located under the house, then the jumpers for the floor are fixed to the racks at a height of about 60 cm from the lower frame.
- The finished chicken coop frame is sheathed from the inside with plywood or other similar material. Outside, on the poultry house, cells were made from a bar between the racks. Any insulation must be laid here. You can use polystyrene or rock wool, and close the insulation on both sides with a fine-mesh steel mesh to prevent the insulation from being chewed by field mice.
- In the wall of the poultry house, which goes inside the aviary, a hole is cut out with an electric jigsaw. Under it, hooks are made of hooks for a removable ladder, which is made from a board 30 cm wide with slats stuffed across.
- In one of the side walls of the hen house, one more door is arranged. It is needed for cleaning the inside of the house, as well as feeding and pouring water to the chickens.
- Two round windows are cut on the back wall of the chicken coop. These will be the holes in the nest. A removable box with a partition is attached to the same wall. It plays the role of two nests. A hinged lid is attached to the top of the box with hinges. This design is needed for easy collection of eggs and bedding.
- The walk can be made separate from the chicken coop or solid on one frame. The second option is easier because the entire house will be under one roof. In this case, a part of the chicken coop frame with racks, left under the aviary, is covered with a steel mesh. If the walking is done separately from the house, then first the frame is knocked down, just as it was done for the poultry house. Then the skeleton is covered with a mesh, and a separate roof is installed on top. For any type of aviary, entrance doors are provided for serving chickens.
The end of the construction of the small chicken coop is the installation of the roof. It can be made gable or pitched. Slopes are provided in the opposite direction from the doors so that they are not flooded with rainwater. Attach the roof to the upper frame rail. The roof covering is chosen light. A soft roof is ideal. It does not rattle from falling raindrops or hail, as is observed in a metal roof. Excessive noise will irritate the hens.
Interior arrangement of a small poultry house
There is very little space inside a small chicken coop, so you need to equip it compactly:
- Let's start with the roosts. One chicken needs 30 cm of free space on the pole. To make five chickens feel at ease, the total length of the perch can be increased to 3 m. The poles are made of 5–6 cm thick timber, rounded off with a plane. There is little room for a horizontal roost inside a small house. It is better to install it vertically, but with a slope so that the droppings from the hens in the higher row do not fall on the birds sitting in the lower row. It is optimal to maintain a distance of 35 cm between the poles, and the first one should be removed from the wall by 25 cm.
- At one side wall of the poultry house, a feeder with a lintel or net is placed. This will prevent chickens from scattering feed. A drinker is placed at the other side of the hen house. It is best to use a nipple structure so that the inside of the house is always dry.
- Additional feeders and drinkers are placed inside the enclosure. A basin with ash and sand is also installed here for bathing chickens.
- From the outside of the hen house, wiring is laid along the wall in boxes. Only the end of the wire goes inside the house, which is connected to a closed-type luminaire.
Ventilation in a small house is easier to do through a window. If you wish, you can lead out two pipes through the roof. The exhaust duct above the roof is led out above the supply pipe. Inside the hen house, the edge of the chimney is under the ceiling, and the supply air duct is lowered to the floor not reaching 20 cm.
An example of a supply and exhaust ventilation scheme is shown in the photo. To prevent precipitation from entering the chicken coop through the air ducts, the pipes are equipped with protective caps.
In the video, the farmer talks about a small chicken coop with a walk:
Conclusion
Small chicken coops, although insulated, are still intended for the summer keeping of chickens. In winter, it is better to bring such a poultry house into a large shed or equip an electric heating inside the house.
