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Internal chicken coop arrangement directly affects the health and productivity of poultry, therefore the interior furnishings of poultry apartments, perches in the chicken coop and nests for laying hens should first of all be comfortable for the inhabitants, and only then be beautifully decorated or practical to clean.
Why is it so important to choose the right perch option?
Despite many different tales about the narrow-mindedness and primitiveness of the chicken, in fact the bird is distinguished by a very subtle sense of observation, fearfulness and intelligence. Anything that scares or worries will sooner or later affect your productivity and health. Therefore, they try to build the interior furnishings and nests with their own hands, observing at least three conditions:
- There should be no foreign odors, large amounts of light or other irritants in the room. If they stop removing litter from the chicken coop, the chickens immediately begin to get sick;
- Inside the chicken coop it is necessary to ensure a normal flow of fresh air, with warm, sunny areas and separate cold shaded areas;
- The location of perches and nests for chickens indoors is chosen in such a way that everyone who enters the chicken coop moves only along the resting areas or nesting boxes.
The bird perceives any movement “to the front” or over the shortest distance to a resting place as an attack, and is ready to run away or change its position at the first opportunity. Therefore, whenever possible, they try to make the nests in the chicken coop closed, and move them away from the front door and direct sunlight to the maximum distance.
An exception may be older young animals, which, due to their curious nature, can ignore the fear of intrusion into their territory. Such birds do not need perches for roosting; they can spend the night anywhere and anyhow.
How to make perches and nests truly comfortable
After building the chicken coop, the first thing you need to do is divide the interior of the room into several sectors:
- Feeding and drinking area;
- Half of the room is allocated for arranging a roost and sleeping area;
- At least a quarter is given to nests for laying hens;
- A separate, isolated block is reserved for sick and quarantine birds.
The size of each section of the chicken coop is determined depending on the total population and the number of laying hens. In a properly built chicken coop, the bird practically does not get sick. One nest is usually shared by two or three birds. With the arrangement of roosts, the situation is more complicated, since in chicken society, as in any flock, there is its own division into groups, most often by age.
Arrangement of a roost for chickens
The perch consists of several horizontal planks or poles fixed to walls, stands, or simply knocked together into one frame structure using ordinary nails. Relatively recently, lattice or mesh perches, attached to wooden boxes for collecting droppings, began to be used, photo.
It is difficult to judge how convenient the grids are for resting, but the fact that the grid is not the most convenient design for chicken paws is obvious.
The best option for arranging a roosting and resting place for a chicken would be ordinary poles 4-6 cm in diameter, not necessarily even and smooth, the main thing is durable and made of soft wood. In village chicken coops, with rare exceptions, ordinary slabs made of pine, walnut or fruit trees are used to arrange the roost. Nobody uses commercial wood blocks; even after rounding the surface, the grip on the chicken feet remains awkward.
The perch poles must be long enough, at least 1.5-2 m, and strong, able to support the weight of at least 10 chickens, with a total weight of up to 35 kg. In addition, a properly secured pole should not “play” or rotate. The perch is assembled from three to four tiers, the bottom one is closest to the passage and is installed at a height of 35-40 cm above the floor. The second and third rows are raised by 30-35 cm.
For laying hens, you can install a couple of additional slats with your own hands, making it easier for young and older birds to jump on and move along the perch. For heavy and lazy broilers, it is necessary to make a ladder, and the poles themselves are lowered by 15-20 cm. The design of the perch in the chicken coop must be made so that the approach to the nests and feeding areas is not blocked by resting chickens.
How to make perches in a chicken coop, their height and size, are usually chosen based on the number of birds so that there is no crowding during feeding. The height of the ceilings in the chicken coop depends on the height of the perch; usually they try to ensure that there is at least 70 cm from the ceiling to the top perch.
Due to the thick feather cover, birds always have problems with heat exchange and self-regulation. The only thing that saves is a small draft blowing through the chicken coop. Therefore, on the wall opposite the entrance to the chicken coop, you need to make a barred ventilation window with your own hands, measuring 15x20 cm.
The vent should be positioned so that a straight line connecting the entrance to the coop and the ventilation hole passes under the perch. In this case, the flow of incoming air will allow the birds to survive the hot summer at the height of the perch, without digging holes in the ground. In addition, the optimal location of the perches relative to the entrance effectively dries the room with air flow and removes foreign odors.
The door at the entrance to the chicken coop needs to be made double. In addition to a regular plank door, you can also attach a frame the size of half the door leaf with your own hands. You can make the sash with your own hands from ordinary slats and tighten them with metal mesh.
To make cleaning the chicken coop easier, you can install a plastic or tin tray under the roost to collect the droppings. The intake is best made from a galvanized sheet of corrugated sheets with a wave height of 15 mm. The sides of the pallet on three sides can be bent and strengthened with your own hands using a wooden strip so that the sheet does not bend when cleaning and carrying. After cleaning, the cleaned surface is covered with a thin layer of sand and clay.
At the entrance to the chicken coop, next to the roost, they place a feeder and drinking bowls. For 5 chickens, one feeder and two drinkers are enough; for a larger number of birds, it is necessary to make two feeding places, 100-150 cm apart from each other.In addition to the grain feeder, you can make an additional tray for plant matter, tops, and mown grass, and separately make a ash pit next to the perch - a large trough with grated ash and sand.
A mandatory attribute of a good chicken coop is a window. The bird needs sunlight like air, so it would be correct to place the window opening directly opposite the perch, so that at noon maximum sun penetrates into the chicken coop.
Construction of nests for laying hens
Before you make nests, you need to choose the best place to install them. Typically, a row of several nests is moved to the opposite side of the perch. Thus, birds entering the coop can equally freely go to the nests or go to roost.
In addition, you will need to make several nest options for chickens and determine which one the birds like best. No matter how strange it may sound, beautiful nests built according to the recommendations of poultry farmers or purchased ready-made nests can be ignored by chickens. Therefore, when laying a chicken coop, you need to make several options for a nest for chickens, and the bird itself will decide which one is better, and then you just need to copy the option you like. If this is not done, then there will be very few eggs in the installed nests for chickens, and laying hens will lay most of their eggs in the most inappropriate places.
Sometimes poultry farmers claim that the cause of this phenomenon is parasites, strong odors or some unknown factors, including proximity to the roost. Of course, all chicken nests should be made as accessible as possible; the litter should be periodically cleaned and updated with carefully dried grass and straw.
Nest designs for chickens can be very different.The easiest way is to make a nest in the form of an open box with side sides, 20 cm high and a front side of 5-7 cm, without a roof. The main condition is that the nest must be removed from the perch, located at a low height and not come into contact with other nests. This will make the egg laying process as safe as possible.
Sometimes they try to make nests in the form of a large box, with a roof and a central entrance, similar to a birdhouse. Even for winter this is not the most successful nest option. It is better to make a warm nest in the form of one long box, separated by partitions. The relatively close arrangement will allow the hens to warm up faster, and the presence of partitions will protect the laid eggs from damage. The box with nests can be made portable so that, if necessary, it can be moved and installed closer to the heater.
In addition, the nest must be made so that sunlight penetrating the chicken coop does not reach the hens, otherwise the bird, “sealed” in the box, may suffer heat stroke. Chickens are extremely curious by nature, so it is important to make the space around the hens as clear as possible so that the bird can see the entrance to the chicken coop and the perches. Having the opportunity to observe the behavior of its relatives, the chicken quickly calms down.
Conclusion
Many of the nuances and details of arranging a chicken coop, perch, and nests become clear only after ten years of poultry breeding. The experience gained allows you to make the chicken’s life calmer and more satisfying, which always turns out a hundredfold in the form of eggs and meat. Problems most often arise when you move from 5-10 chickens to keeping a tribe of 50-100 birds. And even for such quantities, you can make a normal chicken coop and roost if you correctly understand the behavior and reaction of the bird.
