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Eggs are a very valuable and healthy product. Breed laying hens beneficial from different points of view. They bring fresh eggs and are a source of dietary meat. Natural products are always in demand. Meat and eggs can be sold and served in your home.
In order for chickens to lay eggs well, it is necessary to build a cozy house for them. To build a chicken coop, you will need to draw up an accurate design of the structure. If you follow the instructions, you can do DIY chicken coop for 10 chickens quickly and without unnecessary worries. Thanks to high-quality photos, you can understand the features of such structures.
Chicken coop dimensions
The dimensions of the chicken coop are calculated based on the needs of the laying hens and their need for free space. To correctly determine the size of a building, it is necessary to take into account:
- The purpose for which chickens are bred. There are some differences when raising chickens to sell eggs or to put fresh food on your table every day.
- Number of laying hens.
- Features of the site on which it is planned to build a chicken coop.
If the family is large, it is better to keep about 20 heads.If you want to turn chicken breeding into a profitable business, you should start from 50 to 100 chickens.
The large scale of work when building a chicken coop should not be intimidating. If you have no experience in building outbuildings, you can try installing a small chicken coop. When choosing a location, you must take into account that over time the chicken coop will need to be expanded.
Chicken coop drawings
Any construction process begins with drawing a diagram. This stage is very important when building a chicken coop. The drawing should be made as accurate as possible. This will allow you to imagine the end result of your efforts. In addition, a correctly drawn up drawing of the chicken coop will help develop an action plan. To figure out how to build a chicken coop, you should watch the video:
When creating a drawing of a chicken coop, you should not exactly copy existing diagrams. You can design a chicken house yourself, taking into account the characteristics of your site. However, when construction experience is very small, turning to ready-made drawings helps to clarify many of the subtleties of building a chicken coop. If birds find themselves in a cramped environment, they will not feel comfortable, which will affect their productivity.
For example, for 3 chickens you need to allocate 1 sq. m of space. Drawing an analogy, for 10 birds you will need a 2x2 m chicken coop. If the farm has 20 chickens, you should make a 3x3 m chicken coop.
When constructing a poultry house, it is necessary to take into account that the birds will live in the house all year round. In winter, chickens constantly huddle together. In this regard, they will need less space than in summer. In winter, one square meter is enough for 4 birds. This means that ten chickens will require an area of 2.5 square meters. m.
When creating drawings of a chicken coop for 10 chickens with your own hands, you should definitely take into account the space for walking. The dimensions of the aviary depend on the size of the poultry house. If the chicken coop is 2 m wide, then the walking area should be 2x6 m.
The durability of a winter chicken coop depends on how well the materials are selected. The main ones are: hammer, cement, roofing felt, beams and boards. In addition, a chicken coop for 10 chickens will need light. To do this you will need to buy light bulbs and cables.
Determining a place for a chicken coop
Once the dimensions of the chicken coop are known and the materials selected, construction can begin. First, choose the location of the future chicken coop. Finding the optimal position is very important, because this is a house for laying hens. Here they will walk, sleep, rush. It is important that nothing makes them uncomfortable.
When choosing a location for a chicken coop, you must follow these rules:
- You should choose a place that is dry. If humidity is high, the health of birds can be compromised.
- It is better that the surface is sloped. This is necessary so that during frequent rains the water drains faster.
- It is important to ensure that the place is well lit by the sun.
- It is better if the enclosure in which the chickens will walk is located on the south side. Under this condition, the sun's rays will always warm this place.
It is prohibited to install mini chicken coop straight to the ground. The building must have a good foundation. You can learn how to build a reliable chicken coop from the video:
Choosing a foundation for a chicken coop
There are 2 most suitable options for a chicken coop - strip and column foundations. Drawings of a poultry house built on your own usually include a base in the form of pillars.It is best suited for lightweight structures. This foundation has a number of advantages:
- The construction of such a foundation for a chicken coop does not require a long wait until the solution hardens.
- The columnar base is easy to install.
- When creating such a base, natural ventilation is created, which protects the chicken coop from rodents.
Building a columnar foundation for a chicken coop does not require much effort. To do this you will need to perform the following steps:
- It is necessary to drill holes 1 m deep along the perimeter of the chicken coop. Each of them should have a diameter of about 20 cm.
- Then it is necessary to carry out the formwork. It is usually constructed from asbestos-cement pipes.
- The pipes are inserted into the pit.
- Before pouring concrete, reinforcing bars must be placed in the formwork. They must be threaded.
- After the concrete has hardened, the support beam is attached to the base.
Walls and floor
From the photos of finished structures and drawings, you can find out that the chicken coop on a columnar foundation is being built of a frame type. The peculiarity of this construction is the simplicity and high speed of construction. The structure of the chicken coop is quite simple, so its work will not take much time.
When creating a chicken coop, the home master goes through several stages of work:
- It is necessary to take bars with a section of 70x70.
- When creating the frame, the vertical posts are nailed to the support beams.
- Horizontal crossbars are added to the resulting structure, on which the floor and roof are mounted.
When performing such work, it is important to monitor the accuracy of the dimensions. For example, for a poultry house with 20 chickens, it is necessary to calculate the height of the walls if the roof is pitched. Dimensions are selected based on the dimensions of the building. There must be a distance of at least 35 cm between the ground and the floor.
It is necessary to take care of creating a window, as well as doors. One of them is intended for the owner of the site, and the second is for the chickens to go out for a walk. Nests do not always need to be installed in the poultry house. A convenient option is when the nests are attached to the chicken house (as in the photo below). They can have several doors and a lifting lid. This will make the nests easier to clean.
Insulation
In addition, during the process of building walls, it is necessary to remember that the temperature inside the chicken coop should be comfortable for the chickens. It is necessary to consider whether the poultry house will be built for year-round maintenance or whether it will become a seasonal building. In the case of erecting a winter chicken coop, after covering the outside of the building with boards, care should be taken to ensure proper thermal insulation.
When creating a chicken coop with your own hands, it is better to use ready-made photos, drawings and instructions. This will make things easier. When a poultry house is properly created, it is provided with thermal insulation. The materials for it can be:
- mineral wool;
- ecowool;
- Styrofoam.
When the insulation is laid, the inside of the walls is covered with boards.
However, laying insulation is not enough to create the most favorable living conditions for birds in winter.Therefore, when building a winter chicken coop for 10 chickens with your own hands, you need to create a special heating system. Thanks to this solution, a certain temperature will always be maintained in the chicken coop.
Creating a floor and roof
To create the necessary living conditions for chickens, you will need to make a double floor. Thanks to it, additional insulation of the chicken coop. This floor is quite easy to construct. Timber boards are hemmed from below, insulation is laid on them, and everything is sewn up on top with finishing boards (as in the photo).
Many chicken coops are made without such a floor. Straw or sawdust is used for insulation. If you lay these materials in a thick layer, it will become an excellent heat insulator. It is better if a log or timber is chosen as the material for creating the chicken coop. They are great for poultry houses.
The easiest way is to make a pitched roof. To build it, you will need to maintain a distance of half a meter between the beams. Roofing felt is used for waterproofing.
To create an additional layer of insulation, the inside of the roof can be sheathed with chipboard panels. For external covering use slate, reeds or corrugated sheets.
Interior arrangement
Chicken coop (both summer and winter option) should be done as carefully as possible both outside and inside. The interior arrangement of a poultry house requires a lot of time. There are a few tips to follow:
- Ventilation must be present in the chicken coop. There must be a flow of fresh air in the poultry house. To construct ventilation, it is necessary to install 2 pipes: one for supply, the other for outlet.
- In order for sunlight to penetrate into the room, it is necessary to make windows of the optimal size.
- Chickens need a roost.The diameter of the poles should be about 3-4 cm. It is better to make a distance of 35 cm between the poles.
- You can use scrap materials to create nests. These include boxes and boxes.
By performing simple calculations, you can decide how many and what length of poles should be made.
Even during construction, you need to think about the place where the birds will feed. It is necessary to make it as convenient as possible for laying hens. The length of the feeder is calculated based on the number of birds. For example, one chicken should have about 15 cm. If possible, it is better to provide a length reserve.
Additional feeders should be made in the form of boxes. They are located at a height of 15 cm above the floor. They should always contain small and gravel. Every hen needs such materials to form eggs.
Another useful design would be a dust bath. They can be arranged very simply. To do this, you will need to prepare containers and fill them with sand and ash. When chickens bathe in such baths, they improve the quality of their plumage. In addition, this allows you to destroy pests living on the bird. To figure out how to build a chicken coop for 10 chickens, you need to decide on the features of its design and structure.
Final stage
After construction is completed, finishing should be carried out. Such work consists of little things, however, they are very important for creating comfortable conditions for laying hens. Thanks to them, the chicken coop will be as functional as possible, and the site will acquire another attractive element.
There are several recommendations regarding finishing:
- After the construction of the house is completed, the enclosure must be covered with mesh. You don’t have to close the roof; when it rains, the chickens will go into the coop.
- It is convenient if the front door is combined with a manhole. A separate hole is made for it in the door structure. You can cut it into the wall. The main requirement is to maintain the required dimensions. The hole should measure 35x35 cm.
- To form an approach to the hole, it is necessary to nail to it a board covered with horizontal slats.
- An approach should also be created to the roost. This will allow young laying hens to climb onto the perches comfortably.
- To increase the egg production of chickens, it is necessary to extend the daylight hours for laying hens. To do this, during the autumn and spring periods, you should light a light bulb in the mornings and evenings. To do this, you will need to run electricity into the chicken coop. The cable needs to be prepared. To avoid drilling an additional hole, you should route the cable through the ventilation.
You can protect wood from rotting using a special composition. The outside of the building is painted, and the inside is treated with quicklime. This will help eliminate the risk of parasites.
