Make a chicken coop at the dacha. DIY chicken coop - Best tips for beginners! (66 photos). Required building materials and their selection

Poultry breeding is a troublesome business and requires constant care for the bird population. In a suburban or dacha area, such conditions, as a rule, do not exist, so the vast majority build a chicken coop at the dacha with their own hands for a small number of birds, a maximum of five to seven chickens. As an option, you can order a simple wooden poultry house from a carpenter or buy any of the ready-made chicken coops for the country, sold at exhibitions and specialized stores. Most often, this is a small chicken coop with a walk, designed for the summer version of keeping poultry in the country, from March to November.

Which poultry housing option do you prefer?

Old and experienced poultry farmers say: “build it as if it were for yourself.” For chickens, even the simplest chicken coop is their home. If, after completion of construction, you can sit inside the built barn for chickens for a couple of hours without much discomfort, then the birds living in the country will also be happy.

There are quite a lot of ways and options to build a chicken coop at the dacha with your own hands, ranging from brick premises to carved huts made of timber and tongue-and-groove boards. The most popular for a summer residence is considered a simple chicken coop, which is easy to assemble yourself from OSB boards, plywood or unedged boards on a frame made of wooden beams, as in the video:

The use of wood as a building material allows us to obtain a number of additional benefits plank and timber house for a summer residence in comparison with sandwiches or brick premises:

The wooden structure of the chicken room is light and at the same time durable, which does not require a capital foundation;
Using timber and boards allows you to do 99% of all work in a chicken coop at your dacha with your own hands, even if you do not have the professional skills of a joiner or carpenter;
The wooden structure of the chicken coop can be easily supplemented and changed without radically rearranging the premises.

Attention! Even if, for objective reasons, you suddenly have to abandon the idea of making a chicken coop, the materials purchased for construction - timber, boards, plywood will not remain as dead weight at the dacha and will easily find use.

Unlike most modern building materials, wood does not frighten chickens; the wooden walls of the room have sufficient sound insulation so as not to hear rain or wind, and at the same time convey well the sounds and footsteps of night visitors. The disadvantages of a wooden chicken coop include poor protection from rats and mice, which can enter poultry houses for grain and steal eggs.

How to choose a place to build a chicken coop at your dacha

When choosing a place in the country for placing a residence for chickens, they are guided by the same principles as when installing any other wooden building. The morning sun should illuminate the windows and the entrance to the chicken coop to the maximum, warming up the cooled room and ridding it of excess moisture. In the midday heat, the chicken coop must be protected from direct sunlight, so if possible, the room is located under the crown of the tallest tree in the country house or covered with a fabric awning.

It is best to place the chicken coop away from the cottage building and garden beds, which will attract chickens to themselves like a magnet. There should be no cesspools or compost pits, sewers or other sources of infection near the walking area.

An excellent solution is to build a chicken coop as an extension to the cottage building. This makes it easier to heat the room and control the condition of the chickens. Often a chicken coop is attached to a summer kitchen in a country house, but if it is not heated in winter, there is little point in such a decision.

We build a chicken coop out of wood at the dacha

Before building a chicken coop, you will need to make a simple sketch, or better yet, a drawing with a layout of the location and internal structure of the chicken coop in the country. The average area norm is calculated - two chickens per square of usable area. Thus, for 5 chickens you will need 2.5 m2, and another 30% needs to be added for three nests. As a result, the theoretically calculated area of a five-person house will be 3.2 m2, but in practice, a small chicken coop, less than or about 2.8 m2, with a ceiling height of 1.8 m, is suitable for living five chickens in the country, photo.

We will build a room for chickens at the dacha taking into account the following features:

As a foundation, a typical cast columnar foundation for a dacha is best suited;
The body of the chicken room is made on the basis of a frame made of 100x50 timber;
The floor, ceiling and side walls are sheathed with tongue and groove boards;
The roof is assembled according to a simple single-pitch scheme with the high side of the slope extending 50-60 cm.

Attention! Insulation of floors, walls and ceilings is best done using sheet EPS or foam plastic sheets 20 mm thick.

Construction of the foundation and frame of the chicken coop

After choosing a place in the country for the construction of a chicken coop, it is necessary to make a preliminary marking of the soil and water level. If the soil at the dacha in the spring, after the snow and flood waters have melted, remains damp for a long time, most likely the water level is quite high, so you will need to make a full drainage and connect the pipe to the general drainage system of the dacha.

After marking the outline of the future chicken coop, we dig five holes 50 cm deep for casting or laying out the foundation pillars. At any dacha there will be old wire that can be used as reinforcement, and cutting boards for making formwork. The dimensions of the supports are 15x15cm, with a height above the ground of at least 30 cm. After the concrete has set, we clean the upper end of the pillars and level them to the general horizon.

From the timber we assemble the frame for the basement of the future chicken coop and lay the logs. To protect chickens from rats and mice, which hunt in abundance around the dacha, we stretch a fine-mesh metal mesh onto the timber, with a margin of at least 50 cm on the sides. After assembling the chicken coop frame, the edges of the mesh will be placed on the inner lining of the walls and nailed down.

At the next stage, you will need to install the corner posts of the frame, align them vertically and knock them down with temporary jumpers from the slab. After installing the upper belt of the frame made of timber and ceiling beams, the walls, floor and ceiling of the room are sewn up with tongue-and-groove and unedged boards, which can be found at the dacha.

To arrange the roof of the chicken coop, you can use roofing materials left over from the roof of the dacha, for example, old slate or metal. The best option is considered to be bituminous shingles or ondulin, but for the dacha, experts recommend slate as it is durable, non-flammable and resistant to the teeth of predators.

Finishing and arrangement of the chicken coop

The entrance to the chicken coop and the run must be positioned so that it is easily visible from the garden beds or porch of the dacha. In summer, chickens like to roost at sunset, and the closing time of the door to the chicken house must be constantly monitored. To be able to see how and when the chickens entered the chicken coop, from any point in the dacha, you can install a lamp above the entrance to the room or vestibule.

In addition to the main door, they often hang a second one, like a mosquito flap for a summer house, only instead of a polymer mesh, they use a steel mesh with a fine mesh. A window is arranged in a similar way.

The floor in the chicken room can also be insulated with materials left over from the renovation of the cottage. Do not use basalt or mineral wool for insulation, even if the roof or floor was insulated at the dacha with this material. Chickens hear odors very well and react poorly to vapors of phenol and phenol-based resins, and a relatively thin floor does not guarantee reliable protection. The easiest way is to lay a double layer of sheet foam and a film to protect against condensation, and be sure to install a vent under the subfloor to remove moisture.

Proper ventilation plays a special role in the life of chickens. The simplest is forced ventilation in the form of a small window in the back wall. An exhaust hole measuring 15x10 cm is cut out in the ceiling area, and the air flow is designed in the form of an air valve on the front door.

The walls of the chicken coop are insulated in the same way as the dacha. In the simplest case, the boards for internal wall cladding are covered on the outside with EPS sheets, covered with film and covered with wooden clapboard.

Chicken coop layout

Usually the internal space of the chicken coop is divided into two halves by a central passage, photo. Most of the chicken coop is allocated for arranging a roost; nests and feeders for chickens are installed in the smaller half of the room.

The floor in the chicken coop is covered with a layer of sand and sawdust, which protects the wood well from bird droppings and at the same time protects it from condensation.

During periods of severe frost, chickens may leave the roost and huddle together. In this case, you can lay a layer of straw, or use rags available at the dacha to close the cracks and the ventilation inlet valve to prevent the lower tiers of the chicken coop from freezing.

Conclusion

A wooden chicken coop is always light and warm. But in cold weather, when it is impossible to do without heating, wood becomes a source of increased risk from a fire safety point of view. Therefore, the wooden walls of the building for chickens have to be regularly treated with fire retardants, and the places where the heater is installed must be sheathed with metal sheets. In this case, the chicken room at the dacha will last quite a long time.

A good poultry house is a guarantee of excellent health and high productivity of your birds. Finding themselves in cramped conditions, dampness, cold and darkness, poultry will by no means be able to provide even the needs of the breeder’s family with meat and egg products, let alone bring him a stable income. this is why coop comfort is important. How to independently build and equip a chicken coop at the dacha, what needs to be taken into account during construction and how to insulate the structure for the winter - we will talk about all this later in the article.

How to choose a place to build a chicken coop at your dacha

Finding a good place for construction will help the summer resident-poultry farmer in the future to get rid of negative factors that affect the decrease in egg production of birds, defects in their development and diseases.

Important! To protect poultry from helminthiasis, feed the livestock with a fresh decoction of chamomile flowers or garden sorrel leaves for 3 days every month..

When choosing the right zone, it is important to focus on the following recommendations:

Give preference to elevated and well-lit areas. This arrangement of the chicken coop guarantees an acceptable level of moisture inside the room, and also provides the light necessary for laying eggs. Moreover, water will never accumulate on the elevations during thaws and precipitation.
Avoid swampy areas, lowlands and places with high dampness, because they always accumulate cold air masses and excessive moisture. And these are not the best helpers when breeding chickens.
For a poultry house, look for a remote, cozy corner in your yard, where pets will not be frightened by the sounds of a busy road or other residents of the farm yard. It is desirable that people and animals appear in this place extremely rarely.
Try to ensure that the area chosen for the chicken coop corresponds to a rectangular shape, oriented from east to west. In this case, the windows in this design should be planned from the south, and the northern wall should be protected by tall bushes or leaning trees. Plants will provide the bird with shade in the sun and protection from the piercing cold wind in winter.
Besides, It is recommended to provide a walking area near the bird house. It is fenced with a chain-link mesh or hedge, preventing living creatures from crossing the permitted boundaries.

Layout and dimensions

It is not advisable to build a room that is too large for raising chickens at the countryside. After all, in winter it will need to be heated and lit, and this will entail additional costs. In order for the future design to be practical and thoughtful, experienced poultry farmers advise initially doing the drawing work, designing all the details and nuances.

In order to determine the size of the poultry house, you need to understand how many birds it is designed for. If we are talking about one dozen birds, then 4 square meters will be enough, if 2–3, you need to expand to 10–12 square meters.
When calculating the required area, you should pay attention to the type of chicken breed you like. For example, meat hens require more space than egg hens, so experts advise that when designing the area of a poultry house, proceed from the fact that for each square meter there should be no more than 3 adult meat hens or 4 laying hens.

With a possible expansion of the livestock, a small reserve of space can be provided in advance, but it is important to take into account the costs of maintaining the premises. But in order to save money, it is not worth reducing the bird territory, since this is fraught with undesirable consequences.

Did you know? The behavior of chickens largely depends on the color of the lighting. For example, blue lamps have a calming effect, orange causes urges to reproduce, green stimulates the production of growth hormone, and red dampens the impulses of laying hens to cannibalism and pecking eggs.

Be sure to consider a walking area near the chicken house, the area of which is calculated based on the fact that each mature bird requires at least 2 square meters of space.
Therefore, for 30 birds you need to design an area of 20 to 50 square meters. m.

When the dimensions of the future chicken coop and aviary have been decided, you can move on to their internal layout. Experts advise having a lot of windows in the room on the south side, which will save on lighting. It is advisable that they have windows for ventilation.

But these openings must be placed in such a way as to exclude the possibility of drafts during ventilation.

In addition, inside the poultry house you need to design an area for rest and feeding. In the first, nests and perches are placed, and in the second, sawdust, feeders and lamps are hung for lighting. It is also important to provide a corner for keeping hens and young animals.

The drawings should be taken very seriously, having first thought through all the details of the future construction. The work done will allow you to prepare the necessary materials and also avoid mistakes.

How to build a chicken coop at your dacha yourself

Before taking up construction tools, you need to take into account the requirements for the future chicken coop. According to experienced chicken breeders, these include stable dryness, warmth and good lighting, regardless of the time of year.
Therefore, you need to think in advance internal system heating and methods of external wall insulation (for example, using mineral wool, polystyrene foam or polystyrene), and also provide for the possibility of shading window frames in hot weather. And only then can construction begin.

Important! To minimize the risk of window glass breaking, experienced poultry farmers advise protecting them with bars or plywood shutters.

Selection and construction of the foundation

In order for the future structure to be durable, it must be erected on a concrete foundation. In addition, this solution will protect the bird house from the penetration of rats, mice and shrews. But such a neighborhood is extremely undesirable, since these small rodents are carriers of infections and helminths.

In practice, several options for creating a foundation are used, depending on the type of content. poultry:

Floor laying

Any foundation requires a durable heated floor. Concrete, clay and soil are absolutely not suitable for its construction. In such an environment, favorable conditions for dampness and cold will arise, which will harm the health of birds, so it is better to give preference to wooden boards.

Did you know? The owners of the longest chicken tails are Chinese Fen Huang breed roosters. Their tail feathers flutter to a record ten-meter length. In their homeland, such chickens are considered the personification of life wisdom, truth and good luck..

To lay a plank floor, initially dig a 20-centimeter recess. After that, fill it halfway with crushed stone, glass and brick fragments, and only then fill it with concrete mortar.

Some summer residents share their experience of protecting the poultry house from the penetration of unwanted guests from the ground using a galvanized mesh with small cells (no more than 12 mm) placed at the bottom of the pit. Both methods require an additional layer of boards.

You can put roofing felt or thick rubber on top as insulation. This variation will make cleaning the room easier and will withstand high-quality disinfection using chemical detergents.

Building walls

The material from which the walls of the chicken coop will be built is determined taking into account the time of its operation. That is, 25 mm boards are quite suitable for summer cottage structures. But for winter rooms you should choose brick, cinder block, shell rock or thick beams. Plan the height of the structure within 190 cm.
Even craftsmen with little experience in economic construction will be able to erect the walls of a chicken coop.

To do this you need:

Cover the foundation with a sheet of roofing felt, which will prevent moisture.
Lay out the first row of beams so that their ends meet in half.
Lay beams with a section of 10 x 15 cm on top. In the future, as the height increases, every 50 cm it will be necessary to construct logs with the ribs down. In this case, a space is expected to form between the joining building materials, which will then need to be sealed with insulation. It will not be superfluous between each new beam.
Lay out subsequent crowns of beams, attaching them to each other according to the “tenon and groove” principle.
Make a fastening from dowels (wooden rods). They are driven into holes made in the beams by drilling. It is important that the rod completely pierces the material and enters the next beam.
It is advisable to insulate the erected walls on both sides with glass wool, and additionally cover the outside with plastic or foam plastic.

Important! If you plan to heat the chicken coop with a wood stove or potbelly stove, be sure to provide a concrete floor underneath it, as well as in a circle with a radius of 1 meter.

Roofing device

A shelter on a chicken coop can be made of varying complexity, depending on your existing construction experience. If it is not there, it is better to prefer the most basic single-slope option. But under a gable roof, chickens will be more protected from the scorching sun in summer and from the cold in winter.
And this will already affect the economic factor of maintaining the premises during the heated period. In addition, many summer residents specially make gable roofs in order to store work equipment and other gardening utensils in the resulting space.

To build such a roof, you need:

Prepare the rafters and install them at an angle of 35 degrees (if you want a higher room, you can adjust the position of the parts to 45 degrees), and then attach them to the constructed walls.
Lay the ceiling out of boards, attaching it to the walls.
Cover the chicken coop with any roofing material, attaching it to the rafters (slate, tiles, metal profiles).

Making the ceiling

If you want Choughs to lay all year round, you definitely need to insulate the ceiling. After all, according to the laws of physics, the heat generated inside the structure will constantly rise upward. To avoid its leakage, it is important to eliminate all cracks and holes in the plank ceiling.

To do this, it is necessary to make a double-sided flooring of glass wool or mineral wool (at least 10 cm), and then sew up both surfaces with sheets of plywood, chipboard or clapboard.
Some craftsmen recommend additionally covering the insulation on both sides with a vapor barrier film. This is done so that the material does not erode or become damp. In this case, the protection will need to be attached to the beams using a construction stapler. At the same time, make sure that its smooth side is turned inward.

Important! For stove heating, it is advisable to design an L-shaped chimney. This option will protect the bird’s home from increased moisture..

Doors and windows

The number of windows in the poultry house depends on its size. It is advisable to do them in the upper zone on the south side, which will provide better lighting of the room during the day.

The shapes of window frames can be chosen to your taste, but, according to construction canons, their dimensions cannot be less than ¼ of the floor area. The main thing is that the windows do not let the cold in. Therefore, they also need to be insulated. And to prevent birds from breaking the glass, immediately place protective bars on them.

Doors to the chicken coop are made not only for free access for birds, but also taking into account the maintenance needs of the premises. Don't forget that you will need to clean and disinfect it regularly. Therefore, you should not have any difficulties entering the structure.

Wood is ideal for such purposes. If desired, the doors can be equipped automated system to close at a certain time.

Microclimate

To ensure that the laying of eggs in laying hens is not interrupted, it is important, regardless of the time of year and day, to provide the pets with dryness, warmth and 17 hours of daylight. And for this, the builder needs to pay attention to the thermal insulation of the walls, the heating system in the room, and also eliminate all factors affecting dampness. But let's talk about all this in order.

Ventilation

If good ventilation is not provided in the poultry house, the chickens will be at risk of dampness, which is a favorable environment for the proliferation of pathogenic microflora. Regular ventilation of the room will help solve the problem.

Professional builders draw the attention of beginners to several methods of ventilation in poultry houses:

Did you know? The largest chickens in the world are representatives of the rare Vietnamese breed Ga Dong Tao. There are about 300 of these fighting birds left. They are distinguished by an overly hypertrophied crest, massive build and very thick legs. Each limb of an adult is equal to the circumference of a child's arm.

Lighting

For high egg production, chickens need 14–17 hours of daylight. That is why, in addition to windows, additional lamps (LED, fluorescent, energy-saving or incandescent) must be provided in the poultry house. This solution will increase the egg productivity of laying hens by 30%.

It should be noted that in the warm season, when daylight lasts about 16 hours, there is no need for backlighting. It will be relevant exclusively from November to March.

At the same time, you should not pursue the goal of achieving record egg laying in black-billed whales by lighting the chicken coop around the clock. Constant light will only harm birds, because, regardless of the species, they need periodic darkness.

According to experts, it plays an important role in the processes of bone tissue formation and calcium absorption, which affects the strength of eggshells. The same applies to lamp power.
Experienced summer residents and chicken breeders advise limiting themselves to 1 60-watt lamp on an area of 8–10 square meters. If you prefer fluorescent ones, stop at a power of 40 watts, energy-saving - 15 watts.

Temperature

For feathered pets to function properly, it is important to maintain a stable temperature at +12...+20 °C. To this end, the summer resident needs to seal all the cracks in the room in advance and take care of its insulation, as well as eliminate the possibility of drafts.

However, do not forget that in the heat the bird may stop laying eggs altogether. That is why in summer time In an insulated room, ventilation must be running.

It is unacceptable for the temperature in the poultry house to exceed + 24 °C during the warm season, because this will not have the best effect on the quantity and quality of meat and egg products.

In regions with frosty, harsh winters, glass wool and polystyrene alone are not enough to maintain the desired temperature. There it makes sense to install additional heating devices or stoves. They should also be put into operation with the aim of maintaining humidity at a level of 50–60%.

More high performance may cause livestock mortality.

Arrangement of the poultry house inside

For the full functioning of chickens in the chicken coop, it is important to provide perches, nests, feeders and drinkers. In this case, an excess of items will only disturb the pets. the main task The breeder's goal is to create comfort for residents using a minimum number of attributes.

Did you know? The carcasses of chickens of the French Bresse-Gali breed have the best taste, which since 1957 has been the only holder of the AOC quality mark. For the sake of this bird, the French annually organize a magnificent chicken show, where each producer is rewarded with a cash prize of 10 thousand euros.

Ideally, these are long poles with a diameter of 5–6 cm with a smooth, well-sanded surface. They are placed in the shaded area of the chicken coop opposite the front door. For a multi-tier installation, indentations should be made from top row so that the blackbirds sitting on top do not stain the neighbors below with droppings.

Experienced poultry farmers recommend taking into account the characteristics of the breed of pets when constructing. For example, too high perches will not be available for large meat chickens, so it is advisable to place them at a level of 70 cm from the floor, and for all other varieties a height of 1.2 m will be acceptable.

When making poles, it is important to provide a distance of about half a meter for each chicken. If it is necessary to install parallel perches, it is recommended to leave at least 40–50 cm between them.

Nests

Their number depends on the number of livestock. It is advisable to build a nest for every 5 laying hens. Moreover, these attributes need to be installed not on the floor, but at a height of one and a half meters. A load-bearing wall is ideal for this.

You can use ready-made boxes as nests or make them yourself. The main thing is that the design corresponds to a height of 35 cm and a depth of 40–45 cm.

In a small chicken coop, it is advisable to combine the nests in a row, separating them with plywood partitions. It is important that the entrance hole is not wide and has a small threshold, which will prevent the eggs from rolling out.

To save space, you can make multi-tiered structures. In this case, the upper nests must be equipped with a sloping roof. This is done to prevent bird roosting.

Did you know? Little chickens demonstrate a complex of skills and reflexes available to a three-year-old child.

The inside of the nest is covered with hay or dry straw, and a dummy egg is placed to lure the hens.

Feeders and drinkers

The range of farm products for equipping poultry houses today surprises even the most demanding customers with its richness. But it is much cheaper to build a drinking bowl and feeder yourself. However, the origin of these containers does not matter at all for birds. The main thing is their practicality and convenience.

Experts advise choosing dry food wooden feeders, and for wet mash - metal or glass vessels. Lattice structures are ideal for fresh or dry herbs.

In addition, when choosing such utensils, you should take into account the shape of the containers. For example, rectangular flat trays with low sides are designed for feeding and watering chickens, since adults will climb inside and scatter the contents.

And trench-shaped structures with limiting removable gratings and special compartments for different types food should be placed outside the enclosures, providing access for pets to them. There are also variations of bunker feeders, which greatly facilitate the process of their maintenance (can be filled with a daily portion once).

For large poultry farms the best option The drinker is a nipple system. By the way, you can build it at home by drilling holes in a plastic bucket and equipping them with nipples.

In the chicken coop, feeders and drinkers are placed under lamps in a place away from the resting area. Depending on the mounting methods, they can be placed on the floor or suspended from a vertical support using brackets.
The main thing in choosing these containers is to comply with the following requirements:

vessels for feeding and watering chickens must be made in such a way as to prevent birds from getting inside, scattering the contents and contaminating it with their paws;
drinkers and feeders should be as easy to maintain as possible (after all, several times a day you will have to empty them of food residues, wash them and change the water as necessary);
These containers are considered ideal if they are not cramped for pets (the dimensions are calculated, leaving each adult a distance of about 15 cm), they are light, their shape and dimensions do not interfere with regular washing and cleaning.

Did you know? Chickens, despite the prevailing stereotype about disabilities their brain, about a hundred people can remember, recognize their owner and navigate well in time.

Bath tray

What it will be does not matter to the chickens. The main thing is its availability, so in this case the breeder can use any volumetric container, taking into account the size of the birds. Ideally, a plastic tray 25–30 cm high is suitable. It should be filled with a mixture of sand, ash and fine granite screenings.

Winter insulation of the room

High-quality external insulation of the structure, including window frames and the attic, will help save on heating birds. In this case, the need for internal heating devices will be relevant only on severe frosty days.
To heat such rooms, many summer residents prefer the following options:

Natural- involves the use of foam plastic (50 mm thick), mineral wool or glass wool. They are recommended to cover insulated surfaces on both sides. Also suitable for these purposes are fiberboard, chipboard, plastic, lining, boards, and plywood. The gaps in the windows and between the joint parts are treated with construction foam, and the board elements are impregnated with a special liquid to protect them from damage and aging. Also, many breeders try to warm their birds with a thick layer of bedding (straw from awnless cereal crops, sawdust, pine needles). On winter days, a layer of about 7–10 cm is recommended. Subsequently, the soiled layer is not thrown away, but sprinkled with a new one. In the process of physicochemical reactions, decomposition chicken manure accompanied by the production of heat, which helps maintain the desired level optimal temperature and disinfect the room. In addition, hay or straw is stored in the attic to save heat.
Electric- carried out with the participation infrared heaters, oily radiators or heat fans. Each of the units, to one degree or another, maintains the temperature regime of the room and combats excessive dampness. The only drawback of such heating is its costs. Many owners consider infrared heat lamps to be the most profitable of the listed methods of electric heating of a chicken coop, because during the heating process the room is also illuminated. In addition, such devices justify themselves with a high efficiency factor (98%). They heat not the air masses, but the objects underneath them. But for proper operation, it is important to place them at a distance of at least 0.5–1 m from the heated object. Also, do not forget about fire safety techniques.
Gas- provide for the presence of gas installations. Beneficial only on large farms. To heat several dozen chickens at the dacha, it is not advisable to buy an expensive boiler. And the system requires constant monitoring,
Wood-burning- carried out using an ordinary clay stove, potbelly stove or “buleryan”. Each of the devices justifies itself with good heat transfer and ease of operation. However, the installation of such structures requires special attention to compliance with fire safety rules.
Water- provides for the installation of steam heating, but is relevant only in cases where the chicken coop is adjacent to residential building. It is necessary to equip the premises with additional pipes. However, even experienced builders will be unable to deal with the upcoming work on their own, so it makes sense to turn to specialists for help.

Did you know? Hindus have long feared chicken because domesticated chickens were considered sacred animals. At the same time, every resident of India hunted their wild relatives.

Yard for walks

Each variety of poultry requires space to roam for full development. To protect the birds from other birds that carry infections, this area should be fenced with netting on the sides and top.
To prevent birds from digging and trying to get under the fence, it is recommended to deepen the mesh by 10–20 cm.

The size of the enclosure is calculated based on the number of feathered charges. The main thing is that the walking area does not restrict their physical activity.

It is advisable to pre-sow the allotted area with any grass suitable for grazing chickens (alfalfa, clover, sainfoin, goat's rue, amaranth, lawn mixture, knotweed, barley, mustard).

It is also important to leave an ash area inside where the black whales will bathe. In addition, an important detail of the walking yard is a canopy where the children can hide from the sun or from the rain. Drinking bowls also wouldn't hurt.

Some breeders plant this area on the north side with tall bushes, which will provide the chickens with shade and protection from the wind.

Even craftsmen with little experience in outbuildings will be able to make a homemade chicken coop. The main thing in this matter is to think through all the details, collect the necessary material and get to work.

A dacha is not only a plot of land with a cozy house and several garden beds.

If you can spend most of your time at your dacha, sooner or later you may come up with the idea of getting a personal chicken coop.

It is in this case that we decided to consider the question of how to make chicken coops on a summer cottage with our own hands.

Basic functions of a chicken coop

in the village it is intended not just for raising chickens. It is a home for them, the coziness and comfort of which will determine the success of egg laying and growth of the young. It follows from this that the chicken coop simultaneously carries a number of functions:

For this reason, the chicken coop should not be too cramped, otherwise its inhabitants will not feel comfortable, which means they will lose weight and will not be happy with the eggs. But an overly spacious room is not suitable for chickens, since in winter it will be too cold for them.

On average, 2-3 chickens require 1 m² of chicken coop space, so if you bought 10 chickens, they need to build a 5 m² chicken coop.

In addition to the chicken coop, the birds should also immediately build an aviary in which they can walk. Very often, summer residents do without enclosures, but in this case, chickens can not only rake well-groomed beds, but also accidentally wander into the booth of an angry neighbor’s dog.

So, to ensure the necessary movement for the birds and their safety, the construction of an aviary should be planned simultaneously with the chicken coop.

Important! It is important to place the walking area in a green area so that the chickens can supplement their diet with enough green food.

Where to place the chicken coop: choosing a location on the site

It is important to place a house for chickens on a hill and provide in advance a place where not only a chicken coop, but also an aviary could fit. It is very important that the chickens’ place of residence does not flood even during heavy rainfalls, so in some cases it is recommended to make an artificial embankment on which to lay the foundation of the future chicken coop.

Regarding the location of the chicken coop, such a fact as the proximity of a road or other sources of extraneous noise is also important. It is worth understanding that in the constant presence of extraneous sounds, laying hens will not lay eggs and will gain weight very slowly. Therefore, it is better to place the chicken coop in the back of the yard, so that it is surrounded by trees or bushes.

Important!Particular attention should be paid to the location of windows and doors. Windows should only face south, but doors can be located either on the west or east side. If the door is located from the south, it will be very difficult to keep the house warm in winter.

What you need for a poultry house: selection of materials and tools

Before starting construction, it is important to understand what is needed for a chicken coop: what materials and tools are important to prepare for the actual work.

It is best to build a chicken coop from natural wood, so stock up on a sufficient number of boards and beams from which you can create a room of the intended size.

For the foundation you will also need several bags of cement and cubic meters of bricks (broken bricks can also be used). Sawdust, mineral wool or roofing felt can be used as insulation materials in the chicken coop.

The aviary can be built from a usually metal mesh, but the fence must not only be high, but it must also cover the upper part of the aviary so that the birds do not fly out.

It is also necessary to build a canopy in the enclosure, under which the chickens can find shade in hot weather or shelter from the rain.

In order to build a real chicken coop from these materials with your own hands, you also need to prepare the following tools:

How to make a chicken coop: drawings and construction diagram

To make a chicken coop with your own hands, it is important to correctly calculate its dimensions, that is, before construction begins, complete all the drawings and diagrams, and also transfer them to the area.

Construction of the foundation and floor

The first stage of building a chicken coop diagram is drawings of its floor, which will be followed by pouring the foundation of the future structure and laying the floor from boards. However, pouring the foundation is not always necessary, especially if the structure is small and light.

Important! If the foundation is not poured during the construction of the chicken coop, then it is important to dig fairly wide metal plates along its entire perimeter. They will become a barrier for predators who can dig into the poultry house and harm the chickens.

But if there is still a need for a foundation, it is better to create it in the form of pillars that will raise the poultry house above the ground. This type of foundation for a chicken coop has several advantages:

To ensure that the foundation is level, the rods are connected to each other and a comparison is made using a ruler and level. After this, approximately 20 cm of soil is removed from under the foundation, and household bricks are poured into the resulting holes and cement is poured.

To ensure that the foundation rises high above the ground, wooden pedestals are also installed above the pits, which are also filled with cement, but will later be removed.

The distance between such pedestals in a pillar foundation is about a meter, and the height of each pedestal should not exceed 30 cm. The level should show that all pedestals have the same height, regardless of the terrain.

After pouring the foundation, you can begin laying the floor no earlier than 5 days, since this is exactly the amount of time required for the cement to dry completely.

If birds will be housed in the chicken coop in winter, the floor in such a room should be warm. For this purpose, a double floor is constructed, in which the base can be any materials, on top of which beams and insulation - sawdust or cotton wool - are laid.

The finished floor is laid on top, for the construction of which it is important to use even boards and lay them without cracks.

How to build warm walls for chickens?

In order for a do-it-yourself poultry house to be not just a shelter from the rain for the birds, but also to warm them during the cold season, it is important to take care good insulation of the walls of the building.

A chicken coop made of mesh is only suitable for the summer, but for the winter it is important to either build it right away good walls, or insulate the mesh with an additional wall and a good layer of glass wool or other material that retains heat well.

But ideally, the walls of the chicken coop should be made of beams. The walls should also have openings for windows, which will not only provide light, but will also be an excellent solution to the issue of ventilation.

After the walls are erected from beams, the structure is covered with boards on both sides, and insulation is placed inside. In this design, the chicken coop will be very warm even when the temperature drops to - 20 ° C.

Did you know? Many breeds of chickens are very demanding of space, so inside the chicken coop each laying hen must be given at least 30 cm per perch. In addition, you should not forget about organizing a place inside the chicken coop where the hens could safely lay eggs and hatch them.

The height of the walls in the chicken coop should be about 1.8 meters. Thanks to this, you will not only provide the chickens with a sufficient amount of space, but also significantly save the space of your garden plot, since you will place your birds on vertical shelves one above the other.

To complete the construction of the walls, windows are inserted, which should be opened in warm weather, and the walls themselves are covered with paint. Many consider this to be unnecessary for the construction of an outbuilding, but do not forget that paint can preserve the integrity of the wood, so you will not have to repair the chicken coop for many years.

Making a roof for a chicken coop

A typical chicken coop design involves using ordinary boards and a gable structure as a roof, when a ceiling is created in the room itself, and a roof rises above it. This will achieve two goals at once:

Due to the gable roof, water will drain from it very quickly, and moisture will never accumulate in the poultry house.
Under the roof itself you will have a lot of space that can be used to store bird food and necessary garden equipment.

For this purpose, first of all, a flooring of beams is laid out on the walls, after which the roof beams are attached at an angle. After this, all that remains is to insulate the flooring with good thermal insulation material, and also cover the beams with roofing felt, which is additionally covered with boards or slate (you can use any roofing material, even pieces of metal, as long as they do not leak).

Did you know? To make cleaning the chicken coop easier in the future, it is recommended to line the floor with dry sawdust. Firstly, chickens will be happy to rummage through them, and secondly, sawdust can retain heat well and absorb moisture. In addition, by choosing them from the chicken coop, you will receive excellent fertilizer for beds with your favorite vegetables.

How to make a run for chickens?

It is better to immediately install a chicken coop on a personal plot together with a comfortable and spacious walking area, that is, a special enclosed enclosure for chickens. The area of the aviary should significantly exceed the area of the poultry house, and if the latter has an area of 6 m², then the aviary should be the entire 12 m².

The walls of the walk are made of ordinary mesh, which is stretched over beams previously dug around the perimeter. Don’t forget to also make a gate between them so that you can go into the enclosure and leave food for the birds and pick up their eggs.

How to prepare a building for chickens?

Homemade chicken coops should not differ in quality from buildings that can be erected by specialists.

In addition to erecting walls and a roof, it is important to properly prepare such a room for the “living” of bird offspring.

Poultry house disinfection

A good chicken coop should not be a source of disease for chickens, so before placing the birds in a new building, it should be thoroughly disinfected.

With the resulting solution, you will need to thoroughly wash the entire interior of the chicken coop, including the walls, floor, ceiling and feeders with drinkers.

After this, leave the house open so that it dries thoroughly after wet cleaning and the unpleasant smell of building materials and paint disappears. Before moving in the hens, also remember to fill the floor with clean, dry sawdust, lay down straw for the hens, and fill the feeders and drinkers.

Room ventilation

Many inexperienced poultry farmers do not pay enough attention to ventilation of the poultry house, but the room with chickens needs it both in summer and winter.

Partially, this role is played by windows, which must be in the house, but if you have raised a lot of birds, in the summer there will not be enough windows.

57 once already
helped

Today, building a chicken coop on a country plot is quite simple.

To do this, you will need the necessary building materials, as well as a drawing of the planned structure.

Chicken coop equipment goals

The arrangement of the chicken coop is carried out, focusing on such important points as:

the number, as well as the age category of birds for which the dwelling is being built;
seasonality during which the housing is planned to be used;
the need for constant cleaning and disinfection of the house.

To maintain the functional, hygienic condition of the chicken coop, it is important to take care of it:

high quality ventilation system;
insulation, heating;
excellent lighting;
competent selection of affordable, easy-to-care materials.

In the process of building a bird house, it is important to take care of equipping it with perches, drinkers, and feeders - this is the best microclimate that is suitable for birds.

Arrangement of a good microclimate

The well-being and productivity of living creatures directly depends on lighting, humidity levels, and temperature regime in the chicken coop.

Even during the warm season, it is important that the house is reliably protected from drafts and humidity. It is for this reason that after constructing the frame, it is necessary to insulate the roof, wall and ceiling surfaces.

Taking advantage necessary materials With minimal skill you can set up a house for poultry inexpensively. You will need easy-to-install polystyrene foam, mineral wool and other building materials:

If you intend to keep livestock exclusively during the warm season, then this type of design will prevent overheating of the bird, as well as drafts.

When equipping a house for wintering birds, it is important to think about the heating system.

Today, to heat poultry houses, poultry farmers use infrared lamps, which are easy to install, economical and most effective in operation, while heating the area located precisely under the radiation source, and not the surrounding air space.

But when installing such a device, do not forget that the distance from it to the bird should not be less than 50 centimeters, and it is important to cover the flask with special protective grilles.

Lighting and ventilation system

If you plan to use lamps as heating and at the same time for good lighting, then at night the lights must be turned off completely to provide the birds with proper rest.

When arranging a birdhouse inside, you cannot do without a good ventilation system, thanks to which you can eliminate specific odors and normalize the temperature and humidity levels.

Perches and nests

Perches with nests are an important part of a well-equipped chicken coop. You can create them using plywood, plastic containers, buckets, baskets. Litter is arranged at the bottom of the nest.

When creating a chicken coop yourself, it is important to install perches. For this you can use perches with a diameter of 40 mm.

If the poles have a rectangular or square cross-section, then the corners should be rounded as much as possible, and the surface should be carefully processed using sandpaper.

One of the first perches is formed at a height of approximately 50 centimeters, the rest - approximately at a distance of 35 centimeters from the next one. Chickens should not sit as close as possible in a row so that the birds on top do not pollute the birds below.

how to make a bird house arrangement

Poultry farmers with many years of experience certainly have their own secrets for arranging chicken coops:

It is imperative to monitor the length of daylight hours in the house. When there is excessive lighting, birds become nervous, trample eggs and peck at their relatives.
You should not build nests directly on the floor, otherwise the chickens will certainly use them for sleeping.

To increase egg production, you need to install nests in corners where there is no light.
It is preferable to install feeders closer to the wall surface between perches and nests, so that all residents of the house can view them.

DIY chicken coop photo

Many summer residents and people living in private houses are engaged in keeping chickens. Like other living creatures, chickens require special place where they will walk and spend most of their time. If in summer you can equip an old barn and an aviary next to it for this purpose, then in winter you will need to build a full-fledged chicken coop to keep the birds.

Is it necessary to build a warm chicken coop?

The health and egg production of poultry directly depend on their comfort, adequate nutrition and general physical activity. Temperature and daylight hours play an important role.

Old barn converted into a chicken coop with a run for walking

The period from November to March is the most difficult for both poultry and poultry farmers who keep laying hens all year round. If in spring and summer the bird leads an active lifestyle, walks freely around the enclosure or alley, bathes in sand and specially designed containers with water, then in winter, for obvious reasons, its activity is greatly limited.

If the temperature is too low and there is no light, the egg production of laying hens is greatly reduced, and in some cases stops completely. Based on this, during the cold season a chicken coop should be built for chickens, providing the following conditions:

temperature above 10–12 o C and low air humidity;
artificial lighting that increases daylight hours;
natural or artificial ventilation for constant air exchange;
a place for nests and a free perch at a low altitude;
free space at the rate of 1 m2 per chicken.

Compliance with the conditions described above ensures that laying hens not only remain completely healthy and survive the winter well, but also maintain egg production and overall body weight.

Types of insulated chicken coops

An ordinary chicken coop is a barn, near which there is an area for walking birds on fresh air. The walking area is fenced with a fine mesh net, which will reliably protect the bird’s habitat from unwanted penetration of predators.

Winter chicken coop made of timber and boards for 30–35 chickens

In fact, this option can be taken as a basis when building a warm chicken coop. Especially if you need a room to keep no more than 10–15 chickens. If desired, you can consider a more comfortable chicken coop with both external and internal walking areas. But in this case, its size will be noticeably larger, which is not suitable for small suburban areas.

Depending on the number of birds, the following types of chicken coops can be used:

In many ways, all three types of chicken coops are similar and differ only in size, but with enough materials and free space on the site, an insulated chicken coop can have a completely different look.

For example, you can build a completely enclosed structure, which will already have a place for walking. This will allow the chickens to avoid hypothermia during walks, and will also give the bird the opportunity to walk freely, even when it is -15–20 o C outside.

Choosing materials for construction with your own hands

A variety of building materials can be used to build a chicken coop - from edged boards to masonry bricks. Any material has both positive and negative qualities, which should also be taken into account when choosing.

Base material

The construction of a chicken coop, like any structure, begins with laying a load-bearing foundation. The foundation is necessary for reliable protection of load-bearing walls and roofs. In the absence of a foundation, the walls of the chicken coop will be under constant influence of moisture, which will come from the damp earth. As a result, this will lead to rotting and damage to structurally important components of the structure.

Concrete, brick or foam blocks are used to make foundation supports

To build an insulated chicken coop, you can use the following types of foundations:

columnar - suitable for building chicken coops using frame technology, when the walls are made of thick boards and OSB. Foam blocks or concrete mixture are used to make the foundation. The supports are erected along the perimeter of the future structure;
pile - used for the construction of buildings on heaving and moving types of soil. A base in the form of metal piles sunk into the ground around the perimeter of the building is suitable for constructing wooden chicken coops. If the foundation is a pile-grillage foundation, then its load-bearing capacity is sufficient to build a chicken coop from foam blocks;
strip - the most reliable type of foundation. It can be used to build a chicken coop of any size and design. To make a strip foundation, a concrete mixture of grade M500, steel reinforcement Ø18 mm and edged boards are used.

To make a grillage, you can use it as wooden beam 20×20 cm, and concrete mixture grade M500. The first option is cheaper and easier to implement. Using a concrete mixture requires the ability to set formwork and knit a reinforcement cage, but in general, the use of these materials allows you to build a more reliable and durable foundation.

The choice of materials for making the floor in the chicken coop depends on what type of foundation is used. For pile and columnar foundations, it is more rational to use wooden beams, edged boards and CBPB sheets. In the case of a strip foundation - concrete and reinforcing materials.

Wall materials

The choice of material for constructing the walls of a chicken coop depends on the size of the structure and the technology by which it will be built. The simplest and fastest option is a chicken coop made of wooden beams and OSB. A beam or thick board (from 22 mm) is used to construct the frame, which is later sheathed with OSB sheets inside and out.

Foam block is perfect for the construction of capital walls winter chicken coop

To build the main walls of a chicken coop, you can use the following materials:

shell rock - natural material with low thermal conductivity. Perfect for building chicken coops for 25–30 chickens. The shell rock is a rectangular block 180x180x380 mm. The technology of work is in many ways reminiscent of the process of laying foam or cinder blocks;
foam concrete is a popular environmentally friendly building material. Suitable for building chicken coops of any size. For the construction of walls, it is better to use D400 foam blocks measuring 200x300x600 mm. The thickness of the walls being erected depends on the temperature regime in the region;
brick is a traditional material for the construction of load-bearing walls. Has low thermal conductivity and long service life. It is best used for the construction of permanent chicken coops for 50 or more chickens. Both solid and hollow bricks are suitable for the construction of chicken coops.

When choosing material for walls, you should also take into account how long the structure will be built. If you are just trying yourself as a poultry farmer, then the optimal choice of material for walls will be wooden beams and OSB. In the future, such a chicken coop can be disassembled or expanded with a small extension.

If you already raise chickens in large quantities and are planning to build a permanent chicken coop, it is better to build a permanent structure from foam blocks or bricks. Such a chicken coop will cost more, but its service life is noticeably longer.

Insulation material

To insulate the floor, walls and ceilings of the chicken coop, you can use various thermal insulation materials. Most cheap option- this is the use of sawdust, expanded clay and dry hay. Expanded clay is used to insulate floors or ceilings, and sawdust and hay are used to insulate walls.

Polystyrene foam has a low thermal conductivity coefficient, which makes it one of the best materials for wall insulation

The only disadvantage of this method compared to modern heat insulators is that the materials have a high thermal conductivity coefficient. In turn, this requires the installation of a large layer of insulation, which is not always possible when building a chicken coop.

TO modern materials for insulation, which can be used for thermal insulation of walls and floors in a chicken coop, include:

When choosing a thermal insulation material, you should take into account its cost and the surface area that you plan to insulate. For small chicken coops You can use stizol and other materials made of polyethylene foam. Stizol has a low thermal conductivity coefficient (0.3 W/m*K) - this ensures that the material reliably retains heat indoors.

For chicken coops with 50 chickens or more, it is recommended to use a combined approach. For example, insulate the floor with expanded clay and the walls with extruded polystyrene foam. If you want to save money, it is better to use polystyrene foam or mineral wool together with stizol.

Preparatory work

To build a chicken coop quickly and without problems, you should carefully prepare for the task. construction work. To do this, you need to decide on the location of the chicken coop, draw up a drawing of the future structure, calculate the material and prepare construction tools.

The diagram should show the location of nests, roosts and feeding areas.

When choosing a location on the site, it is advisable to adhere to the following:

It is not recommended to build a chicken coop in a lowland or on a slope. It is optimal if it is a free area located on a hill;
chickens and other poultry are afraid of noise. Therefore, it is better to build a chicken coop away from the road and other sources of noise;
The health of chickens directly depends on the amount of sunlight. To ensure free flow of light, the structure should be located on the south side.

If the soil on the site is clayey, loamy, swampy or other soil that does not absorb moisture well, then it is recommended to drain the site before building the chicken coop. If this is not done, the supporting base of the structure will quickly become unusable, and this will reduce the service life of the chicken coop as a whole.

Once you have found a suitable place to build a chicken coop, you can proceed to drawing up a drawing. This can be done either using regular paper and pencil, or using special computer programs for design.

Opposite each structural element you need to indicate the size - this will help to avoid mistakes during construction

The drawing should show the structure on a reduced scale. It is taken into account that the size of the structure depends on the number of chickens that are planned to be kept.

Opposite each structural element, its size should be indicated. This will help you quickly navigate the project without wasting time on calculating this or that part of the structure. Additionally, you should depict the chicken coop in a projection from above. On this part of the diagram you need to locate the entrance to the room, perches, nests, feeding area, etc.

As an example, consider the two diagrams located above. Both options are designed for keeping 10-12 chickens. The first diagram shows a chicken coop on a columnar foundation 200x400 cm with a pitched roof. To make a chicken coop, edged boards with a thickness of 10 to 20 mm are used. If desired, this diagram can be taken as a model on the basis of which the chicken coop you need will be built.

The second diagram shows a chicken coop with an aviary for walking. The dimensions of the structure, taking into account the vestibule, are 425×525 cm. To build a chicken coop, as in the previous version, it is used wooden plank and timber.

Materials for building a chicken coop

Materials for building an insulated chicken coop are selected based on personal preferences and the funds you are willing to spend on building the structure. For example, to build a chicken coop from the first example described above, the following material is needed:

It is advisable to use galvanized wood screws or galvanized nails as fasteners. To ensure reinforcement of the frame, you can use a steel angle of a suitable size.

Tool for work

To build a chicken coop you need the following tools:

Technology for making a chicken coop with perches

The technology for manufacturing chicken coops of various sizes is largely similar. The main thing is to follow the sequence of actions and adhere to the drawing that was drawn up earlier. The construction of an insulated chicken coop begins with marking, preparing the site and pouring the load-bearing foundation.

Making the foundation and floor

The size of the chicken coop directly affects the overall weight of the structure, so when choosing the type of foundation, take into account the size of the structure being built. For a chicken coop for 15–20 chickens, it is recommended to build a pile or columnar foundation. The second option is the most popular, since the supports can be poured yourself using a concrete mixture.

To pour the foundation and build the floor of the chicken coop, you will need to do the following:

According to the drawing, it is necessary to mark the place where the chicken coop is planned to be built. To do this, you will need to level the ground with a shovel. After this, wooden pegs are driven into the ground, and a rope is pulled between them.
Marking the foundation using pegs and rope is the easiest and fastest option.
In the corners of the marked area, it is necessary to dig holes for concrete supports with a depth of 50–60 cm. For this, a hand drill and a shovel are used. The dimensions of the wells are 30x30 cm. Wells of similar size and depth are installed along the perimeter of the future structure in increments of 2 m.
For chicken coops longer than 6 m, it is advisable to construct a concrete grillage. To do this, you will need to dig a trench 20 cm deep around the perimeter of the marked area. At the bottom of the trench it is necessary to fill 10 cm of sand and 10 cm of gravel of fraction 20–40. Each layer is carefully leveled and compacted.
To assemble the formwork box for support, it is best to use plywood or flat slate
Formwork for supports and grillage is made and installed from edged boards. To do this, the boards are knocked together into panels up to 70 cm high. Supports made of bars and bricks are used for installation. For reinforcement, reinforcement is used, which is knitted into a frame consisting of two lower and two upper rods.
To fill the foundation, a concrete mixture based on M500 cement and fine-grained sand, taken in a ratio of 1:3, respectively, is used. For mixing, use a concrete mixer or electric drill with a mixer attachment. Pouring the supports and grillage begins from any convenient angle.
After pouring the foundation, you will need to wait for the minimum strength to reach. To do this, the foundation is covered with plastic film and left to dry for 7–10 days.
The piping of the columnar foundation is made of 20×20 cm timber
After 10 days, the surface of the foundation is covered with roofing felt, on which a wooden frame made of 20x20 cm timber is laid. The frame is a box of 4 blanks, which are connected at the corners using self-tapping screws and a steel angle. Before installation, the harness is treated with a wood antiseptic. The harness is attached directly to the grillage with anchor bolts.
Logs made of 20×200 mm boards are mounted to the laid harness. To do this, you need to prepare several blanks from the board. The number of logs depends on the length of the chicken coop. The installation step is 1 m. After this, the board is placed on its edge and attached to the harness using self-tapping screws and a corner.
The logs are attached directly to the timber frame in 1 m increments
The resulting floor structure is hemmed with a rough board, which is fixed to the joists and trim. After covering, the entire floor structure is treated with a wood antiseptic.

It is better to insulate the floor after assembling the load-bearing walls (see below). To do this, the floor is covered with a vapor barrier membrane, which is fixed with a construction stapler. Then the space between the lags is filled with expanded clay of fraction 20–40. Finally, floorboards from edged boards are laid on the joists.

Erection of chicken coop walls and insulation of the structure

The walls of wooden chicken coops are best erected using frame technology. This will allow the insulation to be placed in the space between the outer and inner lining, which will prevent its damage during operation of the poultry house.

The technology of insulation and construction of walls consists of the following:

An edged board is mounted at the corners of the trim, which is fixed using a 50x50x35 mm fastening angle and 50 mm long self-tapping screws. The front posts should be 30–50 cm higher than the rear ones. This will ensure the necessary roof slope. After this, all corner posts are connected by means of an upper frame made from a board of the same section.
Galvanized nails or self-tapping screws are used to attach the racks to the harness.
Next, you need to clarify the width of the insulation that will be used to insulate the walls. Taking into account its width, intermediate supports of the sheathing are installed. They are also attached to the harness using mounting angles and self-tapping screws.
To strengthen the structure in the places where the entrance door, the window for the bird to go outside and the windows will be located, horizontal guides are mounted according to a similar principle. To frame the window opening, guides are installed at the top and bottom.
The intermediate posts of the frame are mounted in increments equal to the width of the insulation used
Having finished installing the frame, you can immediately move on to the roof. To do this, you will need to measure the distance from the front drain to the rear. To the obtained value you should add 25–30 cm, which will go to the roof overhang. After this, according to the calculated size, rafters are prepared from edged boards.
The prepared blanks are treated with a wood antiseptic. After drying, the rafters are placed on edge and attached to the top frame frame. The pitch between the rafters should be equal to the width of the insulation. Afterwards, a 200 micron thick polyethylene film, a 10X10 mm board sheathing with a gap and roofing material are laid on the rafters.
Sheathing the walls of the chicken coop with OSB sheets on the outside
The chicken coop frame is treated with an antiseptic 2 times. Next, 20x20 mm bars are mounted on the outer side, onto which OSB sheets are attached using self-tapping screws 50 mm long. The pitch between screws is 20 cm.
A tension-free vapor barrier membrane is placed in the space between the frame posts. A stapler is used for fastening. After this, mineral wool in slabs or rolls is laid between the racks. It is important that the material lies tightly and does not fall off.
Insulation in slabs or rolls is placed in the space between the frame posts
When insulating walls with polystyrene foam, expanded polystyrene or stizol, there is no need to install a vapor barrier. After laying the insulation, the walls are sheathed on the inside of the chicken coop. The place where the ventilation will be located is not sheathed.

The process of roof insulation is similar. To do this, thermal insulation material is laid in the space between the rafters. If desired, roof insulation can be done in two layers of insulation. When covering the frame, remember that there should be a small ventilation gap between the OSB sheets and the insulation.

When insulating the roof, insulation in the form of polyethylene film. Roofing is done using a similar technology. When installing windows, the gaps between the frame and the window frame are filled with foam.

Installation of ventilation and lighting

Ventilation in a chicken coop can be represented either by a regular exhaust vent with a damper or by a full-fledged ventilation duct, which will be located under the roof.

The best option for a chicken coop built using frame technology is two ventilation holes located on opposite walls of the building. In order to install ventilation, you will need to cut a square hole in the wall of the chicken coop. This can be done with a jigsaw by first drilling a small hole in the casing for inserting the cutting blade.

The second hole is cut in a similar pattern 40 cm below the first. Supply ventilation fans of any convenient size are mounted in the holes. The average cost for similar products without additional functions does not exceed 800–1000 rubles.

Lighting in the chicken coop can be done using LED strips of varying brightness

For lighting it is better to use 1–2 fluorescent lamps or LED strip with white light output. To lay electrical wiring, plastic corrugation and copper cable of the appropriate cross-section are used.

If you plan to install heating equipment, it is recommended to use fan heaters with automatic temperature control. They can be turned on when the temperature inside the chicken coop at night drops below 12 o C.

Making perches and nests

To make perches, you can use a wooden block 20x20 cm or a round profile 28x2200 mm, which can be purchased at various hardware stores.

When making nests, remember that one hen requires 30–35 cm of free space

To install perches you will need to do the following:

Perches are installed at a height of 50–70 cm from the floor level. The installation location is selected based on the free space in the room. It is best to use a place near the window for this.
To make perches, you will need to measure the width of the chicken coop. According to this value, it is necessary to prepare 4–6 blanks from a round wooden profile or block.
Boards 50 cm long will be used as supports, which are mounted on opposite walls. First, 3x3 cm recesses are sawn into the boards to install the poles.
For more reliable fixation, the pole is attached to the support using self-tapping screws or nails. The step between adjacent perches is 25–30 cm. The height distance is at least 20 cm.

To make it more convenient for chickens to climb onto the roost, you will need to make a small ladder from a board. To do this, you need to measure the distance from the floor to the lower perch. Next, the workpiece is sawn off, to which short 20x20 mm blocks are attached. After which the ladder is attached to the lower perch using self-tapping screws.

For nests, it is better to use a semi-open box made of a wooden block and lined with OSB. The dimensions and manufacturing diagram can be seen in the photo above. First of all, the frame is assembled from a 20x20 mm bar. To fasten the workpieces, 30 mm long self-tapping screws and mounting angles are used. After which the frame is sheathed with OSB or edged boards. If it is necessary to install nests at a height, then legs are attached to the bottom of the box.

Features of chicken coops in the cellar

When converting a basement into a chicken coop, you should insulate the foundation walls with mineral wool or polystyrene foam

litter - a layer of dry sawdust 4–5 cm thick. The litter is changed as it gets dirty, but at least once a week. Sometimes you can use hay, but you will have to change it more often;
lighting - LED lamp power from 5 watts. Using artificial lighting, you should regulate the length of daylight hours. This will help increase the egg production of laying hens;
insulation - mineral wool, stizol or other rolled heat insulator. To protect the insulation, it is better to use a vapor barrier membrane or dense polyethylene. The thickness of the insulation layer is from 5 cm;
ventilation - vents in which you can install a supply and exhaust valve. The cellar or basement should be well ventilated periodically. For example, at the time of cleaning the litter.

Nests, as in the case of a full-fledged chicken coop, can be made from edged boards on the basis that one chicken requires 30–40 cm of space. The perch is installed 50–70 cm from the floor level. If desired, the perch can be connected to the nests using boards.

Chicken coop care after winter

Disinfection of the chicken coop is carried out for preventive purposes at least once a year. This allows you to avoid an outbreak of infection and the spread of harmful microorganisms. It is best to carry out disinfection in the spring or summer, when the chickens can safely walk in the fresh air and you can clean the chicken coop.

A set of products for disinfecting chicken coops and other objects where animals and birds can be kept

To disinfect the chicken coop you will need to do the following:

cleaning - the floor, walls, ceiling, perches and nests must be completely cleaned of dirt and dust. To do this, use a convenient broom and brushes with hard bristles. After this, the surfaces are washed with hot water with the addition of soda ash;
processing - for disinfection internal space special means are used in the chicken coop. For example, caustic soda in the form of a 2% solution or a 4% xylonaftha emulsion. The solution is prepared strictly according to the recipe without exceeding the norm. When processing, personal protective equipment is used: goggles, gown, respirator.

After treatment, you should wait until the product evaporates completely. The minimum holding time is 2 hours, but it is advisable to wait at least 5–6 hours and only then release the birds. And they also disinfect feeders, drinkers and other accessories that were in the poultry house.

Video: review of a winter chicken coop with walking

The construction of a chicken coop is not particularly difficult - the work can be done independently, without the help of auxiliary workers and specialists. To do this, carefully study our instructions and read the advice of other chicken breeders, which can always be found on the Internet.

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