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Someone wants to keep chickens on the site or in the country for the soul, and someone for savings. It doesn’t matter. It is important that they need a room – a chicken coop. And then a lot of questions immediately arise: what size, from what, how to make, what should be inside. After all, when building a chicken coop in the country, you must immediately take all this into account. Then it will be easier for you to serve it and the chickens will delight you with weight gain and a large number of eggs.
As a rule, they start a bird in the spring and put the first chicken coop in the summer. If you are not going to keep the bird in cages, then it is wiser to build it immediately with a paddock – a fenced area where they will walk during daylight hours.
Such a chicken coop is convenient in the country, in a private courtyard, it is built easily and quickly. Make a common wooden frame, divided into two unequal parts. The large one – the corral – is sewn up with a net, the second – the smaller one – is taken away under the chicken coop itself and is sheathed with some material from the outside, equipped with perches inside. The construction technique is the same as for a frame wooden shed.
Do-it-yourself summer chicken coop in the country in a couple of days
Such a summer chicken coop in the country is ideal for 5-20 chickens. You can build on 50, and on 100, just the larger the livestock, the larger the dimensions will be required, and the sequence of actions itself will remain the same.
If we talk about a shed for chickens, then for 5-6 chickens you will need 3 squares, for 10 chickens – 5 squares, for 20 chickens – 10 squares. It is desirable to take more places for walking, but it all depends on your realities. The approach is this: laying hens, if they get fat, rush worse, so it is advisable for them to allocate more space. For broilers, the picture is the opposite: they should move little. Therefore, they are given less space.
Building step by step
First of all, a frame is made from a bar. It is more convenient to collect it right on the site, which was planned as a summer home for the bird. It is more convenient to clean it if the height in the middle allows you to rise to your full height. Everyone’s height is different, but you can focus on 2 meters.
If you are building for 5-20 chickens, you can take a beam of 50 * 50 cm. It will go to the vertical racks and to the slopes that form the roof. The rest can be assembled from a 100 * 40 mm edged board. You can see the frame in the photo.
It is divided into two unequal parts – paddock and chicken coop. In this case, the length is 1,5 m + 4,5 m. If the paddock is large, additional racks may be needed to prevent the bars from bending. In principle, they already need to be installed here (every 2-3 meters), but the significant thickness of the board (40 mm) and the light material on the roof (film) made it possible not to do this. As soon as the frame was made, consider that the country chicken coop was built by 1/3.
Next comes the arrangement of a shed for chickens. Another transverse beam is laid between two intermediate posts, which mark the border of the walking area and the chicken coop. It is laid between two vertical posts, fastened with nails. To be sure, you can strengthen the corners. Then the logs are laid, the floor is laid on them. On the flooring, you can use an inch edged board (25 mm), you can use moisture-proof plywood or OSB (OSB).
A floor in even a summer residence is highly desirable. Firstly, it is warmer, and secondly, no one will undermine. Well, it’s easier to clean it up. Chips were poured on the floor: chickens dig well in it, and it absorbs moisture well. Then they swept away everything, took it out.
Inside, this version of a country chicken coop is divided into two halves – for different breeds of chickens (laying hens do not get along with broilers), therefore there are two doors each. They are made on both sides of the middle pillars. The walls are upholstered with edged boards. Pieces of the board are nailed to the racks of the frame. The boards were taken from pallets – the length was just enough. They didn’t worry especially about the cracks; they were then sheathed with packing cardboard inside from drafts (the boxes were taken from the store). It was fastened with a stapler and staples.
A small metal mesh was also nailed between the boarding and cardboard: from rodents and other small creatures.
After the walls and floor are ready, we started arranging the roof. They stuffed longitudinal strips (thin), covered with a reinforced film. It is much more reliable than ordinary polyethylene. Better, of course, polycarbonate, at least over the chicken coop, but it is more expensive, although much more durable.
They didn’t make a “dark” roof deliberately: then you need to make windows, and this is an additional hassle. But if you wish, you can make a roof and windows.
To avoid windage, several rails were nailed on top. With this design, the film can be removed for the winter: reinforced can serve for several years.
Half of the paddock is covered with cardboard: so that on hot days there is somewhere to hide. The cardboard was laid on the slats, and the film was already on top. The paddock is also divided by a grid; for this, another board was nailed. A fine metal mesh was attached to the three guides received with a stapler and staples.
The sides were covered with a plastic mesh. On the bottom they overlaid with a stone: and the bird will not dig in and other living creatures will not fit in from the outside.
To build such a chicken coop in the country is a matter of one, maximum, two days. And the main – warm – shed for chickens can stand open all summer – dry, ventilate. In the onset of cold weather, the bird is transferred to winter apartments.
You may be interested in reading how to make automatic watering in the country or about drip irrigation.
What to put inside
The internal arrangement of the chicken coop in the country is the same as in the winter apartment. Drinkers and feeders are placed in the corral. It is better not to put feeders with handles in the middle – chickens sit on them, the litter ends up in the feed, you have to throw it away. The best option is dishes with low sides for young animals and higher ones for adult birds. Then they stand side by side and calmly peck.
Inside the chicken coop you need to make a perch. One meter goes to 5-6 chickens of small breeds, and 4-3 large ones. They make it at a height of about 50 cm. Thick branches can be adapted to the chicken coop in the country. Just fasten them well.
You will also need nests. Old boxes in which dry hay is placed will do. You can knock them down from the remnants of boards, scraps of plywood, chipboard and other similar materials.
An approximate calculation is one nest for 2-3 chickens. They will generally rush to two or three nests, periodically changing them, but some hens will choose empty ones for spending the night.
They put them on the floor, if there is not enough space, they hang some on the wall, making a ladder to them. Ladder – an inclined board with thin strips nailed across – so that the paws have something to cling to. This is enough for summer apartments.
Read more about the interior arrangement of the chicken coop here.
Photos of beautiful chicken coops
As you can see, chicken coops for summer cottages can be a decoration. There are very simple models that are made according to the type of frame greenhouses – on arcs of plastic pipes.