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Breeding broiler chicken is considered one of the most profitable types of poultry farming. The broiler grows fast, produces excellent meat and a large egg. If you regularly care for and feed the brood, properly maintain it with vitamins and treat it, from March to October you can grow up to a hundred well-fed chickens. But before you buy a chicken broiler, you need to find a room for a mini-poultry farm or make a chicken coop for broilers with your own hands.
Conditions for growing broilers
Before choosing where and how to build a chicken coop for broilers, you will need to delve into and understand the technology of modern broiler poultry farming. The methods of fattening and keeping birds, the chicken coops themselves for broiler chickens are somewhat different from the traditional village or country growing scheme:
- The vast majority of broilers for sale are grown on cages. Up to 10 adult broilers “live” in each cage;
- Chicken coops for keeping broiler chickens are built in the form of nets placed on wooden or metal racks in several tiers. Nets are equipped with external feeders and drip drinkers, which allows rational use of feed and water;
- The nature of the room chosen for the chicken coop practically does not affect the maintenance of the broiler, it is enough if it is inside from +12оC to + 18оC for adult birds and separation with + 35оC for chickens.
You can make a chicken coop for broilers in a utility room, a metal garage, as in the video:
or in a wooden shed, in principle it does not matter, the main thing is to withstand the necessary parameters of humidity, temperature and ensure good ventilation.
Otherwise, an outbreak of flu or intestinal infection can destroy the entire broiler broiler broiler broiler in contact with each other in the hen house.
Therefore, when choosing a material and a method for making a chicken coop, it is necessary to choose the right material and device so that disinfection and sanitation do not affect the design of cages and equipment in the chicken coop, as in the video:
Cage design
The dimensions and shape of the cage for an adult bird are shown in the drawings and photos.
The height of the cage usually does not exceed 50 cm, which is quite enough for the normal maintenance of ten adult broilers in one grid. But if the bird is often sick, it makes sense to increase the height of the ceiling to 55-60 cm, this will improve the access of fresh air, which the birds need so much. The most successful dimensions and shape of a simple cell are shown in the photo.
The front mesh is made of two strips, the lower strip is closed with vertical bars with a pitch of 60 mm, the upper part is closed with a fine steel mesh. The total height of the cage is just over 50 cm.
The floor is also made of a fine mesh, this does not prevent the broiler from moving around the cage, but ensures that the manure is dumped into the steel trays installed below.
The frame and side walls of the cage can be made from timber and boards, OSB boards or plywood. Inside the cage, two drip-type drinkers are necessarily installed in opposite corners of the cage.
How to build a chicken coop for broilers
The easiest way to make a chicken coop for broilers is in a barn on a suburban area. The room for a broiler house in the country is somewhat different in type and size from the classic village chicken coop:
- Cages with birds are located in the chicken coop at least three tiers, so the floor or flooring must support the weight of the entire shelving structure, regardless of the structure of the walls and ceiling;
- The volume of the room and the height of the ceilings should be somewhat larger than a conventional chicken coop due to the need to ensure good ventilation and a uniform supply of fresh air to the nets.
In addition, it is necessary to ensure the normal insulation of the walls and ceiling, otherwise it will be quite difficult to heat a full-sized chicken coop in cold weather. A broiler by nature has a rather weak immune system, easily gets sick, so the issue of heating the chicken coop is especially important.
Arrangement of the foundation and walls of the chicken coop
It is easiest to build a chicken coop for broilers in the country in the form of an extension to the house. Firstly, in this way you can save on building materials and space heating. Secondly, it simplifies the care and cleaning of the chicken coop in bad weather. Thirdly, a small predator, a fox or a weasel, will not dare to meddle in a chicken coop to broilers if there is a person nearby.
To build a chicken coop, a classic MZL foundation is used, attached to the base of a summer house or summer kitchen, in the form of the letter P. Initially, you will need to dig a trench 30 cm wide and 40 cm deep, install formwork, lay roofing material waterproofing and pour concrete.
A day later, the basement of the base of the chicken coop is laid out of brick. A fine-meshed mesh is laid out on the blind area and the plinth, at least 60 cm wide. It can be fixed to concrete and brick with dowels. Inside the foundation, a fertile layer of earth is removed to the depth of concrete laying, crushed stone 7-10 cm thick is poured, foam sheets are laid, after which a concrete screed is poured.
The walls of the chicken coop can be laid out of brick or assembled on a wooden frame from edged boards.
Which option is best to build with your own hands in the country depends, first of all, on the availability of free funds and materials for construction. The roof of a chicken coop for broilers is best made of gable boards and leftover lumber. After treating the premises with antiseptics and flame retardants, a roofing covering made of roofing material or bituminous tiles is glued.
Broiler house interior design
Shelving for cells can be made from timber or wooden slats. As a rule, shelving is placed along the walls, leaving a passage in the center for cleaning the room and cages.
The floor is covered with a layer of sand with sawdust and the filling is changed at least once every two months. The average load per tier does not exceed 100 kg, so most of the parts of the cage and racks can be made of wood.
For professional broiler growing, experts recommend using ready-made steel cages.
Experts recommend: before each planting of a bird for fattening, the rack and the entire chicken coop must be thoroughly disinfected. In the process of growing a broiler, a bactericidal lamp is periodically brought into the chicken coop and turned on for 10-15 minutes. Of course, cages with broilers are covered with wooden screens during sanitation.
For heating, you can use a ceiling-mounted infrared heater or a charcoal stove. If the chicken coop is built as an extension to the house, then it is easier and more reliable to heat the room by removing part of the flue gases from the stove in the house to tubular registers installed along the cages with broilers.
Conclusion
Cage rearing of broiler allows you to get a good weight gain and productivity of laying hens. But the broiler’s inactivity always affects its health, so the diet of birds grown in a cage, as a rule, contains a large number of additives, growth stimulants and antibiotics. Such a decision is justified when it comes to the sale of meat or its deep processing. For personal consumption, competent poultry farmers grow broilers in an open way, like an ordinary chicken, with walking and pasture feeding.