Small do-it-yourself chicken coop 

A small plot of land does not allow you to start a large farm consisting of pigs, geese and other living creatures. But this does not mean that everything is so hopeless. If you wish, you can assemble a mini chicken coop with your own hands, designed for 5-10 heads. For broilers, it is small, and laying hens will have just the right time. Moreover, to obtain fresh eggs, it is not necessary to keep a rooster in a small herd.

Design features of a small chicken coop

The mini chicken coop in the country house helps the owners well, allowing them to keep several layers in the summer. The design feature of the poultry house is the minimum size with the maximum head capacity. What this means, we will now understand. In summer, chickens go inside the house for the night, and to rush. The rest they spend in an aviary. To get a chicken coop for 5 chickens, you will need to put together a small wooden house from boards, plus a mesh paddock twice as big as it is. Now, let’s say the owner wants to have 10 chickens, but there is not enough space for an aviary on the site. In this case, the paddock can be expanded at the expense of the place where the chicken coop stands, and the house itself can be made the second floor. An example of such a house is shown in the photo.

To install a mini chicken coop for 5 heads, you need to choose a place that is not blown by the winds. The site should be partially conceived and illuminated by the sun. A hill is good for a small chicken coop, from which you can organize the outflow of rainwater.

Now let’s deal with the area of ​​​​such a chicken coop. According to existing standards for 1 m² 2-3 chickens are allowed. This means that the minimum area of ​​u5bu2bthe house for XNUMX heads should be XNUMX m², and the walk is 4 m². For 10 chickens, you will have to build a house with an aviary twice as much.

As for the dimensions of the poultry house, the house with an area of ​​​​2 m² they are made in the size of 1×2 or 1,5×1,5 m. For ten chickens, these dimensions are doubled.

What does a chicken coop for 5-10 heads consist of

If you decide to build a small poultry house in the country, then it is better to make it portable. Of course, a chicken coop for ten chickens is more difficult to move than a house for five chickens, but if you wish, you can do it. A mobile poultry house is convenient in that it can always be moved to the right place. Suppose there is a lawn behind the house in the country. Chickens ate all the grass in the aviary in 2-3 days. The chicken coop only needs to be moved a couple of meters to the side, and fresh grass grows again inside the aviary. The photo shows a diagram of such a house. From it, we will now determine what a small chicken coop consists of.

The basis of a portable chicken coop is a frame made of timber. On the left, there is a house on the second floor. Free space under the poultry house and on the side is reserved for the aviary. The side walls of the paddock are covered with steel mesh. There is no floor inside the enclosure, which allows the chickens to paddle in the ground and peck at the grass. From above, the house, together with the aviary, is covered with a waterproof roof. Such a successful design solution allows chickens to walk on the street during the rain.

Now let’s look at what the small chicken coop consists of inside. So, under the house is a pallet. It prevents droppings from falling into the aviary when cleaning the roost. On the side of the house there is a box with two compartments that act as nests. The poultry house and paddock is equipped with doors. To make it easier for the chicken to get out of the house into the aviary, a small ladder is installed under the exit.

The sequence of work in the manufacture of a small chicken coop

Now we will figure out how to build a small poultry house. For clarity, we present the order of work in photographs. We have already agreed on the dimensions, so before starting construction, you need to decide how many chickens you can keep in your summer cottage.

Drawing up drawings

Before starting the construction of the chicken coop, you need to prepare the drawings. The photo shows an example of a scheme with an aviary attached to the side of the house, and the poultry house itself is on the ground. The dimensions for this drawing must be calculated individually, according to the expected number of chickens.

Walking for five chickens can be made in sizes of 2×2 or 1,5×2 m. If there is extra free space in the country house, a large aviary is attached to a stationary poultry house. He will only benefit the chickens. An exit is provided from the house to the aviary. Moreover, it is desirable to arrange the chicken coop so that the door is on the south side.

Walking for a mini chicken coop does not have to be rectangular. To simplify the task and save material, the diagram of a triangular aviary in the shape of a house shown in the photo will help.

The video shows a frame chicken coop for 6-8 layers:

Making the foundation and floor for a small poultry house

It should be noted right away that a foundation is not needed for a portable chicken coop. The base is built only for a stationary poultry house. Even if your country chicken coop is designed for 10 chickens, you should not pour a strip foundation from concrete under it. The wooden house is lightweight, and the ideal base for it is a columnar foundation.

To make a columnar foundation, 70 cm deep holes are dug along the contour of the future poultry house. A pillow of sand and gravel 10 cm thick is poured onto the bottom. The pillars are made from any material at hand. Masonry in two bricks is suitable, you can use concrete blocks or simply monolithic pillars poured from concrete. If pieces of steel or asbestos pipes 10–15 cm thick are lying around in the country, poles can also be made from them. Pipes are simply installed in pits, after which they are poured with concrete.

All posts must protrude at least 20 cm from the ground, and be on the same level. If there is an aviary under the house, then the height of the pillars is increased to 60 cm. A couple of sheets of roofing material are laid between the foundation and the wooden frame of the chicken coop for waterproofing.

The floor is laid only inside the house. In the aviary, let the earth be better. Chickens love to paddle and swim in the dust. A small chicken coop is made of wood, so it is better to lay the floor from boards. The best option for a small poultry house is the design with a pallet. For this, the floor is knocked down from the boards inside the house. A pallet with sides made of stainless steel sheet is installed on top. Above the pallet, a finishing floor is made of stainless fine mesh. Chicken manure will fall through the cells into the pallet, from where it is easy to throw it away to the owner.

Walls and roof of a small poultry house

So, we have come to the most important stage in the construction of the chicken coop – the manufacture of walls and roofs. Let’s take a step-by-step look at how to make each part of the design:

• The construction of a small poultry house begins with the manufacture of the frame. It is knocked down from a bar with a section of 10×10 cm. First, the lower frame of the house is assembled. Vertical racks are placed from it, after which the upper trim is performed.
• When the rectangular frame of the chicken coop is ready, proceed to install additional racks and jumpers. They form the windows, doors and floor of the house if it is raised from the ground. That is, in a poultry house standing on the ground, the floor from the boards can be stuffed directly onto the lower frame. If a part of the aviary is located under the house, then the jumpers for the floor are fixed to the racks at a height of about 60 cm from the bottom frame.
• The finished frame of the chicken coop is sheathed from the inside with plywood or other similar material. Outside, the poultry house turned out between the racks from the beam of the cell. Here you need to lay any insulation. Styrofoam or mineral wool can be used. So that the field mice do not gnaw at the thermal insulation, it is covered on both sides with a fine-mesh steel mesh.
• In the wall of the house, which goes inside the aviary, a hole is cut out with an electric jigsaw. Under it, a mount for a removable ladder is made from hooks, which is made from a board 30 cm wide with slats stuffed across.
• In one of the side walls of the chicken coop, another door is equipped. It is needed for cleaning inside the house, as well as feeding and pouring water to the chickens.
• On the back wall of the chicken coop, two round windows are cut. These will be holes in the nest. A removable box with a partition is attached to the same wall. He plays the role of two nests. A hinged lid is attached to the top of the box with hinges. This design is needed for convenient collection of eggs and bedding.
• The paddock can be made separate from the chicken coop or integral on one frame. The second option is easier, since the whole house will be under one roof. In this case, part of the chicken coop frame with racks left under the aviary is covered with steel mesh. If the walking is done separately from the house, then the frame is first knocked down, just as it was done for the poultry house. Then the skeleton is covered with mesh, and a separate roof is installed on top. For any type of aviary, entrance doors are provided for serving chickens.

The final part of the construction of a small chicken coop is the installation of a roof. It can be made double or single. Slopes are provided in the opposite direction from the doors so that they are not flooded with rainwater. Attach the roof to the top trim of the frame. Roofing is chosen light. Soft tops are ideal. It does not rattle from falling raindrops or hail, as is observed in a metal roof. Excessive noise will annoy the layers.

Interior arrangement of a small poultry house

There is very little space inside a small chicken coop, so you need to equip it compactly:

• Let’s start with perches. One chicken needs 30 cm of free space on the pole. To make five chickens feel at ease, the total length of the perch can be increased to 3 m. The poles are made from a bar 5–6 cm thick, rounding the corners with a planer. There is little space for a horizontal perch inside a small poultry house. It is better to install it vertically, but with a slope so that the droppings from the hens of the higher row do not fall on the birds sitting in a tier below. It is optimal to maintain a distance of 35 cm between the poles, and remove the first one from the wall by 25 cm.
• At one side wall of the house, a feeder with a jumper or net is placed. Such a barrier will not allow chickens to scatter food. A drinking bowl is placed at the other wall of the chicken coop. It is best to use a nipple design so that the inside of the house is always dry.
• Additional feeders and drinkers are placed inside the enclosure. A basin with ash and sand is also installed here for bathing chickens.
• From the outside of the chicken coop, wiring is laid along the wall in the boxes. Only the end of the wire comes out inside the house, which is connected to a closed-type lamp.

Ventilation in a small poultry house is easier to do through the window. If there is a desire, two pipes can be brought out through the roof. The exhaust air duct above the roof is taken out above the supply pipe. Inside the chicken coop, the edge of the exhaust pipe is under the ceiling, and the supply air duct is lowered to the floor not reaching 20 cm.

An example of a supply and exhaust ventilation scheme is shown in the photo. To prevent precipitation from entering the chicken coop through the air ducts, the pipes are equipped with protective caps.

In the video, the farmer talks about a small chicken coop with a paddock:

Conclusion

Small chicken coops, although insulated, are still intended for keeping chickens in the summer. In winter, it is better to bring such a house to a large barn or to equip electric heating inside the house.