How to build a winter chicken house for 10 hens with your own hands: drawings and diagrams, instructions

For residents of private houses, maintaining a personal subsidiary farm is a way to provide their loved ones with fresh and environmentally friendly products, as well as earn extra money. This method includes breeding chickens. To create good living conditions for poultry, it is customary to build chicken coops. They provide shelter for hens from the weather, danger. It’s easy to build a chicken coop for 10 hens for winter maintenance.

What is a bird house for?

In order to provide the chickens with the most comfortable living conditions, it is necessary to figure out what goals and needs the construction of the house allows to solve.

The main task is to provide the chickens with a safe and warm overnight stay. It is also in this structure that hens - mothers carry and hatch eggs. In other words, the chicken coop should protect birds from attack by predators and rodents, as well as save from exposure to bad weather.

The room for hens consists of:

• roost for overnight;
• places for nesting;
• place for feed, water;
• walking.

Room Features

In order for the conditions for life and breeding in chicken coops to be comfortable for the bird, the following conditions must be met:

1. Observe the temperature inside. That is, the air temperature in the coldest period of the year should not fall below minus twelve degrees. This is the optimal temperature regime so that your winged pets maintain their productivity in the winter. To do this, it is necessary to get rid of the presence of drafts and separately insulate the walls and floors.
2. Providing ideal indoor humidity. Humans have a great influence on the humidity of the air. It should be dry inside the birdhouse. If the humidity is high, then the likelihood of chicken disease grows several times.
3. Another condition in the well-being of hens is compliance with lighting. During the year, the length of daylight hours changes, which negatively affects the productivity of the bird. To increase the lighting inside the chicken coop, window openings are additionally installed. If their installation is not possible, then use lamps with artificial lighting.
4. Protection. The walls of the chicken house should protect the birds from the penetration of predatory animals, as well as various mice, rats and so on.
5. Silence. For the construction of the chicken coop, the place should be chosen away from noisy highways, factories and so on.

Choosing a place to build a winter chicken coop

Chicken droppings have a strong and specific smell. Therefore, it is best to build a winter coop away from residential buildings. Otherwise, an unpleasant smell of birds can penetrate into them. There are several basic rules that will provide a choice of places for the construction of a winter chicken coop for ten chickens.

1. The best place is a distant corner on your land with soft land and grass.
2. The bird house should have access to a special range, which is located in the direction where the greatest amount of sunlight.
3. The winter coop itself with a walk is best placed on a small hill or next to the wall of the shed in the form of an extension.
4. Window openings should be large and preferably located on the South side.
5. If there is a fence next to the chicken coop, then this is excellent. With its help protect the building from the cold wind.
6. The distance from the chicken coop to the water source is not more than 35 meters.
7. Calculation of the chicken coop area is based on two square meters per individual.

Preparatory work before construction

Before you begin installing the building for birds, you need to carefully consider:

1. How will the chicken coop look outside.
2. What will it be inside.
3. What building materials will be used in the construction of roofs, walls.
4. What material will be insulated.
5. What height will the room be. Here you must take into account your height, topography and size of the land.

When drawing up drawings, also pay attention to the following:

• Coop not worth building less than 3.5 square meters. m. on the internal area;
• 3-6 nests are required;
• the feeder is installed on the opposite wall from the perch;
• the chicken coop is equipped with an additional door for feeding both inside and out;
• place the feeding and watering system 6-12 centimeters above the floor;
• the flooring is smooth, non-slip;
• the height of the perch from the floor is 45-65 centimeters;
• windows with a total area of ​​at least 15 percent of the floor area (best 25-35%);
• the presence of an aviary for walking is mandatory;
• the chicken coop in the walking area must have walkways or gangways.

At first glance, it seems that there are a lot of requirements, but they are quite simple in execution and will provide excellent health for hens in a cozy and comfortable house.

Drawing up a drawing

A chicken coop for 10 chickens is easy to build with your own hands, for this you can use ready-made drawings, but it is best to prepare them yourself. In order to make a drawing, you do not need special knowledge and tools. Notebook sheets in a cage, a pencil and a ruler will help you with this. You need to draw:

1. Contour the structure and designate the dimensions.
2. Where elements of internal arrangement will be located.
3. How tall will the walls be.
4. What material the walls will be made of, and how they will be attached to the base.

These data will help you in calculating how much building materials will be required not only in the construction of the chicken house itself, but also in the construction of the foundation for it. Drawings of the finished chicken coop are presented in the photo.

What material to build

According to professional builders and farmers, it is best to build a bird house from planks or OSB, since these building materials are not expensive at a price, but working with them is a pleasure.

But there are always alternatives. For example, if you have ceramic brick left on the farm from the previous construction, then you can build the walls of the chicken coop from it.

Mineral wool will perfectly cope with the insulation of the floor and walls, since it does not allow moisture to come out in the event of a ventilation failure. But here there is an alternative - ordinary straw.

Whatever construction material you choose, the main thing is to observe the frequency in the construction of the chicken coop. No need to rush, carefully build a new house for ten chickens step by step.

It does not matter what material you will build the chicken coop from, there are basic tools and materials that will always be required:

1. Foundation - cement mixture, sand, gravel, planks for the construction of formwork.
2. Walls - wooden beams (thickness 60 to 70 millimeters), cladding boards (25-30 millimeters), insulation material, windows and doors, bricks.
3. Ceiling, roof - a slab or wooden beams for installing ceilings, shavings to insulate the ceiling, wooden trusses for rafters, covering material.
4. Floor - board (thickness from 40 to 50 millimeters).
5. Walking - a chain-link, poles for attaching a mesh and whetstones.
6. The tool is bayonet and shovel shovels, a saw, a screwdriver, a building level, self-tapping screws and other construction equipment.

Building a chicken coop for 10 chickens step by step

A detailed drawing has been drawn up, the number of building materials has been calculated, there are sizes and a place has been chosen for the future home of your winged pets. Now you need to proceed directly to the construction itself. Any installation work is best done in pairs.

Foundation

For the construction of the base - the foundation for the chicken coop, any of its type is used, but the tape is the best and easiest. In order to build a quality foundation, adhere to the following steps:

1. Dig a hole with a depth of 30 to 35 centimeters. The length and width of the base should be more than the frame of the chicken coop by 25-35 centimeters.
2. They compact the soil, and crushed stone is poured, the layer thickness should be about 15 cm.
3. The formwork is installed and covered with roofing material for additional waterproofing.
4. The width of the formwork is equal to the width of the walls of the structure.
5. The height of the formwork should be such that the floor level is 20-40 centimeters above the ground.
6. The formwork is poured with cement-concrete mortar and left for 14 days until completely hardened.

Walls and roof

For the construction of the roof and walls do not need any special knowledge and skills are not needed. This work can be handled easily and simply, following the step-by-step instructions:

1. After the foundation has frozen, formwork boards are removed.
2. Lay on it bars for support throughout the foundation.
3. For attaching use long screws.
4. They put vertical racks on top of the supporting bars.
5. Now proceed to the construction of the frame, which immediately communicate.
6. Between the cladding boards of the frame, a heater is placed.
7. Leave room for window and doorways, focusing on the drawings.
8. Thus, they reach the very top and are strengthened with transverse bars at the top, which will later rest on the ceiling itself and the rafters.
9. Now they build a ceiling and a roof:

• establish a cross beam in the center of the chicken coop;
• they lay on it and the walls from the outside of the beam or slab;
• add up the ceiling;
• stack the rafters, the angle of inclination is from 40 to 45 degrees;
• make the crate and cover it with covering material.

Pay attention to a couple of tricks.

For convenience, many prefer a gable roof type when building a chicken coop, but it is best to choose the type of roof that matches the landscape design of your site. In order to provide the maximum amount of sunlight, transparent polycarbonate is used as a covering material. An attic room of a chicken coop can be a great place to store additional equipment, if you make an additional door in the ceiling.

Floor

To build the floor in the chicken coop, first of all, a support frame is made from a wooden beam and a board is sheathed from the inside. After doing logs from a bar 100 to 150 millimeters. Install them at a distance of 50 centimeters from each other. Now attached to the pillars at the base. Insulate the floor with expanded clay. Now it’s the turn to install the boards, after which they are poured with concrete.

Arrangement of the chicken coop inside

The internal arrangement of the chicken coop has a huge impact on bird health. The main thing is that housing should be bright, dry and warm. Any chicken coop should be equipped with additional equipment such as a feeder, drinking bowl, sand bath, nests and perches.

A perch is a pole with a diameter of 5 to 7 centimeters. From 30 to 35 cm of the total perch length are distinguished per individual. Usually they are made 2 or 3-story, from the floor higher by 0.5 meters. An additional platform is made to the roost closest to the floor, with its help the most massive hens are climbed onto the pole.

The number of nests per ten hens should be at least three, preferably 4-5 pieces.A nesting box is a box nailed from wooden boards, which is covered with straw or soft hay inside. They install in the dark corner of the chicken coop.

You can make a feeder for 10 chickens on your own or buy it at an agricultural store. Usually the length of the finished feeder is about one meter, and the width is from 18 to 20 centimeters. The depth is not very large, approximately 9-12 cm. There should be feeders for dry and wet feeding.

The drinker can be made independently from a plastic pipe. The most profitable and budget option that can reduce water consumption by several times is the nipple system. Install it as follows:

1. They stretch a rubber hose to the empty wall of the chicken coop.
2. Nipple nozzles cling to it.

Lighting is carried out using light bulbs. The power of each of them is from 40 to 60 watts. It is necessary to observe the daylight hours, which in hens lasts from 16 to 18 hours.

Ventilation

Its installation is made from ordinary pipes with a diameter of 0.5 centimeters. The first pipe is placed near the ceiling of the wall and passed through it. The second is mounted near the floor on the opposite side of the first. In the dark, both pipes must be closed.

Coop heating

It is worth mentioning separately about the heating system in the winter chicken coop. It is necessary when the bird house is very spacious or has poor wall insulation.

If the correct calculations are made on the area per chicken, then additional heating is required, but only in severe frosts.

The heating system in the house is simple. Enough ordinary potbelly stove and firewood. It’s not worthwhile to be wise with heating. Here, simplicity in everyday life is better.

Walking

In other words, an aviary. It is necessary, as hens love to dig in the sand and peck dug worms. Walking is used only in spring, summer and warm autumn. Fencing is carried out using a chain link. The height of the fence should be at least two meters. This height protects the hens from foreign animals. Also, for additional protection, walking is best built under the roof of the main chicken coop. This will ensure the safety of hens from birds of prey. And what is interesting will allow your pupils to walk outdoors in the rain.

From the chicken coop, the exit to the aviary is provided with a small platform, and a hole with a diameter of 25 centimeters serves as a door.

Chicken population

And now the day has come when the new chicken house is ready. But before populating the birds, it is necessary to sanitize the room inside and remove the garbage.

An excellent disinfectant effect is a solution of soda ash 2 percent. They need to clean the floor, ceiling and walls of the house. Lay a layer of straw or hay on the floor, fill the feeders and drinking bowls.

Now the house is ready to move in!

The house is a fortress! And this is not only for man. All pets must be accommodated in suitable premises. As for the chicken coop, it should become not only a fortress, but also meet all the conditions for keeping birds, so it has not only an active effect on their health, but also egg production. In extremely comfortable conditions, the birds will delight you with fresh products all year round.

As you can see from our article, building a winter chicken coop for 10 chickens is easy.