Building a Chicken House – 6 Basic Steps To Follow If You Are Planning To Start A Poultry Business

Building a chicken house is important if you are planning to start a poultry business. This will serve as the shelter for your chickens, as well as a place for laying their eggs. Several pointers have been considered in order to create a suitable dwelling for the chickens. Space, ventilation, insulation and safety are the four main considerations in constructing a chicken coop or house.

There are some online sites that offer free plans for building a chicken house. Most of them are formulated using the standard measurements. Still, adjustments can be made in order to suit a certain criterion. Basically, a chicken coop is composed of a roost, nesting boxes, feed box, and the run. Here are the general steps that you should follow when building a chicken house in your backyard:

• Get the necessary materials and tools. Wood is the best material for building a chicken house. Have at least seven plywood sheets for the floor, wall and parts of nest boxes. Use tin sheets for roof.

• Measure the required space for the breed of chicken that you are going to raise. Breeds that are raised for meat will definitely require more space inside the chicken coop. An eight-capacity chicken house should provide at least 4.5 square feet per chicken.

• Construct the floor and roof frame. The nest boxes and feeders may be constructed separately to be attached on the walls later.

• Nail the plywood around the frames except for the roof. The house should have windows for ventilation purposes. Sliding glass windows can be used to allow protection from the rain and predators. The tin roof must be sloped to prevent the rainwaters from running all over the house.

Attach the roosts one to two feet above the floor.

• Construct the chicken run on the outside of the house. You may cover it with wire mesh to secure the area from predators.

• Attach the nest boxes and feeders. The nest boxes should be raised one to two feet off the floor. Three nest boxes are suitable for an eight-capacity chicken house. These boxes must be filled with straw. The feeders may be suspended from the floor to prevent the dirt from getting into the food and drink.

Building a chicken house may take several hours depending on the size of the flock that needs shelter. However, if you have a doable plan to work with, you can finish it with greater ease. Always make sure that the house meets all the requirements for sheltering the chickens.