A dozen chickens living in a compact house can reliably provide a family of three with fresh eggs all year round. We will discuss further how to erect a small chicken coop in your yard using your own resources.

Location on the site

The choice of the place where the chicken coop will be located on the site is not carried out spontaneously, but follows certain rules. Here are the most important among them:

• the place should be dry, since high humidity is contraindicated for chickens;
• it is advisable to select a place with a slope, which will cause rainfall not to linger;
• the chicken coop should be well lit, especially with regard to the adjacent enclosure, which is desirable to orient to the south;
• the chicken room should be installed where the impact of wind on it will be minimal.

Did you know? Chickens, being one of the largest animals on Earth, are also the most sacrificial. Each year, these birds are killed more than all other land animals combined.

Design and dimensions

The dimensions of the future chicken coop are directly dependent on veterinary standards, according to which more than 3 chickens cannot be placed on one square meter. That is, for a dozen birds, the area of ​​the room should be more than 3 square meters (usually 2 x 2 m).

When designing, it should be borne in mind that the floor in the chicken coop should be with a slight slope, facilitating cleaning. For doors, it is desirable that they open inward.

When planning, it is necessary to provide for the equipment of the house:

• the windows;
• electric lighting;
• ventilation
• adjacent to the chicken coop aviary;
• conveniently located perches;
• chicken nests;
• feeding troughs and drinking bowls (within the maximum availability for the whole chicken stock).

Materials and tools for work

To build a small chicken coop on a dozen birds, tools are required.

It will need to work:

• a shovel;
• screwdrivers;
• a hammer;
• a stapler with which the grid is attached;
• nails
• wood screws;
• pegging pegs and a cord;
• a saw;
• hacksaw;
• pliers.

For the construction of a mini-house, building materials are required in the form of:

• sand;
• gravel
• fittings;
• cement;
• formwork boards;
• wooden beam 5x5 and 7x7 cm;
• boards for the walls of the house and fencing;
• finishing lumber;
• metal or plastic mesh;
• insulating mineral wool or polystyrene;
• waterproofing material;
• roofing material;
• bricks;
• window and door hinges;
• power cable;
• light bulbs;
• power outlets;
• circuit breakers.

How to make a chicken coop for 10 hens

Which chicken coop should be depends on its type. For example, a summer coop does not need the use of insulation materials and is able to be mobile, that is, have no foundation and have the ability to move around the site in search of an optimal location depending on weather conditions and the location of the sun.The winter option provides for the creation of a foundation, serious insulation, additional lighting, forced ventilation, as well as heating in case of severe cold.

Foundation building

Typically, foundations are used for houses, which are:

• columnar;
• tape.

• For a fairly compact structure, which is a house for a dozen individuals, a columnar foundation is preferable, which has several advantages in the construction of a simple chicken coop:
• less costly;
• its laying is not associated with a long period of solidification of concrete;
• it is simpler in construction;
• the design provides ventilation of the floor from the outside, extending the life of the wood sheathing.

1. Using pegs and a cord, outline the contours of the chicken coop being built.
2. Remove the topsoil to a depth of 0.2 m.
3. Dig holes in each of the four corners to a depth of 0.7 m and a width of 0.5 m.
4. Pour gravel into the pits with a layer of 0.1 m.
5. On gravel, using cement mortar, erect small brick columns to a height of 0.25 m above ground level. In each row of columns there should be 2 bricks located perpendicular to those lying in the previous layer.
6. Leave the masonry to dry for a week.
7. Replenish the removed layer of soil between the brick pillars with gravel, which will serve as good drainage.

Masonry floor

The crate of beams, which serves as the basis of the floor, is sheathed from above and below by boards, between which a heater in the form of mineral wool is laid.

Such a floor (taking into account the fact that it is necessarily covered with a bedding up to 0.1 m high from straw or sawdust) will remain warm even under the conditions of a columnar foundation, when the floor binding is raised by a quarter meter above the ground level.

Walling

They can be built of wood material and brick. Brick is rarely used for a mini coop (due to the excessive bulkiness of the structure for such a small number of birds, the complexity and cost of brick construction).

As a rule, the walls of the house are erected from a wooden beam, for which they perform the following actions:

1. The supporting frame wooden beams with a cross section of 0.07 m are installed.
2. The frame is sheathed with lining, chipboard or OSB-plates, as well as other lumber on both sides.
3. The walls include door and window openings.
4. Between the casing, insulation material is laid.
5. Carefully close the gaps in the casing.
6. One of the walls is equipped with a wooden crate, on which chicken nests can be mounted (they are located in a special extension in the form of a box, which is carried outside the wall, forming a single whole with it).

Roof device

The main condition for the roof in the chicken coop is the absence of cracks that allow precipitation to enter the room and provoke drafts. Most often, single-pitched and gable roofing types are used. A shed roof is a simpler option.

For its construction should:

1. Strengthen the ceiling beams, which are a beam with a cross section of 5 cm.
2. Sheathe with moisture-proof plywood from the inside.
3. Fill the space between the ceiling beams with insulating material.
4. Sheathe top with any roofing material.

Did you know? The well-known "night blindness" refers to the visual abilities of these birds only at dusk. Under normal lighting conditions, hens demonstrate such visual acuity that even a keen falcon will envy them.

Make the ceiling

The roof, sewn from the inside with moisture-proof plywood, is a chicken coop ceiling. In regions with frosty winters, you can additionally sheathe the ceiling with foam sheets.

Warming

Usually, in order to maintain a comfortable temperature in the coop during the cold season, not lower than + 14 °, the birds' own heat is enough. However, this is possible only under the condition of quality insulation of the room.

Insulation of the chicken coop: video

Most often, insulation is carried out by means of thermal insulation materials:

• polystyrene;
• mineral wool;
• eco-friendly.

The insulation material is laid in the frame of the walls and roof and sheathed on both sides with the help of boards, OSB-boards or plywood. In regions with severe winter cold, window insulation is practiced with a double or even triple layer of glass.

Doors and windows

Usually, a large door is made in the chicken coop for poultry farmers and a small door facing the aviary for the bird. Sometimes they are combined, making at the bottom of a large door a small one measuring 0.35 x 0.35 m. But there is one inconvenience.

Since the door for chickens must necessarily go into the aviary, in order to get into the chicken coop, the owner has to get to the door through this platform. It is believed that for proper illumination of the house the window area should be up to 30% of the floor area with a minimum of 10%.

Ventilation

Hens are very sensitive to drafts, but they also vitally need an influx of fresh air. Therefore, regular ventilation of the house without creating harmful drafts is so important. Usually in mini-chicken coops, this problem is solved during the walking of the bird, when the hens are outdoors, while opening the window and door.The coop is ventilated quickly and radically. However, in the winter, this method of ventilation is fraught with the rapid departure of heat from the premises.

For these reasons, small houses are often equipped with simple ventilation, consisting of an exhaust pipe located at the top of the room and a supply pipe installed opposite to half a meter from the floor surface. In severe cold, these pipes have to be closed.

Additional lighting

To stimulate egg production in the autumn-winter period, artificial lighting is necessary in the house. For a mini-chicken coop with a dozen feathered inhabitants, a 40-watt incandescent bulb, located closer to the place of feeding the bird and away from nests and perches, is quite enough.

Important! Daylight hours for a bird should last at least half a day, and to ensure maximum egg production can be extended up to 16-17 hours a day.

Home Furnishing

For the most comfortable existence of chickens, the room for them must be equipped with:

• perches;
• feeders for different types of feed and mineral fertilizing;
• a drinker;
• warm litter;
• nests where chickens can lay eggs.

Perches

When arranging roosts for resting birds, several important circumstances should be considered:

• for each chicken, there must be at least a quarter meter of personal space. And although in winter the birds cuddle each other, these proportions must be observed when designing the length of perches;
• the optimal height of the perches is 0.5 m from the floor, taking into account the height of the warm litter on the floor;
• for poorly flying birds, a ladder is desirable that helps them get to roosts;
• for the manufacture of perches, round poles or bars with a diameter of 0.04 m are most suitable;
• the distance between several roosts should be 0.35 m, and in relation to the wall they should not be located closer than a quarter meter.

Perches in a chicken coop are located in different ways. They can be installed in several rows in the same horizontal, and can be multi-tiered.

The latter are made in the form of a wide staircase mounted on the floor obliquely with respect to the top of the wall. Sometimes multi-tiered perches are mounted in the corner by fixing the bars across the corner.

Each new “floor”, located below the uppermost and shortest, is made with the help of longer bars, reinforced by the ends in both walls, forming an angle.

There are also portable perches made in the form of tables with pallets over which three beams are strengthened in the same horizontal. Such devices for resting birds are very hygienic, as they are easy to clean, and can also be carried out in aviaries.In small chicken coops for a dozen heads, roosts located along walls where there are no doors are optimal. Space for a comfortable location of chickens is enough for them.

Important! With any way of perching they should not be installed under each other.

Nests

For a dozen chickens, a maximum of four nests is enough, which can be located in wooden crates, wicker baskets, in plastic boxes for vegetables and fruits, in plastic buckets laid on their sides and even in cat trays.

It is desirable that the bottom of the nest contribute to the ventilation of the bed of straw that is placed on it. For this purpose, the bottom of wooden crates with optimal dimensions of 0.3 x 0.3 x 0.4 m is made of mesh.

Since hens do not like to lay eggs when direct light from a window or from a lamp falls into the nest, and generally do not rush in complete darkness, one should proceed from this circumstance when choosing a place for nests. They can be mounted on a special crate, which is made in advance during the erection of the walls of the house.

In this regard, special extensions in the form of boxes, which have already been discussed, are more convenient. They create the coveted solitude and shading, but are not in complete darkness due to the light coming into them from the chicken coop.

Feeding troughs and drinking bowls

Feeding troughs and a drinking bowl need to be placed in places accessible to all inhabitants of the house. In addition to general availability, they must be protected from chickens that are able to spread food throughout the chicken coop and contaminate it.

To do this, the feeders are equipped with special visors that allow the bird to stick only its head, and the drinkers are made automatic (nipple or vacuum structures). Feeding troughs are separate (for wet, dry feed and mineral additives).

Litter

The litter, which performs insulation and hygienic functions, most often consists of the following ecological materials:

• peat;
• straw;
• hay;
• wood shavings;
• sawdust.

Peat litter is preferable, because it is able to absorb the volume of liquid waste, twenty times its own weight. The thickness of the litter, depending on the season, is from 0.1 to 0.3 m.

Many poultry farmers change it partially or completely every month twice. Others prefer only to supplement the litter with a new layer from above, leaving the old overheated, which is accompanied by very useful heat generation in winter.

Patio for walks

Each chicken coop should be equipped with an enclosure adjacent to it. This is due to the need to ensure the motor activity of the bird, the lack of which leads to a drop in egg production, obesity and a weakened immune system.Even in winter, with the exception of cold weather with frost below -10 °, hens should walk in the yard for at least two hours. As a rule, a special wooden gangway leads from a small chicken door to the surface of the enclosure.

The aviary is enclosed on three sides and on top with a metal or plastic mesh and is equipped with a door through which the poultry breeder has access to the aviary to restore order there. Often there they put a car-drinker and a mobile perch for relaxing birds in the fresh air.

Sometimes the aviary is covered with polypropylene on top, which allows chickens to walk in the aviary in rain and snow; it does not interfere with the penetration of light.

A small chicken herd of ten individuals needs to create comfortable conditions so that there is always a fresh product on your table. Do-it-yourself mini-chicken coop can provide this.