How to build a chicken coop at the dacha with your own hands for the summer from scrap materials? The simplest do-it-yourself chicken coop in the country Simple summer chicken coop in the country

Poultry breeding is a troublesome business and requires constant care for the bird population. In a suburban or dacha area, such conditions, as a rule, do not exist, so the vast majority build a chicken coop at the dacha with their own hands for a small number of birds, a maximum of five to seven chickens. As an option, you can order a simple wooden poultry house from a carpenter or buy any of the ready-made chicken coops for the country, sold at exhibitions and specialized stores. Most often, this is a small chicken coop with a walk, designed for the summer version of keeping poultry in the country, from March to November.

Which poultry housing option do you prefer?

Old and experienced poultry farmers say: “build it as if it were for yourself.” For chickens, even the simplest chicken coop is their home. If, after completion of construction, you can sit inside the built barn for chickens for a couple of hours without much discomfort, then the birds living in the country will also be happy.

There are quite a lot of ways and options to build a chicken coop at the dacha with your own hands, ranging from brick premises to carved huts made of timber and tongue-and-groove boards. The most popular for a summer residence is considered a simple chicken coop, which is easy to assemble yourself from OSB boards, plywood or unedged boards on a frame made of wooden beams, as in the video:

The use of wood as a building material allows you to obtain a number of additional advantages of a board and timber house for a summer residence in comparison with sandwiches or brick premises:

The wooden structure of the chicken room is light and at the same time durable, which does not require a capital foundation;
Using timber and boards allows you to do 99% of all work in a chicken coop at your dacha with your own hands, even if you do not have the professional skills of a joiner or carpenter;
The wooden structure of the chicken coop can be easily supplemented and changed without radically rearranging the premises.

Attention! Even if, for objective reasons, you suddenly have to abandon the idea of making a chicken coop, the materials purchased for construction - timber, boards, plywood will not remain as dead weight at the dacha and will easily find use.

Unlike most modern building materials, wood does not frighten chickens; the wooden walls of the room have sufficient sound insulation so as not to hear rain or wind, and at the same time convey well the sounds and footsteps of night visitors. The disadvantages of a wooden chicken coop include poor protection from rats and mice, which can enter poultry houses for grain and steal eggs.

How to choose a place to build a chicken coop at your dacha

When choosing a place in the country for placing a residence for chickens, they are guided by the same principles as when installing any other wooden building. The morning sun should illuminate the windows and the entrance to the chicken coop to the maximum, warming up the cooled room and ridding it of excess moisture. In the midday heat, the chicken coop must be protected from direct sunlight, so if possible, the room is located under the crown of the tallest tree in the country house or covered with a fabric awning.

It is best to place the chicken coop away from the cottage building and garden beds, which will attract chickens to themselves like a magnet. There should be no cesspools or compost pits, sewers or other sources of infection near the walking area.

An excellent solution is to build a chicken coop as an extension to the cottage building. This makes it easier to heat the room and control the condition of the chickens. Often a chicken coop is attached to a summer kitchen in a country house, but if it is not heated in winter, there is little point in such a decision.

We build a chicken coop out of wood at the dacha

Before building a chicken coop, you will need to make a simple sketch, or better yet, a drawing with a layout of the location and internal structure of the chicken coop in the country. The average area norm is calculated - two chickens per square of usable area. Thus, for 5 chickens you will need 2.5 m2, and another 30% needs to be added for three nests. As a result, the theoretically calculated area of a five-person house will be 3.2 m2, but in practice, a small chicken coop, less than or about 2.8 m2, with a ceiling height of 1.8 m, is suitable for living five chickens in the country, photo.

We will build a room for chickens at the dacha taking into account the following features:

As a foundation, a typical cast columnar foundation for a dacha is best suited;
The body of the chicken room is made on the basis of a frame made of 100x50 timber;
The floor, ceiling and side walls are sheathed with tongue and groove boards;
The roof is assembled according to a simple single-pitch scheme with the high side of the slope extending 50-60 cm.

Attention! Insulation of floors, walls and ceilings is best done using sheet EPS or foam plastic sheets 20 mm thick.

Construction of the foundation and frame of the chicken coop

After choosing a place in the country for the construction of a chicken coop, it is necessary to make a preliminary marking of the soil and water level. If the soil at the dacha in the spring, after the snow and flood waters have melted, remains damp for a long time, most likely the water level is quite high, so you will need to make a full drainage and connect the pipe to the general drainage system of the dacha.

After marking the outline of the future chicken coop, we dig five holes 50 cm deep for casting or laying out the foundation pillars. At any dacha there will be old wire that can be used as reinforcement, and cutting boards for making formwork. The dimensions of the supports are 15x15cm, with a height above the ground of at least 30 cm. After the concrete has set, we clean the upper end of the pillars and level them to the general horizon.

From the timber we assemble the frame for the basement of the future chicken coop and lay the logs. To protect chickens from rats and mice, which hunt in abundance around the dacha, we stretch a fine-mesh metal mesh onto the timber, with a margin of at least 50 cm on the sides. After assembling the chicken coop frame, the edges of the mesh will be placed on the inner lining of the walls and nailed down.

At the next stage, you will need to install the corner posts of the frame, align them vertically and knock them down with temporary jumpers from the slab. After installing the upper belt of the frame made of timber and ceiling beams, the walls, floor and ceiling of the room are sewn up with tongue-and-groove and unedged boards, which can be found at the dacha.

To arrange the roof of the chicken coop, you can use roofing materials left over from the roof of the dacha, for example, old slate or metal. The best option is considered to be bituminous shingles or ondulin, but for the dacha, experts recommend slate as it is durable, non-flammable and resistant to the teeth of predators.

Finishing and arrangement of the chicken coop

The entrance to the chicken coop and the run must be positioned so that it is easily visible from the garden beds or porch of the dacha. In summer, chickens like to roost at sunset, and the closing time of the door to the chicken house must be constantly monitored. To be able to see how and when the chickens entered the chicken coop, from any point in the dacha, you can install a lamp above the entrance to the room or vestibule.

In addition to the main door, they often hang a second one, like a mosquito flap for a summer house, only instead of a polymer mesh, they use a steel mesh with a fine mesh. A window is arranged in a similar way.

The floor in the chicken room can also be insulated with materials left over from the renovation of the cottage. Do not use basalt or mineral wool for insulation, even if the roof or floor was insulated at the dacha with this material. Chickens hear odors very well and react poorly to vapors of phenol and phenol-based resins, and a relatively thin floor does not guarantee reliable protection. The easiest way is to lay a double layer of sheet foam and a film to protect against condensation, and be sure to install a vent under the subfloor to remove moisture.

Proper ventilation plays a special role in the life of chickens. The simplest is forced ventilation in the form of a small window in the back wall. An exhaust hole measuring 15x10 cm is cut out in the ceiling area, and the air flow is designed in the form of an air valve on the front door.

The walls of the chicken coop are insulated in the same way as the dacha. In the simplest case, the boards for internal wall cladding are covered on the outside with EPS sheets, covered with film and covered with wooden clapboard.

Chicken coop layout

Usually the internal space of the chicken coop is divided into two halves by a central passage, photo. Most of the chicken coop is allocated for arranging a roost; nests and feeders for chickens are installed in the smaller half of the room.

The floor in the chicken coop is covered with a layer of sand and sawdust, which protects the wood well from bird droppings and at the same time protects it from condensation.

During periods of severe frost, chickens may leave the roost and huddle together. In this case, you can lay a layer of straw, or use rags available at the dacha to close the cracks and the ventilation inlet valve to prevent the lower tiers of the chicken coop from freezing.

Conclusion

A wooden chicken coop is always light and warm. But in cold weather, when it is impossible to do without heating, wood becomes a source of increased risk from a fire safety point of view. Therefore, the wooden walls of the building for chickens have to be regularly treated with fire retardants, and the places where the heater is installed must be sheathed with metal sheets. In this case, the chicken room at the dacha will last quite a long time.

If you dream of raising chickens in your country house, but the lack of a specialized room is stopping you, don’t despair; building a comfortable and functional chicken coop with your own hands is not at all difficult.

First of all, you need to decide on the number of chickens that will live in the future building.

Taking this information into account, you can plan the size of the chicken coop and allocate space for the building.

You can make a simple chicken coop from any available materials, naturally, having at least the most minimal construction skills.

Requirements for the building

Any specialized structure must meet the requirements for its functionality. Even at the design stage, some points should be taken into account:

Ensuring the safety of the structure from predators. Otherwise, you may miss the number of birds or the number of eggs.
Provide for the possibility of ventilation or constant ventilation of the poultry house.
The absence of drafts is an important requirement that will prevent all kinds of bird diseases and help maintain a comfortable temperature.
Thermal insulation is also necessary, especially if you plan to keep chickens all year round.
For good egg production of chickens, the room needs lighting, which must be turned on at some time of the day.

Chicken coop project

Choose a place for the chicken coop on a hill; in the lowlands, the poultry house will be constantly wet, not having time to dry out from the morning fogs and precipitation.

When calculating the area of the building, do not forget about poultry walking; the more the hens walk, the better they lay. When accurately calculating the area of the chicken coop, take into account the fact that for the comfortable existence of five chickens, 4 sq.m. is enough, and about 7 sq.m. of space for walking.

The clearing for walking chickens would be correctly located to the south. Fence it with a chain-link mesh and be sure to make a roof. It will protect not only from rain, but also from the sun.

If your site is flat, then before construction, make an artificial elevation of sand and crushed stone. To protect the coop from small rodents, mix clay and broken glass and place on top of the mound.

Natural lighting in the poultry house can be provided by making a door with glass. To provide space, the ceiling is raised to 2 m. If bird nests are placed outside the house, you will not have to go inside to pick up the eggs. You can see a drawing of this version of the chicken coop in the photo.

Foundation

If you are building a summer frame chicken coop, you do not need a concrete foundation for it, just a slight elevation is enough.

When building a permanent brick structure, a foundation is required. A monolithic or strip base is suitable here. It is ideal to place a winter chicken coop in such a room.

Poultry house floor

Earthen and clay floors can be made with a low strip foundation. If desired, the floors can be assembled from boards or concreted.

When using the room in winter, the floor must be insulated with mineral wool, which is laid between the joists and then covered with plywood. Such floors are covered with sheets of roofing felt to provide reliable coverage and protect the floor from bird waste products.

Sand is also good for sprinkling the floor.

Note!

Construction of walls

Most often, the walls of a chicken coop are built of wood; as a rule, it is a frame building covered with clapboard. They are insulated with mineral wool or polystyrene foam, and the outside of the building is covered with a vapor barrier material before cladding.

A brick building requires good heating in winter, which will lead to costs, and the construction of such a chicken coop will be more complex and expensive.

Walls made of any materials must be disinfected before use; this can be done with ordinary lime.

Chicken coop roof

When building a chicken coop for chickens in the country, it is better to make a gable roof. This technique will help allocate space for roof insulation.

If the chicken coop is of modest size, you can do without an attic and lay the insulation directly under the roofing material. Chicken coops are covered with slate, metal tiles, and professional flooring.

Room ventilation

Good ventilation is important for bird health, especially in the summer. The ventilation system in the chicken coop can consist of several holes on opposite walls with valves.

Note!

The valves will help control and regulate the flow of cold air, which is especially important in winter.

Chicken coop interior

The most important and basic element of the interior of the chicken coop is the perches; they are wooden rounded poles, the length from wall to wall of the chicken coop. It is on roosts that chickens spend most of their lives.

They need to be fixed at a distance of 50 cm from the floor and 25 cm from the wall and 35 cm between each other. Each resident of the poultry house is provided with 25 cm of poles. So we are counting on 10 chickens in the chicken coop, we will have to place perches at 2.5 m.

If laying hens live in the chicken coop, then the second important piece of furniture will be nests. You need to build at the rate of 5 laying hens per nest. Having built a chicken coop for 20 chickens, you will have to place about 4 nests.

It is best to place them in the dark corners of the chicken coop, having previously been well insulated with sawdust.

The dimensions of the layer box are 30cm x 30cm wide and 40cm high. The nest is raised 50 cm from the floor.

Note!

Lighting

An important condition for the normal functioning of a chicken is lighting. In dark rooms, the bird becomes inactive and its egg production decreases.

The chicken coop must have an opening window, which will provide not only sunlight, but also additional ventilation.

Laying hens must be provided with light up to 18 hours a day. In winter, you cannot do without artificial lighting.

Heating the chicken coop

In winter, the chicken coop must be heated to a temperature of at least 10 degrees during the day and 15 at night. It is important to control the level of humidity in winter; increased humidity will lead to illness and further death of birds.

In our selection of photos of chicken coops, you can choose the best option for yourself.

DIY chicken coop photo

Those who like to spend all their free time at their summer cottage often come up with the idea of their own food production. Thus, having livestock will help not only to find an interesting activity in addition to caring for the garden, but also to always have fresh milk, eggs, and meat on the table. It’s better to start gradually and get, for example, chickens. They do not require special care and are considered the most unpretentious among pets. The first thing you need to keep laying hens is a chicken coop. Since the main time spent at the dacha or in the garden is during the warm season, a do-it-yourself summer chicken coop will be sufficient.

Any chicken house consists of two sections:

The main part is a place for chickens where they sleep, eat, and lay eggs.
Daytime walking is a fenced part of the area for birds to stay in the fresh air. In summer, chickens stay here for about 15 hours, so you can’t do without such an enclosure.

The standard type of chicken coops is presented in three options:

chicken coop with an equipped canopy;
A bird living in a chicken coop with a canopy can, if desired, stay inside or take walks in the fresh air
chicken coop with several pens;
The size of the chicken coop depends on the number of birds living in it.
mobile chicken coop is a portable model.
A portable chicken coop is ideal for summer placement in a country house.

For country use, the first option is considered the most suitable, when under a canopy the chickens can always hide from the wind, precipitation, heat, and predators. The construction of chicken coops with a pen requires a fairly high fence, which will not allow the hens to fly into an area not intended for them. Chickens can easily cause damage to everything planted on the site; they rake the soil vigorously, look for worms and feast on fresh grass and flowers.

The height of the fence should be about 2.5 meters - this is enough to prevent chickens from flying out

The portable chicken coop takes up little space and has a lightweight design. While not entirely comfortable for long-term living of chickens, it has its advantages:

it can easily be moved to a convenient place with a sufficient amount of grass;
You can limit yourself to a small area of the room.

Regardless of the chosen chicken coop design, any of them can be changed both in size and content. If desired, a summer house for birds can be turned into a winter chicken coop; it is enough to provide the necessary insulation and lighting inside.

A special vestibule will reduce heat loss in winter

Chickens, like all birds, can fly, so fencing their place of residence is simply indispensable. In addition, they are prey for foxes, ferrets, dogs and rats, which also requires special protection of the chicken coop.

The chicken coop must be protected from predators

The best design is considered to be a fence made of wooden picket fence or corrugated sheet. A mesh fence with tall bushes will be more economical. Such a hedge will not only become an obstacle in the way of uninvited guests, but will also provide natural protection for chickens from overheating during strong sunshine and from hypothermia in windy weather. Another advantage of shrubs on the territory of the poultry house is the creation of favorable conditions for the reproduction of small animals; for example, beetles, worms and other insects quickly appear under last year’s foliage - a delicacy for chickens.

It is worth positioning the chicken coop so that there is free space for future buildings: perhaps over time you will want to increase the number of chickens on your farm

The location for the chicken coop is determined based on the available free territory, but the further it is placed from the residential building, the less negative emotions the specific smell of chicken droppings will cause. In a word, the building should be shaded and sheltered from precipitation and gusts of wind. If you have an unused old barn, the task of building a chicken coop is simplified.

Video: setting up a chicken coop, personal experience

One of the most important factors in the constant supply of eggs is lighting.

Lighting should be used from autumn to spring to extend the day for laying hens.

According to experts, lighting of at least 8–10 hours daily is considered sufficient for birds to stay indoors, and with 11–12 hours of daylight, an increase in the number of eggs is observed by 30%. In the summer, as a rule, chickens have enough sun, but with the arrival of the cold season (November - March), it is necessary to provide them with additional lighting.

When building a chicken coop, it is recommended that novice poultry keepers plan to install a good, large window with lockable exterior shutters. So, in winter it will be possible to reduce electricity costs by using natural lighting.

It is better to cover the light bulb in the chicken coop with a shade to protect it from dust, cobwebs and hay

To maintain daylight in the chicken habitat, it is allowed to install different types of lamps:

Electric lamps are the usual incandescent lamps with a minimum power of 60 W.
Fluorescent - very popular among poultry houses; the power must be at least 40 W.
Energy saving - lamps that allow you to save money while creating a sufficient level of illumination; the power is limited to 15 W.
LED lamps are modern models that are practical and economical to use.

The number of lamps required for installation is determined based on the area of the room. So, for 6 m 2 with a light source placed at a height of 2 m from the floor, an incandescent lamp with a power of 60 W is sufficient.

Favorable conditions for birds must be created in the chicken coop

Equally important is compliance with the temperature regime - the temperature in the chicken coop should be at least 15 degrees; lower temperatures provoke a decrease in the number of eggs laid with a significant increase in the chickens' appetite.

To create a favorable microclimate, care should be taken to exclude drafts and the possibility of timely ventilation of the room. The coop should be inspected for cracks and other openings to prevent rats and other rodents from entering.

Video: chicken coop for laying hens

At the design stage of a chicken coop, it is important to know how many chickens will live in it. So, for 5-6 individuals, an area of 3 m will be enough, for 10 laying hens you will have to build a room of 5 m, and 20 birds can live comfortably in 10 m. Walking of feathered pets should be carried out in a more spacious area. The area should be 2-3 times larger than the poultry house itself.

Whatever type of chicken coop you choose to build, the first thing you need to do is make a detailed drawing, which should indicate the dimensions

The key factor when arranging a place to stay is the breed of birds kept. For broilers, which are less active, a modest pen is enough, but laying hens, on the contrary, need space, otherwise they will stop laying eggs. Experts recommend keeping chickens of different breeds in separate places to avoid war between them.

Basic requirements for preparing a chicken coop:

For disinfection purposes, all walls of the room should be whitewashed.
Ammonium vapor released from chicken droppings is toxic to birds, so it is important not only to clean up feces in a timely manner, but also to provide ventilation.
For the location of chicken nests, far corners are suitable, taking into account one nest for 2-3 laying hens. If the area is limited, then the placement of side outer drawers is allowed.
The bird must have access to water, so drinking bowls with clean water should be equipped both in the house and in the fresh air.
Chickens behave quite actively while feeding, which should be taken into account when attaching feeders, otherwise they may overturn the containers.
The window is a mandatory element of the room; its size must be at least 1/12 of the floor surface.
At night, birds sit on perches, the length of which is calculated based on a minimum of 25–30 cm per inhabitant and a height of 1.5 m or more.

There should be enough space in the chicken coop; if the bird is placed in a confined space, it will feel uncomfortable and begin to get sick.

As for the tools, the set is standard, which includes:

to take measurements - tape measure, level, pencil;
for working with the material - a hacksaw, a saw, a piece of sandpaper;
for fastening elements - a construction stapler, a screwdriver (if not available, a screwdriver), a set of nails or self-tapping screws, a hammer, pliers.

Video: chicken coop project

What is the best material to build a chicken coop from?

Despite the short service life, the temporary chicken coop is assembled from natural wood or materials based on it. Wooden boards, fiberboard, chipboard, OSB are suitable for work. The supports can be made of timber, concrete blocks or metal profile pillars. Reinforcing mesh or chain-link mesh is excellent for arranging an enclosure. The canopy may be light, but it must provide excellent protection from wind and precipitation. Plywood, polycarbonate, and reinforced film can successfully cope with this task.

Although the summer poultry house is used seasonally, it will last for more than one summer if the wood is properly treated by impregnation or staining.

Wood material is very practical and economical, and if properly processed, it is also durable.

The importance of the foundation in the construction of a chicken coop

The house is installed on a hill, which will prevent it from flooding during heavy rains. If there is a flat area, it is enough to pour gravel, crushed stone, even broken brick will do. The top layer is sand, which also helps the hens digestion. The purpose of the foundation, in addition to serving as the basis of the structure, is to ensure the safety of chickens when attacked by predatory animals. Depending on the owner’s capabilities, pouring a strip or column foundation is allowed.

The missing foundation of the chicken coop must be replaced with sheets of slate or a metal covering, which is dug in at a certain elevation (about 30 cm from the ground) around the entire building. If it is also not possible to make such a structure, then you need to at least line the bottom of the chicken coop with large stones, closing the cracks.

A portable summer poultry house does not need a foundation; it is enough to fix the frame on wide bars to which the net will be fixed.

The chicken coop can be equipped with wheels for ease of movement.

You can start raising broiler chickens if you have a portable chicken coop in the form of a hut. As for the size of such a structure, 4 m2 of area will be enough for 6–8 chickens. The construction of the house is quite simple according to the diagram below:

The side frames are made from edged boards, secured with screws or nails.
Construction must begin with the construction of the frame frame
Using a construction stapler, the mesh is fixed to the wooden walls. If you don’t have a stapler, you can get by with nails, then you don’t need to drive them in completely, but so that you can then bend them into a bracket. All sharp metal ends should be removed to prevent the bird from being injured during flight.
The upper part of both walls is connected with self-tapping screws, and cross members are laid to fix the lower parts. The middles can also be made more stable by laying the boards at a distance of 40 cm from the bottom.
The walls of the frame must be connected in at least three places
The middle, as it were, separates the enclosure from the perch, so for rigidity you will need additional spacers, on top of which rectangular plywood is laid on screws.
You can additionally strengthen the walls of the chicken coop with spacers
The upper part of the poultry house must be closed; for this, two plywood of the required sizes are fastened on both sides of the structure from the middle to the top. The ridge element is formed by two horizontal boards nailed to plywood.
A mesh is stretched from the ends of the chicken coop or doors are installed for ease of cleaning the room and collecting eggs.
To strengthen the places where the mesh is fixed to the plywood, it is recommended to nail a strip. So, the structure will not deform and will last longer.
The plank between the plywood and the mesh will add rigidity to the joint
To make it easier for chickens to move from the street into the room, a ramp is assembled - a sheet of plywood with padded transverse slats is placed on a spacer.
After this, you can begin to create a perch, nests, and install a feeder and drinking bowl.

Video: DIY summer chicken coop

After completing the construction of the chicken coop, all that remains is to equip it inside, making nests, perches and placing feeders.

The function of perches can easily be performed by wooden poles with a diameter of 5–6 cm, located against the wall opposite the entrance. It is more convenient for large breeds to sit on a perch at a height of about 70 cm from the floor; ordinary chickens fit in two rows at a height of up to 120–130 cm. Each bird will need about 30–50 cm of perch length.

Perches for laying hens should be as comfortable as possible and have sufficient area to accommodate all the chickens at once

To enjoy fresh eggs every day, it is important to take care of the arrangement of the nests. When installing them, you should adhere to the following requirements:

Nests are made at the rate of 1 nest for 3–5 hens.
The size of the nest should suit the parameters of the bird: approximate width - 30 cm; depth - up to 50 cm; height - 30–35 cm.
The nests can be placed individually or in one row in a secluded place.
Before the entrance to the nest there should be a shelf onto which the hens can easily fly.
The inside of the nest should be lined with straw or hay.

Nests can be closed or open, but in closed ones chickens feel calmer and more protected.

You should not build nests on the floor, otherwise the chickens will start marking there and even spend the night. To attract hens to new laying sites, it is enough to first put a dummy egg, for example, carve it out of wood, cut it out of foam plastic.

For 2–3 hens you can equip 1 nest

The last stage of work is installing the feeder; this also has its own nuances.

Video: DIY pipe feeder

It is quite simple to build a summer chicken coop, and if it is properly arranged, it is also easy to maintain. With a minimum of effort, you can get tasty and environmentally friendly products to the table every day throughout the warm period, without leaving your garden plot.

If you are reading this article, then most likely you have decided to start breeding and keeping chickens. This idea has many positive aspects. For example, you will always eat fresh eggs and be able to prepare nutritious meals from them. In addition, domestic chickens also provide fresh meat. And if you keep a lot of chickens, then the eggs can be sold, i.e. sell, which will serve as an additional source of income for your family’s budget. However, first you need to make a reliable and durable chicken coop, which will create ideal living conditions for poultry.

The construction process consists of several important stages. Don’t assume that everything is simple, especially if you want to keep chickens in the winter. After all, you need to worry about high-quality ventilation, reliable roofing, walls, heating and other important components. This article will provide complete material about all construction processes and equipment. Interesting video materials, collections of photographs and diagrams will make the process of learning information fun. Step-by-step instructions will help you figure out how to build a chicken coop.

What should a house for chickens be like?

Birds, just like humans, need a comfortable habitat, so before starting construction it is worth highlighting several important factors that will allow you to create a warm and cozy chicken coop. There are a number of requirements for this room:

Temperature. If you plan to keep a bird in the winter, it is important to take care of the proper temperature. So, in winter the temperature should not be lower than 12°C. There should be no drafts inside the room; they pose a threat to the health of the bird. In summer, the indoor temperature should not exceed 25°C. If these temperature conditions are not observed, the chicken will stop laying eggs.
Lack of moisture. To prevent chickens from getting sick, there should not be high humidity inside. Ventilation can solve this problem. There are several ways to organize it; it can be forced or natural.
Lighting. Light is life. As a result, the egg production of chickens depends on the availability of light. There should be light bulbs inside the coop that diffuse warm yellow light. To ensure lighting mode, some home craftsmen use automatic timers and relays that turn the light on/off at a given time. When conducting electrical wiring, you need to do everything so that all cables are inaccessible to chickens.

Calm. For a normal and quiet life for chickens, there should not be a lot of noise around. Therefore, the chosen location must be isolated from a busy country house.
Safety. This is another important criterion that ensures the bird’s peace of mind. The chicken coop must be protected from rodents and other predatory animals entering it. Considering this, many decide to build on a columnar foundation.

Video: features of keeping chickens in a chicken coop

Where is the best place to place a chicken coop?

The location of the poultry house is an important stage of the preparatory work. You need to think not only about yourself, so that no unpleasant odor penetrates into your residential building, but also about the comfort of the chickens. For example, some breeds do not like their territory to be frequently invaded. Because of this, they begin to lay eggs worse.

A suitable location would be a remote corner of your summer cottage. If you have a barnyard, it is important to remember that extraneous noise also negatively affects their egg production. Often many people decide to attach a chicken coop to an existing barn. But here take into account what kind of pet the chickens will be neighbors with - calm or mostly noisy.

When choosing a place, it is important to worry about a place for them to walk. You can often see chickens roaming throughout the yard. This does not add beauty, in addition, on the threshold of your home you may stumble upon a “gift” they left behind. The space for walking chickens should be limited. As a rule, up to 2 m2 is allocated per head. So, when keeping 20 chickens, the area should have dimensions of 4x10 m. And this is only for their walking.

If you cannot afford such an area, keep in mind that some summer residents resort to an original solution, making walking tunnels around the perimeter of the territory from a metal mesh.

The selected location should have both shaded and sunny areas. The shade will protect the birds from overheating on hot days, but at the same time they will be able to bask in the sun in cool weather.

Video: The Best Place for a Chicken Coop in a Barnyard

It is recommended to choose an elevated place to build a chicken coop. This will prevent flooding of the area during the rainy season or when snow melts. If this is not possible, then dig a drainage ditch to remove excess moisture. Although a hill can be made artificially by pouring crushed stone, gravel or earth.

It is advisable to place the windows of the chicken coop on the south side for better and longer sunlight entering the room. It is also recommended to install a hole, a door and build an enclosure on the south side. The south side is most protected from cold winds.

What size should the poultry house be?

Having decided on the construction site, it is necessary to decide what dimensions the poultry house will have. This parameter is influenced by several factors. It is necessary to start from the maximum number of chickens and accurately calculate the usable area:

If you plan to keep meat breeds, 3 heads should have at least 1 m2;
For keeping egg breeds for 4 heads - from 1 m2;
For breeding and keeping chickens for 15 pieces - from 1 m2.

Separately, it is worth mentioning about chickens. They must have individual quarters, separated from adults. This will allow them to have free access to food. However, you should not allocate too much space for them. As a rule, a small box is enough for an overnight stay. On the other hand, one should not create conditions for their crush.

So, a poultry house intended for keeping 10 chickens can have dimensions of 2x5 m. As for the height, it should be comfortable for you when you have to go there. A ceiling that is too low will create discomfort when cleaning and cleaning the chicken coop. The optimal height is 2.2 m.

Taking this into account, it would be practical to equip a gable roof, raising the ridge to 2.2 m, and leaving the walls at a height of 1.5 m. Such a chicken coop will be convenient both for chickens and for its maintenance. On the other hand, it is much easier to implement a pitched roof. Nests can be installed in the low, dark part.

We have prepared several suitable diagrams and drawings. Based on them, you can make an individual project or build a poultry house from a ready-made one. We invite you to look at some interesting options in the next section.

Drawings and diagrams: ready-made projects for building a poultry house

So, to summarize everything, for the construction of a chicken coop for 10 chickens, the drawings should be calculated based on the following parameters:

The area is more than 4 m2.
Availability of up to 4 slots.
Feeders should be along the wall and opposite the perch.
There must be access to the cleaning and feeding system from outside.
The drinker and feeder should rise at least 50–100 mm from the floor level.
The floor should be smooth, but not slippery.
Perch at a height of about 600 mm.
The area of all windows should not exceed 10% of the floor area.
It is recommended to have an enclosure for walking.
Be sure to have a ladder to the chicken coop.

Plus, the area and layout of the future poultry house will depend on what you want to place inside it. To save and optimize internal space, a perch pole is installed. An ordinary piece of driftwood usually performs this role. Chickens can sleep on it.

When organizing a roost, it is important to consider that one bird will lay one egg every 1-2 days. Therefore, one place will be enough for 4 chickens. The perches should be high as this will prevent damage to the eggs. Moreover, they should be located in a clean, dry place and away from their overnight stay. Otherwise, chicken droppings may end up on the eggs.

As for the standards, there is SNIP 30-02-97, which indicates the following parameters of the room:

On a summer cottage you can keep and raise no more than 40 chickens.
There should be at least 4 m from the chicken coop to the border of your territory.
If there is an adjoining residential building, then there must be at least 7 meters from the front door to the house.
When making an extension to a house, it is recommended to coordinate the project with the architectural commission.

If chickens are kept for personal use outside the city, there are no rules or restrictions.

Types of chicken coops based on needs

There are several types that can be built:

Build a new or reconstruct an existing premises

If you have a shed or garage that is no longer needed, you may want to consider remodeling it. You can save a lot on the purchase of building materials. You will only need to arrange the premises inside for normal living of chickens.

On the other hand, such a room is not always suitable. For example, inconvenient location, small area, etc. Today there are many ready-made schemes that will help you quickly develop a finished project. In this matter, you should not think only about saving money. As mentioned above, the egg production of birds and their health depend on how comfortable the conditions inside the chicken coop are.

If you still prefer the old premises, then make sure that there are no lumber inside it that was coated with lead paint or that was previously used to store various chemicals. All of this can have a detrimental effect on the health of chickens.

Stages of poultry house construction

Having familiarized ourselves with all the requirements and regulations for the construction of a chicken coop, we will highlight the main stages of construction:

Stage 1– design.

Stage 2- making the foundation.

Stage 3– construction of walls and partitions.

Stage 4- construction of the roof.

Stage 5– production of flooring.

Stage 6- “furnishing”.

Stage 7– insulation.

Stage 8– heating production.

These are perhaps the main construction processes that you should tune in to. We will go through all these processes and also give some step-by-step instructions.

The foundation is the basis of any structure

Installing a chicken coop directly on the ground is a bad option, so a foundation must be built. For a poultry house, the base can be made using different technologies:

columnar;
slab;
tape

When making a slab foundation, the working technology is as follows:

*Stages*	*Description of the work process*
Step 1 – marking	To begin with, using a cord and pegs, the perimeter of the future building is indicated.
Step 2 – digging	At this stage, the top fertile soil layer to a depth of 350 mm should be removed.
Step 3 - filling the pillow	Now the bottom of the base is filled with sand and small gravel. Everything is carefully compacted.
Step 4 - formwork	Before pouring concrete, plank formwork is installed around the perimeter of the foundation.
Step 5 - concrete work	Finally, a layer of concrete should be poured onto the manufactured cushion. A woven reinforcing mesh with cells up to 100×100 mm is first laid on the bottom. For concrete, M200 cement is used.

As you can see, the process of making a foundation is not that complicated. Although it requires a lot of effort. This kind of foundation is ideal for a chicken coop built from blocks or bricks.

It is much easier to build a chicken coop on a columnar base. We have prepared for you step-by-step instructions for building a poultry house on a columnar foundation, so you can find out all the details of this process in the next subsection. The only thing worth saying is that steel pipes, bricks, blocks and similar material can be used as support pillars.

Video: features of laying out the foundation

Wall construction technology

The walls must be windproof and warm. The choice of material for building walls depends on the foundation made. If you made a strip or slab, you can use cinder block, foam block and even brick. However, these materials have a high level of thermal conductivity, so they must be insulated from the outside and inside.

If a columnar foundation is chosen, then it is better to give preference to a light frame structure made of wooden blocks. A wooden frame is laid on top of the support posts, onto which the entire frame of the future chicken coop is fixed. It is recommended to use metal mesh to construct the walls of the walking area. It can be attached to a metal corner.

Another option for wall construction is polycarbonate. This building material is practical. For example, it is easy to wash, it is beautiful, strong and reliable. However, such a chicken coop will be problematic to use in the winter season. Some summer residents use logs for construction.

Adobe is often used. You can make your own adobe bricks using clay and chopped straw. Such walls will provide a sufficient degree of heat retention and comfort. The only problem when working with this material will be leveling the surface.

As you can see, there are many construction technologies and materials that can be used to make a reliable and beautiful poultry house. In any case, regardless of the material chosen, it is important to ensure that the walls are disinfected to avoid the appearance of fungus, bacteria and the like.

Video: building walls from OSB boards

Wall insulation - winter option

So, if you decide to insulate the walls with mineral wool, then on the walls you should make a frame of 50x50 mm beams. The beam is fixed strictly vertically. The pitch of laying the timber is adjusted based on the width of the insulation. So, if the width of the mineral wool is 600 mm, then the pitch of the timber should be 590 mm. This will allow the mineral wool to be tightly packed without leaving any possible gaps.

The beams are secured to the wall with self-tapping screws (if the frame is made of wood) or dowels. It is also recommended to make a vapor barrier layer. To do this, before laying mineral wool, a polyethylene film is fixed to the wall. Its installation should be carried out with an overlap of up to 150 mm.

The thickness of the thermal insulation layer must be at least 50 mm. If after installing the insulation you find gaps, they can be filled with polyurethane foam.

As for external wall insulation, it is better to use polystyrene foam or penoplex. For fastening, a special plastic dowel with a cap is used. This method of fastening is used when walls are built from bricks, blocks and the like. The thermal insulation layer must be covered with protective plaster using a façade mesh.

In some cases, external insulation should not be performed, especially if you live in a warm region. The outside of the chicken coop can simply be covered with plywood and painted with moisture-resistant paint.

Roof – reliable protection from precipitation

The best option is a gable roof for the poultry house. Due to this, the ceiling height inside the room increases. If the roof is well insulated, then you won’t even need to fill the ceiling. For covering, the best option would be metal tiles or slate.

The technology for manufacturing a gable roof is as follows:

Rafters are installed on top of the wall frame.
A waterproofing sheet is laid and nailed onto the rafters. This is necessary to prevent the thermal insulation layer from getting wet. The film thickness can be 200 microns. Each waterproofing strip should be overlapped by up to 200 mm. It is advisable to glue them together with tape. Due to this, the coating will be completely sealed.
After this, it is necessary to fill the sheathing for the roof deck. It is stuffed on top of the waterproofing. The spacing of the sheathing will depend on the type of flooring chosen.
When the sheathing is ready, you can begin installing the roofing.

Video: making a poultry house roof

Ceiling insulation – additional protection from the cold

The procedure for insulating the ceiling of a poultry house is necessary if you live in a cold region. In this case, floor beams are additionally secured to the rafter system. On top of the beams, that is, from the attic side, you can fasten plywood, which is fastened with ordinary self-tapping screws.

A thermal insulation material, such as mineral wool, is placed in the space between the beams. Additionally, you can attach a vapor barrier film. It is attached using a stapler. The ceiling is hemmed with the same plywood or you can use wooden lining, plasterboard and the like.

Chicken coop floors

Finishing the floor is one of the main activities in the interior arrangement of the chicken coop. The finishing method depends on your goals. If you want to breed and keep broilers for meat, then it will be enough to make a light, non-insulated floor. However, the floor must still have a double structure. It’s not difficult to implement, especially if you have a columnar foundation:

Beams acting as joists are attached to the supporting frame.
The bottom needs to be hemmed with boards.
Insulation, such as mineral wool, is placed on top of the boards.
Next, the finished floor is laid from boards.

In the case of making a shallow strip foundation, the floors can be made of earthen or adobe. To do this, prepare a mixture of finely chopped straw and clay. The clay mixture is applied in layers. Each layer is carefully compacted. In this case, before laying the next layer, the previous one must dry. The process is quite lengthy, but the foundation will be reliable.

If the foundation is made using slab technology, then it is enough to make a wooden flooring on top of the concrete. However, it is better to use other insulation or lay waterproofing. Mineral wool absorbs moisture. The further process of making the floor is as follows:

The base must be protected from penetrating moisture, so the top can be covered with roofing felt. The canvases must be glued together with a special bitumen mastic. Due to this, reliable waterproofing of the wooden flooring will be created, which will be completely protected from the penetration of waste from chickens.
A mound of sand, straw, hay or sawdust is placed on top of the flooring. However, hay and straw absorb moisture and dry out poorly. Because of this, the flooring will rot and provoke the appearance of fungi and bacteria.

To eliminate this possibility, the layer of straw or hay must be made thin, and it is recommended to change it regularly. Therefore, as practice shows, it is better to use sawdust for flooring, especially since they can be easily purchased at a carpentry shop, sometimes even for free.

Poultry house interior design

One of the main places inside the chicken coop is the roost. A perch refers to a wooden pole. This is where the chicken spends most of its time. An important rule is not to place perches one above the other. For one chicken you need to calculate about 30 cm. The distance between the poles should be about 50 cm.

As for the location of feeders and drinkers, they should be higher. Considering that chickens often have “showdowns” on the territory, dust may rise inside the chicken coop. To protect the drinker from dust getting into it, a small canopy should be made on top.

Nests should also be built. These places should be dark and secluded. This will ensure good egg production. There should also be bedding inside the nest. The nests themselves are made in the form of boxes, which are closed on top with a removable lid. As practice shows, nests should be equipped with a separate lid. This will allow you to remove the eggs and change the litter.

The location of the feeders should be done at the height of the bird's back. Due to this, the chicken will not scatter the food with its paws, but will reach it by slightly stretching its neck. The number of drinkers and feeders should be sufficient so that all chickens have enough of them.

Video: arrangement of the interior and exterior of the poultry house

Heating – comfort and coziness

Chickens can't handle the cold very well. Cold and drafts have a particularly strong negative effect on the legs of chickens, which freeze due to the lack of feathers on them. As already mentioned in this article, the indoor temperature should not fall below 12°C. If you live in the northern regions, then in addition to insulating the walls, floors and ceilings, it is recommended to install heating devices.

In the absence of heating, the bird eats more food, gets fat and becomes lethargic. These are additional costs. If you are raising chicks in an incubator, the chicken itself may not be warm enough. For these and other reasons, heating the chicken coop is necessary.

Video: chicken coop - winter version

Two heating methods: natural and artificial

Heating a chicken coop can be done using two methods. Natural heating means maintaining a comfortable temperature without the use of heaters. The bottom line is to use the bedding mentioned above.

In October, the floor is sprinkled with slaked lime 1 kg/m2. The thickness of the bedding made of peat, sawdust, hay or straw reaches 7 cm in thickness. As the chickens move in, the bedding gets trampled down and needs to be replenished. The flooring must first be turned with a pitchfork. By spring, the thickness of the litter can reach 25 cm.

The peculiarity of the litter is that during the composting process it generates heat. Accordingly, the temperature in the poultry house is stably maintained at about 12°C. The available heat slows down the decomposition of droppings and disinfects pathogens. But with all this, it is necessary to organize high-quality ventilation. Otherwise, harmful ammonia will accumulate in the chicken coop. In addition, in winter, the ventilation pipe should be covered for a short time to prevent warm air from escaping quickly.

However, if the outside temperature drops below -10°C, then all these methods are ineffective. Another heating method should be used - artificial. We invite you to consider several options presented in the table:

*Heating method*	*Features of heating organization*
Electric heater	This is one of the available and inexpensive heating methods. You can use different heaters, for example, convectors, air heaters, fan heaters, oil radiators, etc. It is necessary to select the power based on the area of the chicken coop and the number of chickens. The presence of automation will allow you to set the off/on mode.
Gas heater	Using gas to heat a poultry house is also no less effective, but only for large poultry houses. It is not profitable to purchase an expensive gas boiler for a poultry house for 30 or 50 chickens. Moreover, gas equipment must be constantly monitored.
Stove heating	This category includes an ordinary potbelly stove. However, its use involves a number of difficulties. The problem is that due to high humidity, the metal is susceptible to corrosion. In addition, it is always necessary to have a supply of coal/wood. You should also constantly maintain combustion, build a separate chimney, insulate the heating elements of the stove, and strictly observe fire safety. All this requires a lot of labor.
Diesel stove	This oven is safe to use. It does not smoke and has low power.
Buleryan	This is a special air-convection stove that works effectively on different types of fuel.
Infrared heaters	As you know, an infrared heater heats objects, not air. This method has its advantages, as objects will retain heat longer than the heated air escaping through the ventilation ducts. Such heaters with a power of no more than 500 W can be mounted on the ceiling.
Water heating	If the chicken coop is attached to a residential building, then water heating can be installed in it. Given that the heat inside the house is maintained regularly, the poultry house will always be maintained at the proper temperature.

As you can see, there are many ways to create heating for a poultry house. You should choose the one that you can organize and that will fit the family budget.

Video: features of heating organization

Insulation without energy consumption - an innovative solution

We have discussed with you the traditional solution regarding how to organize heating inside the chicken coop. When installing artificial heating, a lot of money is spent, and if you use the natural heating technology described above, you have to make a lot of effort to control the level of humidity, otherwise there is a risk of mold and mildew.

Considering all the pros and cons, some summer residents resort to an original solution, using the Netto-plast mixture used for spaceships. Net plastic is bacteria that should settle on the floor of the poultry house, namely in the prepared litter. The composition is packaged in packages of 0.5 and 1 kg. According to some calculations, 1 kg of this mixture will be enough to heat 20 m2. Moreover, these bacteria will live for about three years.

To begin with, sawdust is poured into the chicken coop; you can also add oat husks and dry straw. All components are thoroughly mixed together. Next, Netto-Plast bacteria should be evenly sprinkled onto the resulting mixture and mixed again.

In this case, heat will appear as follows:

The chicken's feces fall onto the litter.
When they come into contact with these bacteria, heat begins to be generated. At the same time, unpleasant odor is completely eliminated.

This is otherwise called fermentation mat. From time to time, it is enough to lightly loosen the litter and, if necessary, add sawdust or straw. However, you won't have to clean the coop.

When the outside temperature is -20°C, inside the poultry house it can be +15°C. If the frosts are stronger, then you can additionally connect temporary electric heating.

This decision has a lot of positive aspects. For example, there are large cost savings due to the fact that electricity and fuel are not consumed at all. After a while, there is no need to clean the chicken coop, since the composition of bacteria can lie with the litter for about 3 years. And after this time, you will be able to get high-quality fertilizer for the garden.

Indoor ventilation: several common methods

With the onset of winter, ventilation plays an important role in keeping birds, although in the summer it is not the least important. It’s just that in the summer everything is simpler, because you can open doors, windows and organize an influx of fresh air. Decaying chicken droppings release a harmful substance - ammonia. If you do not establish good ventilation, then there is a serious risk of illness for the chickens and even the person who will serve the chicken coop. The worst thing is that due to the lack of ventilation, the walls and all interior decoration will begin to rot and become unusable. For this reason, even at the project development stage, it is important to consider the manufacture of ventilation.

When developing a ventilation project, it is worth considering some nuances. For example, in winter, the flow of fresh air must be strictly regulated. Otherwise, there is a chance that the temperature will drop quickly and the chickens will feel cold. You should also minimize the presence of drafts, which also negatively affects the health of the bird.

So, there are 3 most common ways to organize ventilation in a chicken coop:

mechanical or forced;
natural;
supply and exhaust (a type of natural).

Let's look at the features of each of them separately.

Mechanical ventilation

Forced ventilation is beneficial if you have a lot of chickens and the chicken coop has a large area. Under such circumstances, it is important to organize a stable air change. It's not difficult to implement. We will provide you with a short guide to this process. Additionally, you can watch videos:

*Stages of work*	*Manufacturing process*
	First, determine the location where the fan will be installed. Some decide to install it in the wall, instead of a window, or even in a pipe. In the latter case, the diameter of the fan must match the internal diameter of the pipe. You can learn how to make such ventilation from the prepared video material.
	Having decided on a place, for example, in our case it will be a window or window, if there are any, the glass is removed. Plywood will be installed in its place, so the size of the plywood must match the size of the window opening.
	Using a screwdriver and self-tapping screws, plywood is fixed into the opening. First, a hole should be made in the plywood to the diameter of the fan.
	Now you can install the fan, also securing it with self-tapping screws.
	After installing the fan, you need to connect the electrical cable to it. Here you can use a wire with a cross section of 2x2.5. A switch is also installed to control the fan.
	Make sure that all cable terminals and connections are thoroughly insulated. In addition, it is better to place the wire in a protective corrugation.

Additionally, the system can be equipped with temperature sensors to control the ventilation operation. You can also purchase equipment to automatically turn the fan on/off. You can learn how to do this from the video.

Video: organizing forced ventilation

Natural ventilation

This type of ventilation is the easiest to organize. There are 2 interesting solutions that we offer you to choose from. Let's compare them and note the pros and cons:

2 ways

Features of the technology

Open vent/window

This is perhaps the most primitive way of organizing ventilation. But this method is only relevant for summer chicken coops. In the winter season, warm air will cool down very quickly due to open windows and vents. Plus, you will have to constantly run to open/close the window in time. This method is used in exceptional cases.

Installation of pipes for air inlet and outlet

In this case, the ventilation process is automated. Let us immediately note that this method is also relevant if you keep 100 chickens or more, and the room has an area of up to 20 m2. So, you will need 2 pieces of pipe Ø200 mm. Accordingly, one pipe will be installed for air inlet and the other for air outlet. The pipe is installed in different corners of the chicken coop, or rather, in opposite corners. The exhaust pipe can be installed near the bird's perch at a distance from the ceiling of up to 200 mm. It is recommended to organize the outlet of the exhaust pipe at a height of 1.5 m from the roof level.

To prevent cold air from blowing on the chickens, the supply pipe should be placed in the opposite corner from the chickens' roost. The lower end of the pipe should be at a height of 200 mm from the floor, and at a height of up to 300 mm from the roof level. A special umbrella is placed on the upper end of the pipe, which will prevent rain, snow, birds and other things from entering the ventilation duct. The ventilation pipe must be insulated to prevent condensation.

To ensure efficient operation of the system in winter, it is recommended to install dampers in the duct, which will prevent the rapid escape of warm air. Although in severe frosts there is a high probability of pipe freezing.

We invite you to watch a video that describes the manufacturing technology of such a ventilation system.

Video: making natural ventilation in a poultry house

Construction of a frame chicken coop: step-by-step instructions

To secure all the material, we suggest you read the step-by-step instructions for construction at home. In addition, you can watch the following videos:

Instructions with photos and explanations for building a simple chicken coop from a wooden frame on a columnar foundation
*Work stage*	*Technological process*
	First you need to make support pillars. Considering the weight of the entire structure of the chicken coop, steel pipes Ø100–150 mm should be used as the base of the posts. You will also need a sheet of metal cut into squares. Metal thickness is not less than 4 mm. The cut squares should be welded to the support posts. It’s immediately worth noting that the pillars should all be the same size.
	The next step is to select a suitable location for development. Using wooden pegs and rope, the territory is marked. This is an important stage of work, because the final result largely depends on the quality of the preparatory work.
	After marking, it is necessary to remove the fertile layer of soil by one shovel up to 250 mm. Support poles for the future poultry house are installed at the corners of the dug hole. It is important to pay special attention to their installation. They must be installed strictly vertically. Moreover, the upper sole of all 4 supports must be strictly at the same level with each other. The soil under the base of the post must be compacted. If the soil in your area is unstable, then a sand cushion must be made. A layer of sand and crushed stone is poured onto the bottom. The pillow is compacted, after which the support pillars are mounted. Even if there is a slight horizontal difference, it can be leveled by attaching the lower trim.
	Installed support pillars must be treated with an anti-corrosion compound and also painted over with moisture-repellent paint. This will serve as additional protection. Afterwards, the top trim from the board is installed. For this purpose, you can use a 150x50 mm board. First, a beam is attached to the metal sole on two short sides. For this purpose, a hole is drilled in the metal, just like in a beam. Fastened with steel bolts. Then two boards are laid on top on the long sides and fastened in the same way. The fastening must be strong and reliable, because the quality of the future construction will depend on this.
	When the base is ready, we begin making the wooden frame. However, before this, the dug hole is filled with soil (or crushed stone), which is compacted. Support posts are installed in the corners, which can be fixed using metal corners and self-tapping screws to the previously laid wooden frame. An opening is immediately formed to enter the chicken coop. For greater strength, stiffening ribs are created in the middle of the height of the building. The timber can be 600×500 mm.
	Now it’s time to arrange the roof; in this case, the roof has 2 slopes. The rafters are installed and secured to the top frame frame.
	The rafters are additionally fixed with spacers to give the roof the necessary rigidity. The formed attic can be used to store hay, sawdust and other things.
	When the frame is completely ready, you should begin covering it. The outside of such a chicken coop can be lined with plywood. The walls of the frame must be insulated with mineral wool. The inside of the wall can also be covered with plywood, as well as other sheet material. As for the roof, metal tiles are used for it. The roof must be insulated. The inside of the ceiling is lined with plywood or similar material. Some people use drywall.
	Here you can see that there is an additional area for poultry walking. Timber and metal mesh were used as a frame. In addition, the perimeter of the foundation is lined with mesh. This will prevent predatory animals from entering the bird. Doors must be installed in the enclosure so that cleaning can be done inside. A ladder is also made for the chickens to exit from the house to the street. The ladder is constructed from boards, the transverse boards simultaneously impart rigidity to the structure and serve as steps.

A dacha is a great place to relax, but it is also an excellent opportunity to change activities. It’s not for nothing that arranging a summer house and growing ornamental and garden plants are becoming a popular activity for city residents. However, today those who are planning to build a chicken coop in their dacha with their own hands do not surprise anyone. Moreover, thrifty owners choose solid buildings. If you build a poultry house slightly larger than a dog house, the birds will get sick or eat the food to no avail. Then you shouldn’t expect such desirable environmentally friendly eggs from them. Let's find out the secrets of good construction.

Finding out how to make a cost-effective chicken coop starts with allocating space for construction. Its design can largely depend on the location of the poultry house. There are basic principles that should be followed when making a choice:

Location. The poultry house must be located on a hill, because in the lowlands it will be more difficult for birds to walk: it is in such places that the moisture does not dry out longer, and the melting of the snow occurs with a delay.
Building orientation. The chicken coop must be correctly oriented to the cardinal points. The rectangular building is located along its length from east to west. The ideal placement of the poultry house would be when its windows face south and the door faces east. Windows should let in as much light as possible during the day. The length of daylight hours significantly affects the egg production of chickens. However, in hot weather the windows should be shaded.
Temperature. Both too high and too low temperatures are negative for chickens. Already at +25 C°, poultry productivity will drop by half, and if the temperature rises another 5 degrees, the chickens will stop laying eggs altogether. In case of heat, the windows of the chicken coop must be equipped with plywood shutters. In winter, the optimal temperature is +12 C°.
Peace. Chickens should feel calm, so for the chicken coop you need to choose a place away from active recreation areas. Protecting your chicken coop with a hedge is a good idea.
Square. The location should be selected taking into account the dimensions of the future building. There should be no more than two chickens per 1 m2 of chicken coop room. If chickens will live in the chicken coop during the winter, it is necessary to provide a vestibule as an element of insulation of the chicken coop so that cold air does not directly penetrate to the birds. For the vestibule, you also need to allocate space in the construction plan.

Experts recommend choosing a place with a reserve of space in case success in raising chickens prompts the owners to create, for example, a quail farm. After all, such a farm is an excellent source of not even additional income, but full-fledged income.

A chicken coop is often called a ramshackle barn, but if you take a businesslike look at this building, it can be made much more attractive, and then it will be easier to find a place for it

To be healthy, chickens must have room to roam, which is why this chicken coop with a vestibule is a well-deserved success.

What does it cost us to build a house for chickens?

Let's agree in advance that we choose four-edged timber 100x150 mm as the material for the construction of our chicken coop. This is a low-budget option and construction from such material does not require professional skills.

Stage #1 – selection and construction of the foundation

We choose the dimensions of the upcoming building. It is better to draw up the project so that you can accurately determine the need for materials. We will proceed from the approximate weight of the chicken coop when deciding on the foundation.

A chicken coop on a columnar foundation looks very secure, neat and compact, despite the fact that everything you need is provided in it

The best option for a relatively light chicken coop can be considered a columnar foundation. Why?

Economic benefit. Cabinets made from old brick will be very cheap, and, if desired, you can even get by with ordinary stone. Cement, sand, gravel and a trowel are the main costs for such a foundation.
Protection. It will be difficult for rats and ferrets to enter the room, and ventilation under the floor surface can prevent rotting of the wood.

We will mark the foundation using thin but strong rope and metal rods. In full accordance with the project, we hammer rods around the perimeter of the building. We tie them with a rope, placing it near the surface of the earth. We check the accuracy of the markings made by measuring the distance diagonally with a regular tape measure.

We carefully remove the fertile layer of soil 15-20 cm inside the marking: it will be useful in the garden. Now we will make pedestals at the corners of the building and along its perimeter. The distance between them should be 0.8-1 m. We dig holes 60-70 cm deep and 50 cm wide (two bricks). Using a hydraulic level and ropes, we mark 20-25 cm above the ground - a guideline for erecting the pedestals.

A columnar foundation is most appropriate when building a chicken coop, since it is economically beneficial and the building on it will be protected from rotting and from predators

At the bottom of the pit, pour layers of sand and medium-grained gravel 10 cm thick. Place the first two bricks at the bottom of the pit, and put cement mortar on them, mixed at a ratio of 1:3. We place the next two bricks across the previous ones. So the cabinet should be laid out to the level marked with ropes. Cement mortar will help to level the cabinet exactly to the level.

In construction, there is a technological break of 5-7 days so that the solution has a chance to set. After this, the finished columns must be treated with a special protective mastic or simple bitumen. Coarse gravel should be poured between the bollards and the ground. They also cover the surface inside the perimeter of the building.

Stage #2 - erection of the walls of the building

For the process of laying timber, a standard technology has long been developed, which must be adhered to. A double layer of roofing material can be used as an insulator for the first crown from the foundation. The ends of the timber should be connected into half a tree. As floor joists we use 100x150mm timber, laid on edge. The optimal distance between the logs is 50 cm. We close the gaps with scraps of timber.

The walls of the building are erected by sequentially placing timber and connecting it at the corners of the building into a tongue-and-groove joint.

The second, third and subsequent crowns at the corners are connected using a tongue-and-groove system. Flax-jute fiber can be used as a sealant in locking joints and between crowns. If the timber from which the chicken coop is built has natural moisture, it is better to use wooden dowels to securely plant the crowns.

Their presence will protect the frame from distortion after shrinkage. You need to make holes for the dowels in the corners of the building and around the perimeter every meter or one and a half. They are made 2.5 beams deep and in a checkerboard pattern. The dowels should be driven into the wood “sunk” by about 7 cm. The minimum height of the walls being erected should be 1.8 m. Next, the ceiling beams must be strengthened, rafters installed and the roof laid.

Stage #3 – ceiling and roof of the chicken coop

You can make the roof of the chicken coop single-slope, but a gable design is the choice of far-sighted people. Feed and equipment need to be stored somewhere. Why not use a comfortable and dry attic space for this purpose?

Of course, it is better to make the roof of the building gable, then the food, equipment, and even the rowan fruits dried for the chickens for the winter will be safe

We strengthen the ceiling beams, lay the ceiling with any boards and insulate it. Expensive roll insulation can be replaced with expanded clay or coal slag. Before insulation, you need to take care of the ventilation of the room. To do this, you should knock together two wooden ventilation ducts. We fix them at opposite ends of the building. One end of the ventilation channel is located flush with the ceiling, and the second is approximately 40 cm below it. Tin dampers on ventilation pipes will help regulate the temperature in the room.

Stage #4 – laying and insulating the floor

Freezing and blowing of floors should be avoided. Therefore, double floors can be considered the best option. In this case, we will use a board 25 mm thick. The subfloor should be made of dry unedged boards. A layer of vapor barrier is laid on the boards, followed by 100x100mm bars. We fill the gaps between the bars with insulation, after which we lay the finished floor from edged boards.

If you can use any boards for the ceiling, then for the floor savings are only appropriate when laying the subfloor: the finishing floor should be made from a tongue-and-groove board

We equip the poultry house from the inside

Well, we figured out how to build a reliable and warm chicken coop, now we need to properly organize the room inside. If we talk about the necessary elements of the internal structure of a chicken coop, then the perch is just one of them.

When calculating perch requirements, you need to know that each bird will need at least 30 cm of perch. Knowing the number of feathered inhabitants of the chicken coop, we calculate the quantitative need for perches. It is better to make them from rectangular timber 40x60 mm. The perches need to be rounded, otherwise they will injure the birds. Perches should be placed at a distance of 50 cm from each other at a height of 60-80 cm from the floor, but not above each other. Trays placed under the roost will make cleaning the coop easier.

Properly organizing a chicken coop from the inside is no less important than ensuring its proper construction: chickens need perches, drinking bowls, feeders, and places for laying hens

Laying areas should be located in a part of the coop where the chickens can feel safe and secure.

Don’t forget that we built a chicken coop for laying hens, which means that we need to provide them with all the conditions for them to lay eggs. To do this, you can equip them with boxes with sawdust in a place where the chickens will feel peace and security.

Feeders and drinking bowls should be filled, clean and located on a hill. Cleanliness and order in the chicken coop can be ensured more easily if the floor is covered with sawdust or straw. The sloping floor will also make cleaning easier. For the winter, the chicken coop can be additionally insulated with mineral wool and polystyrene foam.

To learn how to build a chicken coop with your own hands using other methods, we suggest watching the following videos.