Coop in the winter must reliably protect the bird from cold and wind. But this is not all that remains to be considered when building a house for laying hens. Among other things, it is necessary to provide good lighting, because in winter it is especially not enough. The erected building should be well insulated with high-quality heat insulators, as for even such a chicken coop in which it is planned to install heating devices.
Features of planning a chicken coop
Broiler coop must be dry. This is due to the fact that increased humidity in a tandem with low temperatures will have a bad effect on bird health. Do not think that high humidity can be combined with a warm room. In this case, the bird can get sick with diseases of the upper respiratory tract.
If you intend to place a large number of birds in the chicken coop, then you should not make the room too spacious, this is due to the fact that the vast territory will be quite difficult to heat. The most suitable size will be the room that is built at the rate of 1 m 2 for three chicken meat breeds, and as for laying hens, then four of them will need 1 m 2 . Thus, to build a chicken coop for 30 chickens, you need 7.5 m 2 .
Do not forget that there should be as many windows as possible, this will save electricity, which goes to lighting. Windows must be well insulated. It is recommended to turn them to the south side. This will help improve the health of chickens, because the sun's rays act as a source of vitamin D.
Features of the construction
Initially, you have to choose the material for the construction process. This can be done on the basis of the budget allocated for construction work. But experienced specialists say that it is necessary to choose the one that has the highest heat saving qualities. If you decide to use wood, it is recommended to purchase an extremely dense, as well as a wide beam, this will guarantee that the walls will not freeze. But a chicken coop for 30 chickens with their own hands can be built from other materials, for example, from adobe blocks, as well as brick or adobe. However, it is important to take into account the region in which the construction is supposed to be installed - the north of the area, the more massive and insulated the walls should be.
Particular attention must be paid to the roof, if it is thin, then all the warm air will go through the ceiling. This will entail a significant increase in heating costs. For the winter chicken coop, it is necessary to equip the roofing cake by making it from roofing felt or roofing felt, which must be folded in two layers, as an alternative solution, wood chips laid in four layers can be used.
Foundation
Before building a chicken coop for 30 hens with their own hands, it is necessary to lay the foundation of the building. The foundation is recommended to be made columnar. This will speed up the work, because the support base does not imply waiting after the bookmark. In addition, such a construction is built easier than other varieties of the foundation. Under the floor there will be a space that will act as a ventilation gap. But you can use as a base and another kind of foundation, which you will most conveniently build. Due to the fact that the chicken coop will be located at some distance from the surface of the earth, the wood at the base of the walls will be protected from contact with the soil, and rodents will not be able to equip their burrows under the floor.
Foundation construction technology
In order to build a chicken coop for 30 chickens with your own hands, you must first choose the place where you plan to install the building. Further, the territory is cleared and marked out. You can use a thin cable and steel bars for this. The latter must be hammered around the perimeter and covered with a cable over the surface of the earth. Then you can begin excavation work, which suggests the need to remove the topsoil. Now, in the corners, you can make recesses where it is supposed to mount the foundation supports. It is necessary to go deep by 70 cm, giving the pits a width of 50 cm, while the step between the supports should be equal to 1 meter.
In order to build a chicken coop for 30 chickens, sand and gravel should be poured into the bottom of the pits, the thickness of the obtained layer after its careful tamping should be 10 cm. After that, you can lay the first couple of bricks or stones. At the next stage, a solution is prepared, and then poured. Then, across the already installed, two more bricks must be mounted, and the foundation support must be raised to the level of the cable. The space between the bricks and the soil should be filled with gravel. In addition, it is recommended to fill it in the area under the future construction.
Wall construction
In order to build a high-quality chicken coop for 30 chickens with your own hands, you need to take care of building strong walls. To do this, lay the beam on the base. However, the ruberoid is laid in two layers on the foundation surface first. After the first level of the boards is laid, it is necessary to mount the floor logs, the cross section of which is 100x150 mm. They should be 50 cm apart. Then you can start laying the next levels. The bars should be prepared in advance, for this they form a castle connection in the form of a spike-groove.
The construction of a chicken coop from a beam must be accompanied by the laying of heat-insulating material between the logs. As insulation, flax jute fiber can be used. In the process of building walls, you must strive to reach a level of 1.7-1.8 m. Only after that you can begin to fix the ceiling beams.
Roof arrangement
After the ceiling beams are strengthened, it is necessary to make and install the rafters, and then cover the roof. It can be made gable, this will allow free space above the ceiling, where you can store bedding and feed. This, by the way, will create an additional thermal insulation layer. The ceiling can be mounted using any board or plywood, which must be used in tandem with insulation.
Creating a ventilation system
When building a winter coop with your own hands, do not forget about the presence of a ventilation system. This will ensure a healthy and comfortable microflora for the bird. To do this, install a pair of ventilation pipes. One end should be 30-50 cm from the ceiling surface, while the other should be at the ceiling level. In order to be able to control the intensity of ventilation, the ends of the pipes must be equipped with dampers.
Flooring
When building a winter coop with your own hands, you need to take care of the correct floor system. This is the only way to avoid drafts. In order to get a quality floor, it is preferable to make it double. It can be based on a 25 mm board, vapor barrier, as well as bars whose cross section is 100x100 mm. In conclusion, you can lay on the floor a smooth material, which can be a board or plywood. Do not forget about the layer of litter, which should be quite impressive.
Additional insulation
The construction of the chicken coop can be accompanied by wall insulation by caulking. To do this, in the grooves, which are formed by a bar or board, you need to lay a tow or glass wool. This can be done even after completion of construction work with a special tool and a hammer. After the board on the inside of the building, you can sheathe plywood, as an alternative solution it is permissible to use cardboard. This will not only ennoble the surface, but also make it windproof. On top of the plywood, the base can be covered with plaster, and after whitening, this will sanitize the room. If you want to protect the surface of the walls from chickens that can glue the finish layer of plaster, then the walls can be upholstered with plastic. In addition, such a room will be much easier to clean using the wet method.
The broiler house in the ceiling area can be insulated using peat or straw. A piece of ventilation pipe between the ceiling and the roof can be sheathed with straw, and then coated with clay. The pipe located above the roof surface must have double walls, between which sand is laid, it can be replaced with peat, it will perform the same functions.
The floor in the chicken coop should not be left without litter, this should be monitored, the substrate layer should have a thickness of 15 cm. For this, sawdust or peat can be used, and some hosts use chopped straw. The most heat-saving will be "warm floor".
Artificial heating
For the northern regions, natural insulation is not enough, infrared emitters can be used as additional heating. If the building is very well insulated in the area of walls, ceiling, floor and windows, then one heating device will be quite enough. It is preferable to use the heater that has a thermostat in the system. This will allow you to easily monitor the temperature regime, in this case you do not have to observe the reading on the thermometer and think about the adequacy of heating.
Lighting Features
Chicken coops, large or small, require lighting. The bird wakes up at 5-6 in the morning, it is at this time that the room should be light. Since the sun does not rise for a long time, additional lighting must be installed. When dusk sets in, the light can again be turned on for about 4 hours. But before spending the night it is unacceptable to turn off the light immediately. Initially, you need to quench it a little, this will be a signal for chickens that you need to calm down and prepare for bed.
To provide lighting, it is permissible to use traditional incandescent lamps that emit yellow light. It is worth remembering that lighting of different colors affects birds differently. So, blue calms, red can increase reproduction, while green promotes growth.
Well, if you can connect the lighting to a timer. This will ensure the same daylight hours. Subsequently, this effect will have a beneficial effect on the health of the bird and its productivity.
After the size of the chicken coop has been selected, and the place for its location has been determined, you can begin construction work. After the erection, it is necessary to test the building for the suitability for life of chickens in it. To do this, supply the chicken coop with thermometers if construction is carried out in winter. The building itself can also show where the walls are not sufficiently insulated. In this case, frost outgrowths will appear on their surface on their surface. This will indicate that warm air is emerging in these places, and the wall needs to be additionally insulated.