Do-it-yourself chicken coop for 5 chickens: step-by-step construction instructions

The size of the chicken flock at the dacha is a relative figure. Each summer resident decides for himself.Usually in the future they plan to order an extension to the house for fifty birds, but for now the point is, you can make a chicken coop for 5 chickens with your own hands, without waiting for a big construction project.

What should a chicken coop for 5 chickens be like - requirements

The first step is to determine the minimum area for a comfortable habitat for the bird. At a rate of 3 chickens per m2 It turns out that for 5 chickens you can make your own chicken coop with an area of ​​only 1.5-2 m2.

Basic requirements for the design of a chicken coop:

• good heat and sound insulation of the room;
• convenient layout for chickens;
• good lighting, preferably natural.

The remaining requirements are formulated in the process of linking the project to the area.

Features of a summer chicken coop

For a summer poultry house, it is important that the room is well ventilated and the air is not oversaturated with fumes. In any summer poultry house, even if it is a chicken coop for several chickens, the main problem was overheating of the room. Chickens are reluctant to roost in the evening if the roof is covered with metal, the windows are the size of a palm, there is no ventilation, the air inside is heated to the limit, and the room itself is quite cramped.

Therefore, a summer chicken coop for 5 chickens is always built with your own hands from boards, tongue-and-groove planks or ordinary printed shingles. The walls of such a room protect from moisture and noise, but at the same time allow air to pass through well.In a summer poultry house there is usually good air flow from all the cracks. But the main thing is that for the chickens to settle down, gain weight well and lay eggs, they need to feel safe.

Summer buildings are always raised above the ground on vertical supports. It is believed that the breeze blows through the floor of the poultry house, thereby reducing the temperature inside the coop. In reality, a chicken coop, even for five chickens, is raised above ground level only for protection from soil moisture. In addition, it is much more convenient to serve a chicken family, feed, clean the floor, and treat internal surfaces.

Features of a winter chicken coop

A year-round simple poultry house can also be built from boards, slats, slats, and slabs. But at the same time, do not forget to insulate the room, since cracks in the walls of the poultry house, which were a great help in the summer, can turn into disaster in the winter. Chickens will freeze and get sick. Therefore, a year-round chicken coop is usually reliably insulated with mineral wool or any other thermal insulation with good vapor permeability.

Winter poultry houses are usually built from sheet material, usually plywood or OSB. We haven't come up with anything better yet. The roof, walls and floor are made either double box-type, if the winters are not too severe, with frosts down to -7OWITH.

If the winter is colder, then all surfaces, especially the floor, are insulated according to the scheme for residential buildings. With the possible exception of entrance doors, they are simply stuffed with double slats and covered from the inside with a fabric canopy. There is no point in insulating it, otherwise the door frame and leaf will swell from condensation.

We read: How to build a warm winter chicken coop at your dacha with your own hands

Selecting drawings

Most summer residents choose to build a winter poultry house project with their own hands.The classic layout of a small chicken coop with decorative clapboard walls is shown in the drawing below.

In this case, the room is built from OSB with penoplex insulation and exterior finishing with decorative lining. It turns out beautiful and reliable, but requires correct calculations and placement of the ventilation system.

The classic version for 5-7 chickens with walking on a frame made of pine slats is shown in the drawing diagram.

The technology and sequence of assembling such a room is shown in more detail in the video:

This is more of a decorative poultry house, since there are not many chickens, and most importantly, it can be installed in the local area, somewhere near the main entrance to the house.

We read: How to build a chicken coop with your own hands

Required dimensions

In most cases, the dimensions of a poultry house are selected individually according to the preferences of the owners. If the chicken coop is planned to be installed next to the fence of the site, then the height of the building is chosen so that the windows or mesh of the aviary are covered by the fence.

If a place for a small poultry house with five chickens is chosen in the backyard, then it can be made quite high. The limit is limited only by the height of the owners, since in winter it will be necessary to clear snow from the roof.

The internal space is usually made 80x120 cm in size, sometimes larger, taking into account the addition of the number of chickens. The ceiling height is 100-150 cm, there is no point in doing less, then you will need to raise the chicken coop significantly above ground level.

Very small poultry houses are usually of the summer type, the walls are without insulation, and the interior is too small to safely accommodate at least one heating device.

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

Small-sized housing for chickens is always made on a wooden frame made of slats.Usually pine or spruce. Metal frames made of profiled pipes are rare and are used only in mobile, transportable chicken coops.

The frame is sheathed with boards or OSB sheets; plywood can be used. But a plywood sheet is almost twice as expensive as OSB of the same thickness; plywood is used mainly for large full-size poultry houses with the number of chickens from 20-30.

Winter chicken coops are often built using a combined method; the walls and corners on the windward side are made of boards and slats, always with mineral wool insulation and vapor barrier. The part of the building on the leeward side is simply covered with OSB sheets. The scheme looks rather unusual, but in practice it is quite justified, in addition, you can save on material.

Step-by-step construction instructions

It is very important to think through and calculate all the construction details before starting the construction of a chicken coop for 5 laying hens. Work out all the details according to the sketches so that when cutting the workpieces you do not make a mistake or damage the material. It’s easier to make a small summer poultry house for 5 chickens with your own hands somewhere in the garage, then transport it to a dacha or a country plot. It is light, compact, weighing up to 50-60 kg.

A winter chicken coop for 5 chickens is built with your own hands directly on site. Many details, such as insulation and ventilation, have to be adjusted to size.

Working with the foundation

The poultry house will be installed on vertical supports made of 150x50 mm timber. The uprights of the winter poultry house will need to be embedded in the ground, so before starting work, the wood is coated with resin, wrapped in roofing material and secured with staplers.

Next, the vertical posts need to be installed in the drilled holes and secured with struts and spacers.

The racks need to be aligned vertically, after which they are temporarily tied along the lower level with boards. All parts of the room (except for the racks) are made of 100x50 mm timber. Housing for chickens turns out to be quite high, so the foundation pillars should be reinforced.

Now you need to make a frame - a floor for construction. The subfloor will be insulated, so the base frame is assembled from a thick board 70x30 mm

Assembly of the structure

After the chicken coop floor box has been secured to the vertical posts, you can make the top trim.

The two upper cross members are attached using steel angles.

In addition to the already installed supports, two more posts will be added; they will be used to add a run for chickens to the poultry house.

Only now, after the final assembly of the frame, can the racks be filled with cement-sand mortar.

Floor and walls

After the concrete has set and firmly fixed the frame of the chicken coop, you can sheathe the walls.

First of all, the back and windward (cold) parts of the poultry house are boarded. Immediately cut out a window (cover it with netting) and make a hole for the chickens to enter the walking area. The steel mesh must be tensioned before filling with floor boards.

Since there are few chickens, the walking area is small.

Trays or niches for laying hens are immediately assembled from pieces of OSB; they will be additionally insulated, so they are made from a solid slab.

At the next stage, the small chicken coop room is additionally lined with OSB sheets from the inside. The interior space is reduced but still large enough to accommodate all the hens and chicks.

The roof turns out to be pitched, flat, the base under the roofing of the chicken coop is covered with boards and OSB.A metal profile will be used as the roof of the room. The double lining should dampen the sound of rain well, so that the chickens do not react to sounds; you can lay a layer of lining material. Eaves and roof overhangs must be hemmed with OSB scraps.

The niche for laying hens is closed with a common hinged door.

Arrangement of the chicken coop inside

To prevent chicken droppings from destroying the relatively weak OSB board, a sheet of metal must be laid on the floor inside the chicken coop. The walls on the side of the niches are additionally sheathed with boards.

The entire interior arrangement of housing for chickens comes down to installing perch poles. Their number is obviously greater in the expectation that the number of chickens will increase over time.

Now you need to make a fence for the chicken coop. Strips of mesh are stretched over the previously installed poles; it must be steel, but always with a polymer coating.

You will also need to cover the upper part of the run with netting, otherwise local predators may approach the chickens.

Ventilation

Normal ventilation of the poultry house is extremely important for small chicken coops with an area of ​​2-3 m2. The smaller the internal space, the more difficult it is to organize a stable flow of fresh air without losing heat or overcooling the chickens.

The standard scheme in the form of two ventilation windows on opposite walls of the poultry house does not work well in this case, the volume of the room is too small.

Therefore the best option is exhaust pipe installation. Moreover, its height should be a meter and a half higher than the roof. Inside, you will have to install a valve on the ventilation window, and use it to adjust the level ventilation in the chicken coop.

Insulation for winter

The chicken coop turned out to have double walls.The thickness of the outer boards is 25 mm, plus 10 mm OSB and an air gap between the inner and outer cladding. As a result, the chicken coop wall is almost 45 mm thick.

If you add a small heating system, then the thermal insulation power will be sufficient for chickens to be able to withstand outside air temperatures of up to 2-3 without health consequences.OC. When using additional heating, the maximum temperature drops to minus 10-15OS. But this is for healthy chickens moving indoors.

Laying hens find themselves in a more vulnerable position, so the niche (trays) must be insulated with mineral fiber insulation, followed by lining with boards. In laying hens, the air temperature will be 8-10°C higher in winter. In summer, the niche is protected from sunlight by the wall of the house, so it will not be hot.

Heating a chicken coop in winter

Even such a small chicken coop for 5 chickens needs to be heated. Despite the double walls and the door reinforced with thermal insulation, in strong winds and frost it can be cool in the chicken coop. According to sanitary standards, the temperature inside the chicken coop should not be lower than 10OWITH.

For a small poultry house, two heating systems can be used:

• red incandescent lamps;
• homemade fan heater.

You can also install one ultraviolet lamp. It also heats well, plus it produces a lot of ultraviolet radiation. But you can turn it on only for a short time, and the flow of light should be directed exclusively at the back wall of the chicken coop.

Heating with infrared lamp

It is best to buy a couple of ready-made lamps with red lamps, reflectors and wiring. For a chicken coop with an area of ​​2-3 m2 100-150 W bulbs will be required.Typically, the lamps are turned on during the rainy season, when chickens suffer greatly from high humidity inside the house.

DIY heating

For a budget mini-chicken coop for 5 birds, you can make the heating system yourself. One of the options is shown in the photo.

The heater is made from a piece of two-inch water pipe made of cross-linked polyethylene, inside which a loop or spiral of heating two-core cable is inserted. It is used for arranging heated floors. Loop power is from 50 W to 100 W, depending on the cable length.

A standard 12V fan is installed at the inlet of the pipe; it is used for cooling in desktop computers.

The system is connected to a relay regulator with a temperature sensor. Everything is automated, so homemade heating can keep chickens warm throughout the winter, without human intervention.

Results

Almost any summer resident can build a poultry house for 5 chickens. The main task is to choose the right place and prepare the material for building the frame. The design is simple, all the work can be done with the minimum of tools that any summer resident has in stock.

We read: How to build an all-season chicken coop for 20 chickens with your own hands

Tell us about your experience building small chicken coops. What do you think is the main difficulty in building small poultry houses? Also share the article on social networks and add it to bookmarks.