Re: Hen House Design - dont want to reinvent the wheel - can you help with some ideas !!
From: Dr. Edward Warren (e-warren_at_att.net)
Date: 01/09/05
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Date: Sun, 09 Jan 2005 15:04:24 GMT
I am an amateur, but I have raised chickens now for about 20 years
I have built 3 henhouses. There is no perfect, optimal henhouse. You
can make it up to meet your own needs, and to meet your resources of
land and finances.
The basic needs are outlined in any good beginner poultry management
booklet. This may not be compreHENsive, but it is close.
1. The hen house needs about 3 square feet per hen. Some use less. My
wife and I thnk that even this is inhumane and we therfore allow free
ranging
as well.
2. There needs to be a roost about 2 feet off of the floor. Use rounded
poles
about 2 inches in diameter with about 1 foot of length per hen. The poles
need to be about 1 foot from each other and on the same level. I mount mine
in such a way that under the poles is chicken wire and the top platform is
connected to a front leaf that is also covered by chicken wire. This entire
structure is connceted to hinges at the back. I can then lift it all with a
block
and tackle for cleaning underneath. The sides are solid, one against a
walll
and the other free standing, but solid plywood.
3. The nest boxes need to be in a dark corner. The openings should be
about
1 foot wide, 18 inches high,and about 1 foot deep. I build mine on a 1x12
board, cutting grooves in the top and bottom boards to support the plywood
walls. I usually make a double decker with a perch about 8 inches in front
of
each row. The hens lay 3 to 6 eggs in each box, so 8 or 10 will easily
handle
25 hens. The nest box is the only thing I paint, using a dark color.
4. There need to be adrequate electrical outlets in the ceiling to plug
things
like heaters, incubators, water defrosters, etc into.
5. There needs to be enough additional floor space for you to walk around
in
and to allow a new group of chicks to be easily managed in the future while
keeping them safe from the older hens. My hen house for 25 chicks is
10' x 12', with a 6' double story bank of nest boxes, and an 8 foot long 3
pole
roost that is 4 feet deep. I used to keep the trash cans of feed in the
coop,
but the droppings on the lid were unpleasant, so I keep the feed outside
now.
6. Room is also needed for an adequate waterer and feeding station. I use
a
waterer that is an upside down can about 1 foot in diameter and 18 inches
high
in a tray that allows the water to seep out as it is drunk. My feeder is
the same
size. There is another of those 4' long tray feeders in the room. The hens
prefer
to spend the whole day outside looking for worms and insects anyway.
7. I build into 1 wall a trap door about a foot wide and 18 inches high,
hinged at
the top. This I open every morning and hold open with a rope tied to a ring
on
it and hooked onto a hook above. I have lost many chickens to raccoons at
night, and they can open such a door even when I made it from a double layer
of
2x4 lumber. So I place 3 screw rings in a row, 2 on the door and 1 below on
the wall. This is locked with a pipe that threads through all 3 when I put
my girls
up for the night.
8. Finally I put a regular human type door in my coops for me to use for
feeding
and cleaning.
Additionally, I always pour a concrete floor. It is not hard. I order
about 1 1/2
to 2 cubic yards of concrete that comes in a truck. You have to measure the
depth of the floor and calculate this, but it is not that hard. I make
cleaning easier.
I built one free standing in Illinois where it did get down to 20 below in
the winter.
I over built it, but I never regretted it. The walls were insulated, framed
with
2x4's every 16 inches, exterior grade plywood outside, and fiberboard
inside.
I buld one that simply flowed off of the side of a barn, giving me one wall
already
done. In both of these I made th roof of plywood and shingled it. The
instructions
are on the shingles package. It is not that hard,
The one I have now was the easiest ever. My house had a barn with 8 stalls,
but
I have only 3 horses. I walled off one stall completely with fiber board
(compressed wood), poured the floor, put in the door and the trap door, and
built the interior as outlined above. I used a stall on one end of the
barn. No
roof was needed, but I did put up a ceiling on 2x6 joists that I hung from
one side
to the other. This also gave me a storage area above. I actually had a
bonus
storage area in all 3 coops.
Do think about ventillation. I put 3 windows in my first coop, 2 in my 2nd
one,
and the 8'x4' barred opening of the stall has been wired off with chicken
wire
in my current one. I madea plexiglass fram to fit in this opening for
warmth in
the winter. I now live in South Carolina where it never get very cold (70 F
today).
If you get any basic poultry raising book, it will outline these principles
better.
Do not be afraid, you can do it. It will take a few weeks, but it gives a
lot of
satisfaction. I am neither a carpenter nor a contractor either.
I just got my McMurray Hatchery catalog and they had coops that one can
order.
If I had no skills at all, I think one of those sheds you can buy at Lowes
could be
placed in the field and easily outfitted to meet your needs, eliminating the
need
to make the building itself.
Good Luck,
Edward Warren
<oookhc@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1105047166.612919.85930@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
>
> You might check
> http://www.ScienceOxygen.com/design77.html
>
> It does not sell any house design tool there.
> But it is with a collection of links about house
> design so that you might start from there...
>
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