Good poultry housing is essential to success in your production system. When building your poultry house, design is essential but there are various other qualities that you need to look at so as to ensure your chicken house adheres to the highest standards. Here are some useful tips to keep in mind when it comes to poultry house designs in the Philippines:-
Choose the right size: – Ideally, the stocking density for your poultry house should be 1 hen per square foot. So that means if you are going to keep 300 chickens , the house should be at least 300 square feet. However, if you have limited space, you can still go for 2 adult chickens per square feet. If you have larger space, give as much as 4 square feet per hen so as to limit overcrowding.
Orientation of the poultry house: The poultry house that you choose should be in an East-West direction and the walls should be solid so as to prevent draught in the poultry house especially during the colder seasons. You can also allow some ventilation at the top in the North and South facing directions of the poultry house. During the night, these ventilations can be covered with a tent, heavy sacks or curtains so as to keep away the cold.
Have a footbath at the entrance: Include a small pool to the poultry house where visitors can disinfect their feet. This will prevent the spread of diseases to your flock. If the house has been constructed inside a chicken run, then the foot bath should be placed at the entrance of the chicken run on the outside so that it is not accessible to the chickens. You can change the disinfectant on a regular basis such as on a weekly basis.
Ventilation of the poultry house: The house should be well ventilated so as to provide it with a regular supply of fresh air. This will prevent the spread of common respiratory illnesses in your flock. As previously stated, this ventilation can be installed in the north-south direction in the form of a wire mesh which can be covered at night to prevent draught.
Perches: Installing perches in the poultry houses gives them a place where they can roost or perch and express their natural “wild” behaviour. This is key to preventing antisocial behaviour in your chickens. Perches or roosting poles can be 1-inch or 2-inches in diameter.
Flooring: Used hard flooring that is made from cement or hard soil. You can then add wood shavings or saw dust bedding on the flooring that you can change on a regular basis such as after every two weeks.
House cleaning: The house should be easy to clean. Make sure you clean it on a regular basis so as to prevent the spread of diseases. If you will be introducing new chicks, the entire house should be cleaned and disinfected to prevent cross transfer of diseases from one set of flock to the next.