If you want to start keeping and breeding poultry, you need to take care of constructing and equipping a house for geese and ducks. They will live in the house all year round, so it must be of good quality. Let's consider how and from what materials you can build a house, what tools you will need for this, and how to equip a room for winter housing for birds.
Structural features
Any poultry house, no matter what it is built from, must be spacious, warm, dry and bright. At the first stage, you need to calculate the area of the premises, based on the number of future livestock. For 1 sq. m. there should be no more than 3 birds of breeds with an average body weight. It is impossible to house geese or ducks in a room that is too small for them; crowded housing leads to diseases.
The poultry house must have windows of sufficient size to illuminate it; for winter lighting, it is necessary to provide lamps that will need to be turned on in the evenings and mornings. In the poultry house you need to install perches, feeders and drinkers. Equip a ventilation system.
Drawings and plans
The drawing will depend on the size of the poultry house. It is necessary to determine the location of doors, windows, their sizes, the height of the walls and roof. Then you need to choose what material the walls, floor, ceiling, and roof will be made of. For summer housing of geese and ducks, you can build a house from wood, for year-round housing - from bricks or blocks. When purchasing materials, you need to take them with a reserve of about 20% so that there is enough for construction.
What tools and materials will be needed
To build a house for geese and ducks, you need to stock up on building materials: bricks, blocks, boards, clapboard. Buy sand, gravel and cement for laying the foundation, roofing material for the roof, reinforcing mesh. The tools you will need are a shovel, a drill, a hammer, an angle grinder, a saw, nails, and self-tapping screws.
How to make a barn for geese and ducks with your own hands
Build house for geese and ducks You can do it yourself. A small shed will not require too much construction time and effort. Let's look at how to build a lightweight poultry house from boards.
Site marking
A place for a poultry house should be chosen near outbuildings, on an area that will freely accommodate not only a house, but also a pen. It needs to be positioned so that it can be easily approached.
Foundation
The depth of the foundation depends on the load of the walls and the weight of the material from which they will be made. To support wooden walls, you do not need to build a brick or concrete foundation. You can build the building on low racks or stilts. You can use steel pipes for the racks; they need to be deepened by 35-40 cm and filled with cement mortar to strengthen them.
Cover the space under the floor with expanded clay, crushed stone or other fine material.
Walls
The walls are built from boards of medium thickness. From the outside they can be insulated with roofing felt. This will not only make the building warm, but will also prevent drafts from forming. You can use old windows and doors, for example, those left after replacement in a residential area.
Roof
On the duck house, you can make a pitched roof or a gable roof if you plan to store hay or other food in the attic. The roof can be covered with ondulin, slate, boards covered with roofing felt, or ceramic tiles. The main thing is that the roof does not leak and does not allow cold to pass through.
Equipment for a goose barn in winter
In regions where winters are cold, the heating issue will need to be resolved. Ducks and geese feel good in a warm room; females lay eggs even in winter. The temperature in the poultry house during the cold season should not fall below 10 °C.For heating, you can use infrared lamps (in a small room), 8-10 square meters. m you need to install 1 lamp of 250 W. The easiest way to heat a house for a large livestock is with radiators or wood-burning stoves.
In addition to warmth, the bird will need lighting. They will not fly in a dark room. Daylight hours in winter should be 10-12 hours per 1 sq. m. area of the house should have lighting with a power of 5 watts. Being in a bright duckling or goose coop, the birds remain active and productive.
Required condition keeping ducks and geese in winter – the presence of thick warm bedding on the floor. Without it, the bird may get frostbite on its feet or catch a cold. The layer of bedding in the winter months should be at least 15 cm. It is made from dry, clean straw, hay, and sawdust. In winter it is not changed; after contamination, a thin new layer is poured on top. It is important to avoid contamination and excessive moisture of the litter; it must be dry.
Even in winter, geese and ducks need to be walked, of course, on those days when the frost is not severe. Therefore, you need to sprinkle straw, sawdust or peat on the walking area. And also cover the mesh with dense material to protect it from the cold wind. You cannot walk the bird only in snowfall and severe frosts.
It is not difficult to build a house for ducks and geese on a private plot. You can adapt an unnecessary utility room for this, and if it doesn’t exist, build a house from scratch. For construction you will need standard materials and tools, and simple knowledge of construction. A properly built poultry house will serve for many years without needing major repairs. You can raise and breed any type of poultry in it, not just ducks and geese.You just need to correctly calculate the number of individuals per square meter of area.
