Every farmer wants his farm to be productive. When purchasing chickens, I want them to run well and at the same time look great: they are healthy, beautiful and meaty. But few people realize that the main guarantee of the successful keeping of chickens is the correct preparation of conditions for keeping. To breed chickens, it is very important to equip a pen at the very beginning. After all, chickens need fresh air and walks in nature, if there is no way in the country to send them for a walk by themselves, then you should definitely build a corral.

Why do you need an aviary

Often, the owners strive to breed chickens, knowing full well that their plot is small, and on it, in addition to the chicken coop, you will also need to place a vegetable garden for which you do not want to build a separate fence. And these poultry will certainly want to feast on the plantings, following their natural instincts.

There are a number of key points that explain why a pen is needed:

  • in addition to food, for good nutrition it is necessary that in the diet of each chicken there are fresh grass, beetles, worms;
  • there are a lot of predators that can encroach on chickens, the corral will become a reliable protection against them;
  • keeping birds in a cage or closed chicken coop is absolutely impossible, they need to ensure freedom of movement;
  • it is not always possible to control the weather and hide chickens from rains and strong winds in time, and a special shed in the corral will help the birds to hide from adverse natural disasters.

As you can see, a fence for walking chickens is one of the primary buildings that are necessary for successful maintenance. To minimize the cost of equipping, you can build a pen yourself.

Important! A chicken is a bird that needs certain conditions to lay an egg. In the dark, even if the time has come for the bird to sleep, it will not sit down and will wait for daylight hours.

Features and types of corral

Chicken enclosure

A standard corral is a fenced area with a net or metal grill, in which a gate is made for the owners. It is best to locate the pen near the coop to allow the birds to get out of the coop for a walk.

Chicken pen

Chickens love to walk freely, and not sit in a cage. Therefore, you should not save space by choosing the territory for the corral. To ensure proper comfort, at least 2 square meters should fall on each head. m. Grass must be present where the pen will stand. It is also better to set up the pen in a calm, quiet place, away from people, so that excess noise does not reduce egg production.

There are several options for pens that you can do yourself.

Mobile structures

Such mobile structures are used to provide chickens with fresh grass and outdoor walks. These are compact small structures that are closed on top with a net or canopy so that birds do not fly over the walls of the fence.

Such pens are equipped with handles and wheels so that there is no difficulty in moving around. There are mobile structures that do not have wheels.They are inconvenient in that it is possible to carry such corrals only together.

The main disadvantage of portable enclosures is the inconvenience, which is due to the fact that every day you will need to drive chickens from the enclosure for walks into the chicken coop for the night. How to teach chickens to enter the chicken coop in the evening for the night more amicably, everyone guesses, but this takes more time. Therefore, in order not to carry adult chickens, they organize a small chicken coop for the night next to the corral, in which a place is provided for rushing.

Designs can be rectangular, square or triangular.

Stationary corrals

Stationary pens are distinguished by the fact that they can be used all year round. They are mounted directly to the chicken coop, and the chickens go for a walk on their own. If you plan to keep chickens of meat breeds, then you can use open-air cages without a roof, about 1.5 m high, since the birds cannot fly high.

For simple chickens, the structure is made about 2 m high and covered with a net that will freely allow daylight to penetrate. Also, the top is closed in the event that it is necessary to protect the bird from the raids of predators, because they are able not only to carry away young animals, but also adults.

Stationary corrals

Requirements for the chicken enclosure

Many try and build pens, but sometimes the question arises why chickens do not go out of the chicken coop to the street.

To prevent this from happening, the chicken pen must meet certain requirements:

  • ensuring safety for birds;
  • reliability and durability of materials;
  • full correspondence of the area to the number of birds that will be accommodated in it;
  • inaccessibility to predators.

Naturally, the frame must be strong and reliable. When connecting structural elements, especially when using wire, it is important to ensure that sharp protruding parts do not fall into the inside of the pen. Such sharp parts of the chicken can simply get hurt.

Construction of a stationary pen with your own hands

DIY goose pen

A stationary chicken pen is a permanent structure. The simplest option would be a mesh fence. When organizing a shed for chickens, many troubles can be avoided, in the form of predators, precipitation and the ingress of debris and fallen leaves. There can be many design ideas. But in any case, before construction, you should draw up a detailed diagram, as well as draw a drawing, which will subsequently help to assemble the structure.

Important! It is best to build a stationary pen on the east side, so the bird will receive the necessary amount of vitamin D. In addition, the bright morning sun is not too hot.

Necessary materials

When building a stationary pen, you will need:

  • Boards;
  • Slate;
  • Grids;
  • Cement;
  • Sand;
  • Straw;
  • Wire;
  • Construction tool.

The main stages of construction

Construction of a stationary pen with your own hands

The answer to the question of how to make a pen for chickens will be a description of the main stages of construction. First, you should start building the foundation. The soil is removed along the edge of the perimeter of the future building to a depth of 30 cm. Then a layer is poured, about 10 cm thick, of sand, pebbles and lime. Then create a small formwork and fill in the cement mortar. It should be left to set for 21 days. In some cases, fixed summer chicken enclosures are constructed with metal pipes dug into the ground and mesh. Such a structure is much more profitable financially, but the use of the foundation will protect against predators that can get into the hen house by digging.

The flooring must be made from natural materials. There are several options. Dried boards can be used. You can also make a floor with natural grass. But its sowing requires regular mowing of the lawn, as well as harvesting dry residues in the fall.

To organize the walls, it will be necessary to fix wooden beams in the foundation, then a mesh or other mesh material is attached to them.If a stationary foundation is not used, then the mesh should be buried in the ground to a depth of at least 20 cm so that predators cannot get in, and the chickens themselves do not get out, having made a dig.

Modern chicken coop

You can also build a roof that will not be superfluous in such a design. For this, it is better to use shaped pipes as a frame. Metal pipes are dug in along the perimeter, to a depth of 1 m.If a foundation is used, then frame pipes should be installed at the stage of pouring. The distance between the pipes should be about 2 m. If there is no foundation, then after installing the pipes, the pits are first covered with rubble, and then poured with concrete and allowed to dry for 21 days.

The ready walk for chickens is additionally attached to the walls of the hen house, so there is simply no need to move or move it. It is important to provide a door in one wall. It must be mounted on curtains in the wall and closed with a secure bolt.

On a note. It is recommended to provide one of the walls 0.5 m higher, this will allow organizing an automatic water drain during rain.

Then the rafters should be installed. For each attachment, metal corners are welded, holes are drilled in each of them.

Wooden rafters are screwed with self-tapping screws. Now roofing material can be attached to the rafters. It can be ordinary slate.

Construction of a mobile pen

Stable, stable, horse corral

Such a corral is used in the summer, it is especially relevant for raising young animals. When the temperature drops, birds will feel uncomfortable in it.

Building materials

To build a mobile chicken enclosure with your own hands, you will need to purchase:

  • Boards with parameters 3x10 cm;
  • Bars measuring 2x4 cm;
  • Slate;
  • Grid;
  • Nails and screws;
  • Building tools.

Construction in steps

Construction of a mobile pen

To make such a pen, you will need to perform the following sequential steps:

  1. Construction of side walls. Future side walls should be made of planks. For those with a shorter length, the upper corners should be cut at a 60-degree slope, and the lower corners at a 30-degree angle. When you connect them, you get an intersection. The transverse boards are connected to the longitudinal ribs. The final stage will be the tension of the mesh, it is fixed using staples.
  2. Assembling the frame. The upper parts of the future frame are connected to each other using self-tapping screws. To connect the bottom of the walls, cross-sections are used, in which the ends are pre-cut at an angle of 30 degrees.
  3. Fixing special spacers. To strengthen the structure more, you should install spacers in the middle of the frame, at which the edges are also cut off by 30 degrees. Often these struts are used as perches.
  4. Sheathing and roof. The third part of the perimeter surface is sewn up with slate. This is necessary so that the chickens can hide from bad weather and strong sun. The slate is attached to the side walls and fixed well. Part of the roof is also covered with slate.

Mesh selection

One of the main elements used in construction is a metal mesh. Therefore, the largest number of requirements are imposed on it. First of all, it must be reliable protection, especially from predators that can get inside.

To implement a chicken enclosure, preference should be given to nets with a wire section of at least 3 square meters. mm. To prevent rats from entering the enclosure, you should choose a mesh in which the holes diagonally should not exceed 2 cm.

There are several options that you can use to make your chicken aviary.

Fine mesh wire mesh

According to many, this option may be suitable for making a pen. But, in fact, this is not a reliable protection, since, if desired, raccoons, foxes and other predators tear it apart very easily. And often chickens can crawl out into the holes in the grid, made in the form of a hexagon measuring 2.5-5 cm.

Fine mesh wire mesh

On a note. The only thing a fine mesh net can be used for is covering the chicken enclosure on top to protect birds from hawks and other flying predators.

Welding wire mesh

Welded or reinforced mesh is the most suitable option when creating a chicken pen, as it is able to protect the bird from all types of predators.

But there are also certain disadvantages:

  • High price;
  • It is difficult to work mechanically, as it is very tough;
  • It will take a long time to cut.

There are several types of such mesh. Reinforcement mesh is distinguished by mesh sizes: ¼, ½, 1 inch.

Rabitz

This is another option that can be used to equip a chicken coop and create a pen. The chain-link mesh comes with various mesh sizes.

Tips from experienced poultry farmers

Building a bird pen is not enough to build it.

Experienced poultry farmers, thanks to their experience, are advised to go for little tricks to make the chicken enclosure more comfortable and original:

  1. To make it comfortable for chickens to walk in cold weather, the aviary can be sheathed with transparent plastic or polycarbonate, but it should not be too thin so that it does not break with the wind.
  2. For the comfort of the birds, install basins with a mixture of sand and ash in the pen, in which the birds will bathe and clean their feathers.
  3. As a roost, you can use stumps placed around the corral.
  4. Chickens do not like to walk in the snow, so in the cold in winter, they should be lined with straw for comfort.

Even if there is not too much space on the site, you can still raise chickens. If you approach this issue correctly, the birds will feel very comfortable, and the owners themselves will receive the desired result.