More and more Russians move to live in their country houses for the summer, and many live in the bosom of nature all the time. There they grow various vegetables and fruits. And some try to keep poultry on their personal plot. Former townspeople do not have the experience of growing it, so the choice of the majority falls on breeding chickens. It is believed that this bird is the most unpretentious, and the return from it does not have to wait long.
But few new breeders understand that in order for hens to give the maximum number of eggs, they must have comfortable living conditions that meet their physiological needs. Always remember that a domestic chicken is a bird.
Before she was tamed by man, she had to live in wildlife. There she had numerous enemies, from whom she hid in the trees. She did this day and night and continues to behave this way now thanks to her innate instincts. Therefore, for normal and comfortable keeping, it is necessary to build a perch for chickens with your ownhands.
The big mistake of ignorant poultry farmers is the use of shelves as a perch. Chickens on them, due to their physiological characteristics, cannot sleep normally. The main reason is the arrangement of the bird's legs.
She sleeps in a seated position with her knee flexed. In this position, all the tendons leading to the paws are stretched. The chicken's muscle clamp is activated, and its fingers are bent. This happens if the chicken is located on a block for the night. Her fingers wrap around him, claws digging into the wood. In this position, she sleeps well and cannot fall.
Settling down on a shelf for the night, the chicken sits down, and the fingers still bend. There is nothing to cling to claws. And it turns out that the bird is in an unstable position on twisted fingers. This cannot be called a good rest, the return of the chicken becomes minimal. She does not rest at night, which affects her fertility.
Preparation
If you are planning to have a pet bird, then you need to take care of how best to equip her home. Building a perch for chickens with your own hands is the right decision. You will be able to make a poultry house in a way that suits you by choosing the right material, size and shape.
Many poultry farmers make the roost for chickens removable, this makes it much easier to clean the room. The optimal material is wood bars measuring 50x50 mm. Their edges should be made rounded, for this you can use a planer and sandpaper, otherwise birds will form on their paws.corns.
Observation of chickens showed that in winter they are located on a perch, tightly clinging to each other, transferring their body heat to neighboring birds. In summer they perch more freely and spread their wings. These features must be taken into account when planning to make a perch for chickens. In the warm season, it is worth adding bars on which birds sleep at night, and removing them in winter. Thus, the chickens will be located on them more densely, which means they will not freeze.
Types of perch
The size of the perch for chickens depends on how many of them will be in the room. Starting the construction of the structure, the poultry farmer must know what they are. Then he can easily choose the shape of the perch and the type that is most convenient for the bird. And she won't feel uncomfortable in the chicken coop.
There are three popular types of perches: those made from rounded wood bars, located along the border of the chicken coop; in the form of perches; in the form of a table with removable wooden planks. The chicken roost you see in the photo has two bars and a tray filled with sand.
Perches
This is the simplest and most popular material for building a perch. It occupies a small space of the chicken coop, it is comfortable for the birds to be on it. Usually the perch structure is mounted near one of the walls or in the warmest corner.
Often an inexperienced poultry farmer arranges perches at different levels. To do so is to provoke chickens into a conflict betweenindividual individuals. It is known that the leaders of the bird flock claim the places at the top. Building a two-level perch for chickens with your own hands is not recommended from a hygienic point of view. After all, the chickens located above will defecate on those below them.
Bars
Usually they are arranged along the perimeter of the walls of the chicken coop. This location is good because it occupies a small amount of space and gives its inhabitants the opportunity to easily find their favorite place. Even a novice poultry farmer will make such a perch for chickens with his own hands.
Table with bars installed on it
This design is good for its mobility, the table can be taken out of the chicken coop at any time and cleaned.
Recommendations to follow when building a perch
Each home master must adhere to certain rules when building a perch on their own:
- The height of the structure should suit all birds.
- The bar is chosen so thick that the paws of the chicken can easily wrap around it. And make sure she sits comfortably. The approximate width of the bar is ½ of the open paw of the chicken.
- The distance of the bar from the wall should be such that the bird does not touch it with its tail.
- The poles are made long enough for the hens to sit freely on them. And at the same time they did not bring each other inconvenience.
- The roost for chickens should be placed in a warm place far from the entrance of the house.
Perch dimensions
The length and number of bars depends on how many birds will be kept in the room. For example, a bar with a length2.5 meters is suitable for placing 10 chickens on it. Each bird is 18 cm, while taking into account 30 cm for indentation from the walls.
Bar placement
The height of the perch for chickens should be 1 meter. Many inexperienced poultry farmers unnecessarily raise it higher. This is a gross mistake. In order to climb a high perch, the chicken will have to spend a lot of time and effort. Flying off it, it can injure other birds that are already below.
All bars must be at the same height. It is not necessary to conduct experiments, it is worth adhering to the accepted and tested rules. The fact is that chickens, obeying instinct, trying to hide from enemies, will strive to take a place on the top bar. All this will provoke fights between them.
Making a perch
Do-it-yourself roost for chickens is very easy to make, any poultry farmer can make it. For its construction you will need:
- Wooden bars.
- Planer, hammer.
- Sandpaper, nails.
Double-row perch
A convenient place in the chicken coop is determined, and support strips, previously prepared and processed, are mounted. They are fixed at a height of 90 cm from the floor, their length on the sides is 60 cm.
Next, a 50x50 mm bar is cleaned of all irregularities with sandpaper, nailed to the support. The second is fixed on it at a distance of 30 cm from the first bar.
In order to make it easier to keep the chicken coop clean, a litter tray should be built under the perch. It is placed on the flooring, which is made of boards and is located at a height of 40 cm from the floor. The pallet can be wooden, metal or plastic. Sand or sawdust is poured into it to facilitate cleaning.
Portable perch
If you have an old unnecessary table in your garden, do not throw it in the trash. He might come in handy. It will make a decent mobile perch for chickens. It is easy to make it with your own hands. It doesn't take much effort to do this.
We take an unnecessary table and nail two planks to the legs on the sides, on which we pre-make grooves. Then we insert two bars into them, fix them. The perch is ready. Now chickens can be located on it and rest peacefully. Below we place a pallet with sand or sawdust poured into it.
Handy materials
Many owners of country houses, breeding poultry and deciding how to make a perch for chickens, do not invent anything supernatural, but use improvised materials for its construction. I must say that it will turn out fresh and comfortable.
For example, a perfectly functioning perch emerges from a simple wooden staircase. To do this, support bars are nailed to the walls of the house at a height of 90 cm, a ladder is attached to them in a horizontal position. That's all. Chickens feel great on such a perch.
Bars or perches can be successfully replaced with regular branches of a suitable size. In addition to their main function, they will serve as a decor for the house.
Results
After carefully studying the proposed material, you can choose the perch that is most suitable for your poultry house. Make a chicken coop with love, try not to miss a single little thing. Getting started, prepare all the materials and tools in advance, then it will go quickly and, most importantly, with high quality. Birds, feeling your care for them, will repay you with excellent productivity and excellent he alth.
