House and range: the 8 m open-sided house adapted to free range
The 8 m wide open-sided house is the School's reference house: it ventilates by itself, it is built with the country's materials, it houses 1,000 coloured chickens at 5 per m² over 25 m of length. But a house designed for chickens that never go out is not ready for chickens that go out and come back ten times a day for two months: it lacks the pop-holes, the threshold, the awning, the gravel, the drainage channel, the perches and the sick bay. This lesson says what does not change, what we add, and how to adapt an existing house, with the worked example of an 8 m by 30 m house.
14 min read · 5-question quiz at the end
By Abdul Hussein ChoumanFounder of NEXTEKCI · Agnibilékrou hatchery since 2006This lesson is part of Free-range poultry and festive markets specialisation. It opens to every registered student, from free registration. Levels 1 to 5 and the tracks remain readable by everyone.
The 8 m wide open-sided house is the School's reference house: it ventilates by itself, it is built with the country's materials, it houses 1,000 coloured chickens at 5 per m² over 25 m of length. But a house designed for chickens that never go out is not ready for chickens that go out and come back ten times a day for two months: it lacks the pop-holes, the threshold, the awning, the gravel, the drainage channel, the perches and the sick bay. This lesson says what does not change, what we add, and how to adapt an existing house, with the worked example of an 8 m by 30 m house.
- ✓Recall the rules of the 8 m open-sided house that remain valid with a range: orientation, roof, low wall, density
- ✓Size and place the pop-holes, the threshold, the awning and the gravel of the exits
- ✓Organise drainage around the house and the interior: perches, feeders, drinkers, sick bay, store, water reserve
- ✓Adapt an existing house to free range with a complete calculation
- The 8 m open-sided house: what does not change
- What changes: pop-holes, threshold, awning
- The ground around the house: slope, drainage channel, gravel
- The interior: perches, equipment, sick bay, store, water
- Worked example: adapting an existing 8 m by 30 m house
- The house mistakes that are paid for on the range
- Going further
- •8 m open-sided house: east-west axis, roof overhanging 1 to 1.2 m, low wall of 40 to 60 cm, floor raised 20 to 30 cm; 5 to 6 coloured chickens per m² in the hot season (manufacturers 6 to 8), that is 1,000 chickens on 8 m × 25 m.
- •Pop-holes: one for every 100 to 150 chickens, 1 m × 0.40 m, with a 15 to 20 cm threshold, lockable shutter, ramp and awning, in the central metres; closed and sealed during brooding.
- •Around: 2 to 3% slope, drainage channel at the foot of the overhang, 2 m strip of gravel 10 cm thick along the two long sides (10 m³ for 25 m), slabs under the outside drinkers.
- •Interior: removable perches (30 to 35 m for 1,000), 20 to 25 hoppers and 10 to 12 drinkers along the central axis, sick bay of 2 to 4 m², separate store, tank of at least 1,000 litres in the shade.
- •An existing 8 × 30 m house is adapted during an extended sanitary break: 1,200 chickens, 10 pop-holes, 12 m³ of gravel, 2,400 m² of range, 150 m² of shade, 236 m of fence.