A Poultry house should have an East-west orientation with ventilation windows on the sides facing south and north.
No windows should be on the sides facing both east and west to prevent sun rays getting into the poultry house.
Sun rays should not shine directly into a poultry house since this leads to an increase in temperature inside the house which has negative effects like:
· Birds eat less feed and therefore produce fewer eggs and also grow slower,
· Making the eggs not hatch properly,
· Cause some birds to step and kill others as they scramble to reach where the rays are.
DIMENSIONS OF A CHICKEN HOUSE
For Engoho Kuku Farmer customers, the width should not be more than 30 feet (9.1 meters) while the length has no limit.
The height of the heave should not be less than 12 feet (3.7meters).
The wall should be six feet (4 feet {1.3 meters} covered with chicken wire while two feet is covered with materials such as wood).
How to Determine the Orientation of the House without a Compass
· Using a piece of wood about 14 feet long; determine the areas where the house will be built, dig a one-foot hole in the middle of the area, plant the long piece of wood in the hole, return the soil to make it firm.
· Observe the shadow of the piece of wood between 4 p. and 6.00 and mark the path of the shadow. The shadow will be pointing in the east.
· Observe the shadow the following day between 7.00 am and 10.00 am and mark the path of the shadow.
The shadow would be pointing west.
That gives you the orientation of the poultry house.
Materials that can be used to build a Poultry House
Roof: You can use iron sheets, grass, palm leaves etc.
The covered part of the wall: you can use bricks, sand blocks, iron sheets, wood and mud.
Floor: plastering with sand and cement, covering with compacted murram and plastering with mud.
Make sure there are no cracks on the wall and floor. Parasites that suck blood from the birds such as fleas hide in the cracks during the day and come out in the night to suck blood resulting in a reduced level of production.