Broiler Houses for small poultry farmers

A broiler house is a chicken house that is specifically designed to raise broiler chickens. Broiler chickens are fowls that are raised for their meat - the chickens live in the house for a cycle, which last from 4 - 6 weeks depending on how heavy you want you chickens to be when you sell them. Small chicken farmers, or emerging farmers, wishing to access government funding will need several quotes and will need to prepare a poultry business plan.

Broiler Chicken house for intensive chicken farming

A poultry unit for broiler chicken farming is a steel structure that has poultry curtains and poultry equipment installed. The amount of chickens you can keep in a broiler house depends on the size of the chicken house, and how many chickens you want to place per square meter. The industry standard of chickens per square meter is 12 - 15 birds per square meter. Broiler house come in various sizes, the smallest being about 3m wide and 6m long. A  poultry house this size will hold up to 270 broiler chickens. The poultry equipment used in the small steel chicken houses are usually automatic bell drinkers - this allow the water to come from a tank on the roof, through a manifold system and down into the bell drinkers. For feeding the chickens tube feeders are used. As with all poultry houses it will have poultry curtains and a strong winch to raise and lower the curtains. In hot places you might need a poultry fan, and you will definitely need gas heaters or radiant infrared heaters to keep the day old chickens alive. In a layer house you will probably not need poultry heaters if you are buying point of lay chickens. Foot Baths, thermometers, and chick trays should come standard with any broiler chicken house.

Free range broiler houses and organic chicken houses

If you plan to do free range chicken farming, or organic poultry production, your poultry unit will need free range flaps or pop holes along the 2 side of the poultry unit. These flaps or pop holes allow the chickens to come in and out of the chickens house as they want to. As they can easily be closed, you can secure your poultry coop at night. All the other poultry equipment is the same. If you are doing organic chickens you will need to buy organic chicken feed, and you will need to grow a fair portion of organic chicken food on your chicken farm.

Broiler chicken houses for small farmers can go up to 30m long and 6m wide - a broiler house this size will hold up 2700 chickens at a 15 birds per square meter placement. These steel structures are built on site and you will need to level your ground before the chicken house is built. You will also need good running water and electricity to run a proper poultry production unit. Small chicken farmers, or emerging farmers, wishing to access government funding will need several quotes and prepare a poultry business plan.