The Complete Guide to Poultry Housing Systems
When it comes to poultry farming, one thing is very important for success.
If you cannot get this one thing correctly, you should never think of starting a poultry farming business because you are going to fail.
The one important thing you should consider when starting your poultry farm is the type of housing system you are going to use.
This may sound lame to you
But, to prevent you from having a problem with space in the future, you need to plan your poultry farm from the start.
Learn MoreWhen going into poultry farming, you need to consider the capacity of the farm.
Do not neglect this!
The capacity of the farm will determine how much capital you’ll need to set aside.
Read also: Heat stress management in Poultry
Poultry farming is not the type of business that you go into without planning properly.
You cannot assume that the funds you will need for the farm will come sometime later.
Never assume!
Make sure you have all the funds that will sustain your farm until maturity.
That way, even when things become tough for you, you will still have money to sponsor your poultry farm.
This article focuses on the different types of poultry housing systems you can find out there.
You will also get to learn the pros and cons of each of these poultry housing styles.
So, if you are excited to learn more about poultry farming and housing types, let’s dive right in.
Poultry housing simply refers to a building for keeping poultry.
There are different types of poultry houses, which you can group according to the species and age of the poultry.
The type of house you build for your poultry may also depend on the economic use and the system of maintenance.
It also depends on the environmental requirements of the birds during various stages of growth.o
You can have buildings like brooder houses, batteries, and acclimators for raising chicks on your farm.
In the same way, you can build special poultry houses like cages or even on the floor for raising commercial flocks.
You can conveniently raise adult chickens, ducks, turkeys, and geese in commercial poultry housing.
Generally, poultry houses can be a single storey or have up to four- to six-storeys.
This large size of poultry buildings can house layers up to 120,000–150,000 hens or broilers reaching 80,000 birds.
Ideally, every poultry house has water-supply lines, a system for the disposal of droppings, and central-heating and ventilating systems.
In some cases, the equipment for constructing the poultry building is industrially manufactured to ensure optimal mechanization of production processes.
Read also: How to maintain a healthy and hygienic Poultry farm
What are The Different Types of Poultry housing
Like I said earlier, different kinds of poultry housing exist for different purposes.
You can have a separate poultry house for broilers while you have another for layers.
The major reason for separating birds into different poultry housing is because each type of bird has a different management requirement.
Also, separating your birds into different poultry houses helps you identify the category each bird belongs too.
To save you the long story, here are the common types of poultry housing that you can find in a poultry farm.
1. Brooder/chick house
A brooder is a type of poultry house for raising baby poultry, whether they are baby chicks, turkey poults, or goslings.
It usually includes a heat lamp, a source of food and water for the chicks and bedding such as pine shavings.
With the brooder house, you can grow chicks from age 0 to 8 weeks.
2. Grower poultry housing
The grow house is the type of poultry house you use to grow layers poultry from 9 to 18 weeks of age.
This is where you prepare the birds until they reach maturity and are ready to start laying eggs.
The grower poultry house is very important especially for layers poultry farmers.
3. Brooders cum grower chicken housing
This type of poultry housing combines both the feature of the brooder poultry house and that of the grower.
With this type of poultry housing, you can rear birds from 0 to 18 weeks of age straight without a need to transfer the birds.
This housing type saves you the cost of transferring the birds and the cost of building two different structures.
4. Layer poultry house
The layer poultry house is a structure you build for growing layers.
This is where your rear birds which are over 18 weeks of age until they reach 72 weeks of age.
By this time, they must have reached the climax of their egg-laying capacity and have become too old to continue.
Because of the intense care layers need, you need to do some form of proper planning of their housing facilities.
Also, you need to have knowledge of environmental requirements during various stages of their growth.
5. Broiler house
The broiler poultry house is where you grow birds for commercial meat production.
You need to make this building available for rearing your broilers until they get to the age of 6 weeks.
Growing broilers for meat production is good business because broilers gain maturity within a very short period of time.
Read also: Sustainable Poultry Production
6. Breeder house
The breeder poultry house is where you keep both male and female breeders at appropriate sex ratio to produce fertilized eggs.
Many broiler breeder farmers use this housing system to raise female (hens) and male (roosters) birds who are the parents of broiler chickens.
As a result, a breeder poultry farm usually has a hatchery for hatching the eggs from the farm.
7. Environmentally controlled (EC) poultry house
Environmentally controlled poultry houses are the types of poultry housing which involves the manipulation of the environment.
The purpose of the manipulation is to make the environment optimum for the growth of birds.
This type of poultry house provides unmatched convenience and comfort for the birds.
It helps you to increase your bird performance and comfort even in challenging weather conditions.
For more information and updates join our WhatsApp group HERE
Follow us on Twitter Here
-Advertisement-
We do everything possible to supply quality information for farmers day in, day out and we are committed to keep doing this.
Your kind donation will help our continuous research efforts.
