Making an ideal space for laying hens is a great way for making your hens happy. They will love the space and lay eggs happily if you can make the space ideal for them.
The experience of enjoying tasty, delicious and fluffy omelette is awesome! You will enjoy more if the omelette made with fresh eggs from your own chicken house. If you don’t have the space and facilities for raising some laying hens, you have to continue with the eggs coming from the grocery stores.
But it’s always a good idea to raise some laying hens on your backyard and ensure adequate supply of fresh and quality eggs. It will take a bit space of your backyard and little of your time.
But it’s always worth giving up time and space. Your laying hens will continue to produce fresh eggs for you through a little care and management. Raising few hens for quality eggs is simple.
But you have to make an ideal space for laying hens where they can live happily and produce their maximum throughout the year.
Ideal Space for Laying Hens
Here we are describing the steps of making ideal space for laying hens.
Size of the House
For making an ideal space for laying hens, you must have to consider the size of the house. The size of the house depends on the number of hens you are raising or planning to raise.
It has to accommodate all your birds perfectly and should contain all the necessary facilities for them.
Size of the house also depends on the breeds, type of eggs and hens. Determine which breed and how many laying hens you will be housing before building the house.
And fully prepare the coop before bringing the hens home. Generally laying hens require about 2.5 to 3 square feet floor space for each bird.
For an example, if you build a house with 5 feet width and 6 feet long then you can raise a maximum number of 10 hens in the house.
Laying Parlor
Good housing is very important for laying hens and a good house is more than a dry, secure place for your hens to keep them. Divide the chicken coop into many separate areas, just like your own house is.
And make a laying parlor for your hens. As you are raising chickens for the purpose of producing eggs, so laying parlor feature is very important for them. Laying parlor area should take up about 1/3 (one third) of the total space inside the house.
Keep adequate nesting boxes inside the coop. Keep one nesting box for every 3 to five hens. Elevate the nesting boxes 4 to 20 inches above the floor. You can keep nesting boxes through making a platform for placing the boxes above and by nailing them to the wall.
You don’t have to place something for dividing the wall of the coop, just keep the boxes in a calm and secure area in any corner or side of your chicken coop. Thus you can create a perfect laying parlor for your hens.
Living & Roosting Areas
After making the laying parlor, rest of the areas inside the house will be like a large room and it’s the biggest part of your chicken coop. Your coop should provide two third of the total space inside the coop for eating, exercising and roosting.
Arranging the living and roosting space for laying hens depends on you. You can apply your own methods. But one way is to place rails 18 to 24 inches above the ground on the opposite end of the coop from the laying parlor.
You can use 2 inch pieces of wood that are 2 inches by 2 inches. Number of rail depends on the number of hens you are raising. Usually you can allow 6 inches of roosting space for each hen for roosting upon.
Place one roost 14 inches apart from the another if you require more than one roost. Keep food hopper and water fountain anywhere in a suitable place inside the house. But don’t keep those into the middle of the house. Instead keep side, hanging from the top.
Flooring
Concrete, dirt or wooden floor, which one is best for laying hens? It’s a common question. Don’t worry much about this. Laying hen’s house don’t require any specific type of flooring.
Provide your laying hens such flooring that can protect and keep them free from predators and adverse weather. It’s really doesn’t matter whether the floor is dirt or sits on a concrete footings or anything else.
But it must have to be secure enough to prevent all types of predators from getting in to steal eggs, harm and disturb your hens. Chickens like to take dust bath.
If your chickens could talk, they will definitely request you a dirt floor. Hahaha! In case of concrete and wood floor, use wood shavings or sawdust as litter.
Make the floor suitable enough for sweeping up droppings and cleaning. Clean the floor on a regular basis and change the litter after every several days.
While making an ideal space for laying hens, always emphasis the essential facilities for them. And make a such place or environment where your hens can live, grow and produce happily. And such place is called an ideal space for laying hens.
