Layer Poultry Housing Guide For Beginners

A good layer poultry housing system keeps the bird safe, healthy and productive. Generally the poultry birds which are popular and raised for egg production are simply known as layer poultry.

They become very highly egg productive. But to get better egg production from them, they need proper care and management.

Food and housing are two main factor of successful poultry farming business. Housing is also very important for raising layer poultry commercially and in small scale.

Layer Poultry Housing System

A good poultry house protects the poultry birds from adverse weather condition, injury and predators. Poultry birds require a draft free and dry house. Proper ventilation system and temperature management is needed. And for proper ventilation, you can keep big sized windows or doors, which can be opened when necessary.

You can raise layer poultry in both deep litter and cage system. Deep litter poultry farming system is usually used for free range or organic poultry farming systems. But cage system is suitable for commercial production purpose. In cage system, poultry producers used to keep thousands of birds under a single shed.

If you want to raise your birds in cage system, then build a large house compared to the length, wide and height of broiler house. Use dropped ceiling system. This will improve ventilation and reduce heating costs. Layer house needs to be slightly higher than the broiler house.

Dropped ceilings also allow the installation of ceiling insulation to reduce heat gain during hot weather/seasons and heat loss during cold climates/weather.

Adequate temperature management system is also a very important factor for layer poultry housing. Poultry birds are very sensitive to temperature. Use proper cooling and heating system inside the house. Be very careful about temperature management while raising layer chicks. Because your chicks may die due to sudden temperature change. Good ventilation system delivers fresh air inside the house, and removes excess heat, moisture and undesirable gases from the house.

For making a proper ventilation system, you will require fans, evaporative cooling system, air inlets and controller. Ventilation systems are of two types. Cold weather ventilation system and hot weather ventilation system. For cold weather ventilation system, you will need fans, air inlets etc. to keep your birds and the layer poultry housing environment hot. And for hot weather ventilation system, you can use tunnel ventilation system.

Lighting play a very important role for the layer poultry birds. They require a certain lighting period for laying maximum number of eggs. Usually layer poultry birds require about 16 hours of lighting and 8 hours of darkness period for maximum egg production. Ensure presence of 16 hours of lighting period depending on your location and weather condition.

Before building house for layer poultry farming business, try to keep in mind the following aspect.

1. Build the poultry house in a quit and calm place.
2. It should be located in well drained areas, which will help to prevent prolonged dampness, water saturation of the floor of house and outside runs.
3. It will be better, if the front side, windows and outside runs faced to south. This method allows the sun to warm and dry the house and soil.
4. Provide sufficient space required per bird which helps to minimize the humidity level in the house.
5. Make a fence around the poultry house to prevent the bird from predators.