Bev's Poultry
B Nelson. Poultry Breeder. Cheshire. Omlet Eglu Stockist. Specialising in Lemon Millefleur Sablepoot Bantams, Croad Langshan, Polands, Miniature Bearded Silkies, Araucana, Cream Legbars. Chicken Keeping Courses. Chicken Boarding. Chickens for Sale
Housing & Shelter
Poultry can be kept in all sorts of houses, from rabbit hutches to sheds. It does not need to be an expensive tailor made house although they are very nice! Generally, with poultry houses you get what you pay for.
They must be waterproof and windproof and offer plenty of space for the size of bird you are keeping. As a general rule I would calculate the square footage of the shed / house and divide by 1.5 and that is how many good sized hybrids you could keep.
i.e. 3ftx4 ft house = 12 sqft = 8 hens.
Obviously little bantams need less space and larger birds may need more.
Never rely on what that manufacturers claim as often this is often misleading. Buy bigger than you think you may need as you will always end up getting more hens as time goes on!
I sell a variety of houses that I can confidently recommend for hobby keepers. All of these houses have been tried and tested by us. For me my main priority is ease of cleaning and also creating a healthy environment for my birds. My wooden poultry houses have sides that come off completely making cleaning out a breeze! Lets face it none of us like to clean out the houses so we need to make it as easy as possible on ourselves.