Low Cost Designs for Poultry Shelter - Experiences; Referrals

Following is an extracted text from a consolidated reply to a query posted on the Food and Nutrition Community of Solutions Exchange. The query was posted on 7 December 2009 by Pramod Kumar Sharma, Centre for Environment Education, Ahmedabad seeking information on, the following lines, on various options for low cost designs of shelter:

• What are the various environment friendly options for a poultry shelter design?
• What are the challenges and strategies to adopt while designing shelter for poultry?
• References of organisations that could help us in implementing the designs.

Following is the summary of responses as provided by members of the Food and Nutrition Community of Solutions Exchange

The rearing of chickens is popular in rural areas as a means of providing supplementary food, extra income and employment. Attempts are underway to raise the productivity of family chickens by improving housing, nutrition and health programmes.

A well designed poultry shelter forms an integral part of the sustainable management practices for poultry rearing. Various aspects require consideration while designing a good poultry shed. It should have an area of one square feet per bird to avoid crowding with proper ventilation and scope for easy cleaning. It should provide protection from predators. The design can vary based on the climatic conditions in a particular region to allow prevention from excessive heat, cold or water. For example, poultry sheds built on stilts are common where water logging is a recurrent phenomenon during the rainy season. Affordability is an important criterion and locally available materials can be a good option to consider. Herbs like tulsi or mint are grown around the shelters as feed. The most important aspect for any shelter design is light and heat conservation.

Some of the indirect benefits of rearing poultry include waste disposal, converting energy in left-over grains into valuable protein, utilization of kitchen scraps such as rice, bread and other foodstuffs, and chicken manure as a fertilizer used in gardens and orchards. Poultry manure is rich in macro and micronutrients in addition to beneficial micro-organisms.

Members shared examples of shelter designs and experiences of successful poultry rearing.

In West Bengal, farmers construct the hencoop over the household pond so that droppings fall directly to the pond for fish feed. Dropping is a good source of food for the presence of zooplankton and the phytoplankton that the fish consume.

The South Asia Pro Poor Livestock Policy Programme (SA PPLP) has documented a range of good practices on Small Holder Poultry in the South Asia region. The programme has documented designs of sheds made out of locally available materials like bamboo, wooden planks, paddy straw, rice husk, mud paste, cane baskets, cement rings and woven Rattan structures.

An innovative example of portable and low cost poultry sheds shared from Bangladesh where local carpenters make sheds from bamboo or wood. These sheds are easily transferred from one place to another and provides ample protection from sun, cold and predators.

There are successful initiatives on promoting small scale poultry as an enterprise. In West Bengal, women self help groups (SHGs) have been selected as beneficiaries and trained in poultry economics and management under a government scheme. Adivasi women across 80 villages resurrected the Aseel bird population by building local disease management and feeding strategies, promoting traditional asset sharing to preserve the Aseel biodiversity and lobbying for timely vaccination with government agencies in Andhra Pradesh. An innovative example of Cooperative Poultry Development from Madhya Pradesh, where women poultry producers are learning how to control diseases, , build sheds, maintain account books and negotiate a remunerative price for their Broiler birds has also been documented. Rearing improved birds with characteristics similar to desi birds in rural poultry production in Maharashtra has provided the means for a complementary livelihood to marginal farmers and a source of supplementary income to women backyard poultry rearers.

Members provided references to documentation on shelter designs using different materials from across the world.

A good poultry house protects birds from weather, predators, injury and theft. The housing must provide a stable environment in which the birds feel "comfortable" during the day and at night, protected against potential predators, and have secure nesting boxes. The birds need to be able to grow, sleep and lay eggs in comfort free from stress and disease.

Related Resources
Recommended Documentation

•  Good Practice Notes on Small Holder Poultry

         Available at #

•  Integrated Fly Management in Poultry Houses in Japan - Article

         Available at http://www.icup.org.uk/reports%5CICUP635.pdf (PDF Size: 527 KB)

• Bamboo Poultry House - A Note

        Available at http://www.cd3wd.com/cd3wd_40/vita/poultry/EN/POULTRY.HTM

• Range Poultry Housing - Newsletter

        Available at https://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/summaries/summary.php?pub=233

• Simple Shelters for Native Chickens – A note

        Available at http://www.agnet.org/library.php?func=view&id=20110802092115

Recommended Organizations and Programmes

• The Sherwood Poultry House, Shropshire, United Kingdom

Manufactures smaller poultry houses ideal for a garden or an orchard, house between 2 - 12 birds with the arks and dells available in different sizes (http://www.smithssectionalbuildings.co.uk/go/products/large-poultry-houses/sherwood-poultry-house/)

• Kerala Agricultural University, Thrissur

The Advanced Centre for Poultry Science has several models for backyard poultry - open and caged (http://www.kau.edu/research.htm)

• Development Research Communication and Services Centre, Kolkata

Have encouraged farmers to develop hencoops that serve as shelter for ducks and also feed for the fingerlings (http://www.drcsc.org/casestudies.html)

• South Asia Pro-poor Livestock Policy Programme, New Delhi

An unique livestock development program that aims ‘to ensure that the interests of poor livestock keepers are reflected in national as well as international policies and programs (#)

Recommended Portals and Information Bases

•  Poultry Production: Low Cost Technology, Food and Fertilizer Technology Centre for the Asia and Pacific Region, Taiwan (http://www.agnet.org/library.php?func=view&id=20110802092115)
• Poultry Housing (http://www.smallstock.info/info/genhusb/poultry-house.htm)

Responses in Full
K Laxminarayana Rao, K. L. Rao Associates, Bangalore
Backyard Poultry Houses are common practice in UK and other countries. One can visit the web site of one of the supplier of poultry houses for various size of flock (12 – 100 birds) by following the link below and to get some insight in to how to build such houses locally http://www.smithssectionalbuildings.co.uk/go/products/large-poultry-houses/sherwood-poultry-house/

K V Peter, World Noni Research Foundation, Chennai
The Advanced Centre for Poultry Science, Kerala Agricultural University (http://www.kau.edu/research.htm) has several models for backyard poultry - open and caged. Under open fencing of the house compound with live and dead materials is a must. Under caged, low cost structures are designed for efficient use of inputs and recycling of wastes. Poultry manure is rich in macro and micronutrients in addition to beneficial micro-organisms. There are ready to mantle poultry houses, the most important is light and heat conservation. Herbs like tulasi, mint etc. are grown around for feed purpose.

Anshuman Das, Development Research Communication and Services Centre, Kolkata
Our farmers in the wet areas of West Bengal, construct hencoop on the pond so that droppings fall directly to the pond. The floor of the duck house to be made in such a way that the droppings of the ducks can go directly to the pond and can be used as fish feed. Duck house can be replaced by chicken house also. Dropping is a good source of food for the presence of zooplankton and the phytoplankton in it that the fish consumes.
Usually in West Bengal, we have a small ditch/pond on the backyard of every household. For building duck/hen house, we use low cost local materials like bamboo etc.

Mamta Dhawan and Ruchita Khurana, South Asia Pro Poor Livestock Policy Programme (SA PPLP), New Delhi
Challenges and strategies to adopt while designing shelter for poultry
A well designed shelter forms an integral part of the sustainable management practices adopted for poultry rearing. A good poultry shed should allow an area of one square feet per bird to avoid crowding. The design should be such to allow proper ventilation and easy cleaning. It should provide protection from the predators. The design may also vary based on the climatic conditions in a particular region and prevent excessive heat, cold or water. For example, poultry sheds built on stilts are common in certain parts of West Bengal where water logging is a recurrent phenomenon during the rainy season. Affordability is also an important criterion and locally available materials can be a good option to consider.

Low cost shelters
During our Research study to document the Good Practice SAGP01 titled “Linking Business with Pro-Poor Development - A Backyard Poultry Value Chain Increases Assets, Income and Nutrition”, we came across a variety of sheds made out of locally available materials like bamboo, wooden planks, paddy straw, rice husk, mud paste, etc..At certain places cane baskets, cement rings and woven Rattan structures were also used to house poultry birds.

Some sheds were made on stilts to keep predators away and to also prevent from water logging during the rainy season. While some households housed poultry within their houses, others had built night shelters since the birds were scavenging type and would remain out for most of the day. Among some other examples the households which had space limitations to house a larger flock had built the poultry sheds on the first floor of the house.

Another example of portable and low cost poultry sheds was observed in Bangladesh where local carpenters make sheds out of locally available bamboo or wood. These sheds can be easily transferred from one place to another and provide ample protection from sun, cold and predators. They are well ventilated and also easy to clean and maintain thus minimizing the risk of infection. More information on this is available at:
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