A poultry house must have an east-west orientation. It should also have ventilation windows placed lower than those for humans, facing south and north.
No windows should be on the sides facing east or west. This is intended to prevent sun rays from getting directly into the chicken house. The recommended width should not be more than 25ft or 8m.
The length can, however, be as long as you may wish. The wall should be 6ft in height, with 2ft covered with either bricks or wood, while 4ft must be covered with wire mesh to allow in enough air.
Direct sun rays lead to an increase in temperature inside the house, which leads to failure of eggs to hatch. In addition, because of the temperature, chicken eat less feed, hence reducing their productivity.
Moreover, some of the chicken will scramble for the sun rays, causing a stampede and deaths in the house. There are two methods of determining the orientation of a chicken house.
One is to use a campus and the other is to use a long piece of wood.
The wood should be around 14ft long. Go to the place where the house will be located and dig a one-foot-deep hole. Put the wood in the hole and then cover it with soil.
Then, observe the shadow of the piece of wood between 4:00pm and 6:00pm and clearly mark the path of the shadow. The shadow should be pointing in the east.
Come back in the morning between 7:00am and 10:00am and mark the shadow again. Now it should be pointing in the west.
