Country chicken housing: shelter, space and litter

Country chickens need a safe, dry place to sleep, lay and grow: a simple night shelter for a backyard flock, or a low-walled shed with a deep litter floor for a bigger one. What matters most costs little: a raised floor, wire mesh with no gaps, enough room per bird and regular cleaning.

Night shelter or shed?

TANUVAS describes three ways of keeping country chickens on the ground (TANUVAS):

System	Flock size	Housing
Backyard	10–20 birds	Birds forage by day and sleep in a night shelter
Semi-intensive	50–100 birds	Out in a coconut grove or garden by day, in a shed at night
Deep litter	Larger flocks	Birds live in the shed on litter and are fully fed there

• In the backyard, birds roost in trees or in a coop; a coop holds up to about 20 country chickens (TANUVAS).
• ICAR-DPR asks for a night shelter with good airflow, some light and protection from predators (ICAR-DPR). There is no official size per bird: make it big enough for the whole flock to roost without crowding, and easy to clean.

Space per bird

On a deep litter floor, give each bird at least:

Bird	Floor space
Meat birds, until sale	About 1 sq ft (TANUVAS)
Laying hens	About 2 sq ft (TNAU)
Breeding hens with their cocks	2–2.5 sq ft (TANUVAS)

Chicks need much less at first: see space for chicks. For birds that range outside by day, TNAU allows about 250 adult birds per hectare on free range and about 750 in semi-intensive runs (TNAU) — roughly 100 and 300 per acre.

Build a simple shed

• Site: high ground where rainwater never stands, with clean water, electricity and a road, away from where people come and go (TANUVAS).
• Direction: the length of the shed east to west, so the sun does not shine straight in (TNAU).
• Floor: raised 1–2 ft above the ground to keep out damp and rainwater, and cemented so the litter can be cleared after every batch (TANUVAS).
• Walls: a low wall of about 1 ft, with wire mesh above it and no gaps anywhere (TANUVAS).
• Size: not wider than 20–25 ft, so air flows across, and about 12–15 ft high at the centre; the length depends on your flock (TANUVAS, TNAU).
• Roof: tiles or thatch (TNAU), with an overhang of about 3 ft (0.9 m) against rain (TNAU).
• Airflow: keep the mesh free of cobwebs and dust; TNAU says this alone can raise airflow by 50% (TNAU).

Deep litter floor

• Use paddy husk, groundnut shells or coir pith — whatever is cheap locally, soaks up water and dries fast (TANUVAS, TNAU).
• Spread 8–10 cm on the cement floor (TANUVAS); TNAU lets it build up, deeper in winter and thinner in summer (TNAU).
• Squeeze test: good litter falls apart when you open your hand; wet litter stays in a ball; very dry litter makes dust (TNAU).
• Rake it twice a week in cold or rainy weather and once a week in hot weather (TNAU). Replace wet or caked patches, especially near drinkers, with fresh, dry litter.
• Used litter is good manure: take it away from the shed, then sun-dry or compost it (TNAU). See How to sell country chickens: age, price and safe payment.

Perches and nest boxes

• Perches: wooden poles about 3–5 ft above the floor (TNAU). There is no official length per bird: give enough for every bird to sit at night without crowding.
• Wood and bamboo hide lice and mites, so clean perches and shelters regularly (ICAR-DPR).
• Nests: about one for every 5 hens (TANUVAS), in place 2 weeks before the hens start to lay (TNAU).
• Bamboo baskets or wide-mouthed pots filled with sand or husk work well; without them, hens lay on the litter and eggs break or get dirty (TANUVAS). Wooden boxes: about 30 × 30 × 40 cm (TNAU).
• Country hens like to lay high up, so hang baskets a little high (TANUVAS), in a quiet, dark corner.
• Line the nests with straw or sawdust so hens do not hide eggs in bushes, and collect eggs often: cracked eggs and eggs left lying teach hens to eat eggs (TNAU).

Feeders and drinkers

• Give 1 feeder and 1 drinker for every 50 chicks (TNAU), and one 25 kg tube feeder for every 50 growing birds (TNAU).
• Hang feeders with the lip level with the birds' backs (TNAU), and fill them only three-quarters (TNAU).
• Wash feeders and drinkers every day (TANUVAS).
• In summer, add 20–30% more drinkers so all birds can drink at once (TNAU).
• Find feeders and drinkers in farmers' ads, and see how much water birds drink.

Keep predators out

Snakes, mongooses, cats, rats, bandicoots and birds of prey such as kites all take chickens. TANUVAS says backyard chicks are lost more to snakes and birds of prey than to disease (TANUVAS).

• Close every gap in the mesh: snakes, mongooses and cats get in through small holes (TANUVAS).
• Extend the cement floor about 1.5 ft outside the walls to stop rats and snakes (TNAU).
• Leave a 1 ft gap between the door ramp and the shed, so rats and bandicoots cannot climb in (TANUVAS).
• Keep a 3 m strip round the shed clear of plants (TNAU), and store feed where rats cannot reach it (TANUVAS).
• Fence the foraging area and put wire mesh over open runs; keep a hen and her chicks in a coop for about a month, until the chicks' feathers grow (TANUVAS).
• Shut the night shelter every evening.

Heat, rain and cold

• Hens are comfortable up to about 29 °C; above about 32 °C they eat less and lay fewer eggs, and above about 38 °C many can die (TNAU).
• In summer, give shade trees, cool water all day and wet gunny bags hung on the sides (TNAU); whitewash a sheet roof and spread coconut or palm leaves on it (TNAU).
• Before the rains, fix leaks and make sure no water stands around the shed (TNAU).
• On cold nights, hang gunny-bag curtains on the sides, but not round the clock: stale air brings disease (TNAU).

Clean between batches

Keep one age group per shed, and clear it out completely between batches (TNAU):

1. Heap the old litter and manure for about a week to compost, then take it away (TANUVAS).
2. Burn off cobwebs, then sweep and scrub the walls and floor.
3. Lime-wash the walls, the floor and the underside of the roof (TANUVAS).
4. Wash feeders and drinkers with washing soda and dry them in the sun (TANUVAS).
5. Pass a flame over the wire mesh and metal frames to kill mites and their eggs (TNAU).
6. Leave the shed empty for at least 2 weeks (TANUVAS, TNAU).

Clean the night shelter regularly too (ICAR-DPR), and keep sick and newly bought birds apart: see Country chicken health: vaccination schedule and deworming.

Low-cost options

• A backyard flock needs only a night shelter: the birds find much of their own food, so costs stay low (TANUVAS).
• Build with local materials: wood or bamboo, as in ICAR-DPR's night shelters (ICAR-DPR), and a roof of coconut leaves or arecanut bark (UAS Bangalore).
• In 2025-26, Tamil Nadu's native chicken scheme paid 50% of the cost of a 250-bird unit, including the shed, feeders, drinkers and 4 months' feed (TN Animal Husbandry). Check this year's scheme; no one can promise you a subsidy.

Common mistakes

• Building on low ground where rainwater stands.
• Gaps in the mesh or under the door, where snakes, rats and mongooses get in.
• Letting litter stay wet and caked around the drinkers.
• Keeping more birds than the floor space allows.
• Putting new chicks into a shed that was not cleaned and rested.

Frequently asked questions

How much space does one country chicken need?

On a deep litter floor, about 1 sq ft per meat bird and 2 sq ft per laying hen; hens in a breeding flock need 2–2.5 sq ft each.

Do backyard chickens need a shelter?

Yes. At night, snakes, mongooses, cats and rats take birds left outside, so shut them in every evening.

How long should the shed stay empty between batches?

At least 2 weeks after cleaning and lime-washing, as TANUVAS and TNAU advise.

Next

Get the brooder ready before the chicks arrive: Brooding country chicks: heat, feed, first 6 weeks. Then plan the feed with Country chicken feed: evening grain, home mix, water and vaccinations with Country chicken health: vaccination schedule and deworming, and work out your costs with Country chicken farming costs and income: a worked example. When you are ready to buy, read Buying country chicks safely: hatcheries, health and fraud and see chickens for sale near you.