Shelter Design Considerations

Shelter Design is one of the most critical aspects of a pasture-based production system. Your shelters will have a direct impact on all aspects of your production: impact on pasture, labor demands, overall productivity. Careful planning prior to construction, along with continual refinement will help your system be smooth and productive.

There are a multitude of shelter designs currently employed by pastured poultry producers, and the choices can seem daunting. Shelters generally fall into three categories:

 Portable houses with no outside access for poultry;  Portable houses with outside access;  Movable houses with outside access.

Portable shelters are easily moved by human power, and possibly able to be transported between fields. Movable houses structures are usually more substantial, often contain floors for the birds, cannot be transported between fields, and require equipment to move (e.g. a tractor).

Each type of house has its advantages, and disadvantages. As with many aspects of a farming system, there’s a tradeoff between daily labor demands and capital invested. For many, one of the attractive aspects of pastured poultry production is the relatively low need for initial capital investment. As operations grow and refine, labor becomes more precious. The interaction between capital and labor will certainly play a factor in your decisions concerning your shelter design.

Seasonality also is an important consideration. Winter production requires more substantial housing than summer production. Movable houses with floors allow birds to be brooded in the field, avoiding the stress of the transfer on both chicks and people. The role of the poultry in your total farm system is also important. Movable houses that move infrequently have a greater impact on pasture than portable houses do. Their footprint may take a substantial time to recover, and the impact zone around the house can be severe without careful management. Portable houses allow an easy transition from poultry to row crops, and deposit manure directly on the pasture without any bedding to handle.

Over the past 6 seasons, Creative Growers, in western Oregon, has gone from producing about 1,000 chickens in 1997 to over 13,000 in 2002. While our house design has not changed much, how we manage the houses has undergone substantial evolution. Our process illustrates the complexities of choosing a house design.

Creative Growers is located in western Oregon, just west of Eugene. Chickens are produced seasonally, from mid-March through October. Chicken production is integrally linked with the farm’s 10 acres of vegetable production, providing a major source of fertility. Early batches are raised on cover crop that is immediately turned into high-value summer crops; mid-season birds fertilize overwintering crops (kale, garlic, leeks, etc.); late-season batches provide the foundation for the following season’s field crops (potatoes, winter squash, etc.). Due to land constraints, birds are raised on three different fields over the course of a season, requiring house dimensions suitable for hauling on county roads. The houses also had to allow easy access for tall (6ft plus) farmers.

We established our production system with the birds remaining in the houses at all times. Stocking densities were moderate, about 80 birds per house for 8 weeks. Houses were moved daily for 4 weeks, and twice daily for the last 2 weeks (chicks went out at 2 weeks at that time). Predation was non-existent for our first two seasons under this system, and our low production volume of 1,000 birds allowed for the 1.5 hours per day of servicing. During our third season, we began to experience growing predator pressures. Our fields are lined with forested riparian zones, and we began to suffer losses when batches were close to the field edges. The main predator issue ended up being rats. After a second batch came in over 50 birds short, we began trapping and caught several huge rats cruising across the field from the creeks to grab 2-3 week old chicks from the houses.

The solution provided a huge jump in the evolution of our system. Surrounding batches of houses with electric poultry netting completely eliminated predation from both raccoons and rats. It wasn’t until the following season that we realized that there was now no need to limit our birds to the houses. By this time our production was over 2,000 birds, and labor was becoming a limited resource. We realized that allowing the birds to range outside the houses would reduce the concentration of their impact, eliminating the need for daily moves. Providing feeders & waterers both in and out of the houses prompted the birds to spread their activity about, and allowed us to increase the total stocking density without increasing their stress level.

Our current system allows us to raise 13,000 birds with the same daily labor needs as we used to have for 1,000 birds. Batches of birds are raised in groups of houses, surrounded with 2 rolls of netting. Trough feeders and waterers are placed outside each house, with a trough feeder and hanging waterer inside each house. Chicks are transferred to the field at 3 weeks, at a stocking density of around 200 birds per house. The first week in the field, impact is minimal, so the houses are moved just once. After the first week, the houses are moved three times a week, and the stocking density is gradually reduced to 100-125 birds per house. Houses are moved the length of the house, plus the length of the impact zone in front of the houses. The fencing is moved once each week, during a morning feeding. If fencing is moved immediately after feeders are filled, there are no problems with escapees.

We leave our houses open at all times, except during cold/wet periods when chicks are first transferred to the field. During these periods, older birds naturally migrate into the houses at night, and there seem to be few problems with even distribution. One benefit of leaving the houses open is ease of gathering for harvest. We found that on most nights, 2/3 or more of the birds may sleep outside the houses. When we arrive to crate them up, crates are arranged in a corral around the birds, and they are easily crated with minimal stress on the people. With two trained people, we were able to gather 400 birds in 1-1.5 hours. Leaving houses open has worked for us because of our lack of summer precipitation, and low level of arial predation.