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One of this weekend’s projects was to build a range house for the broiler chickens. 

This year we are only slaughtering for personal use, but we’d like to be able to consider slaughter for on farm sales in the future.  In order to comply with the Temporary Permit to Slaughter Pastured Chickens the chickens have to spend at least half of their life span on “pasture, range, or ground covered with vegetation that is suitable for grazing”.  The average broiler raised for slaughter is around 8 weeks of age so we targeted our broilers to go out to range at 4 weeks of age.

The chicken coop for the layers isn’t well suited for the broilers not to mention the full-grown layers wouldn’t look on it kindly.  We also didn’t really want the broilers free-ranging since they are pretty fat and slow moving.  Our range solution was pretty simplistic, but could be adapated pretty easily for a few layers if you wanted to do so by adding flooring and a nesting box.

Broiler Range House

We simply took two sheets of plywood and cut a 3 foot x 4 foot section off the end of one sheet to form the front.  We trimmed an additional 6 inchs off the 4 foot side so we would have roof overhang on the sides and cut a 1 foot by 1 foot door.  For the remainder of the sheet we cut diagonally across from the 2 foot and 3 foot marks creating the two side panels (3 feet tall in the front and 2 feet tall in the back).  We cut a 2 foot x  4 foot section off the end of the second sheet to form the back and then trimmed an additional 6 inches off of the 4 foot side so we would have roof overhang on the sides.  We used 2×2’s to brace all four corners and for braces for the roof.   We also used the 2×2’s for two roosts.  We trimmed down the door cut out and attached it with cabinent hinges and added a hook and eye latch.  We also drilled air holes under the eaves in the front and back to help regulate the temperature and air flow.  With the remainder of the second sheet forming a 4 foot by 6 foot roof we positioned it such that it formed a little “porch” on the front.  We originally wanted to do that so we could put the food and water under it, but quickly realized that the food would need to actually go inside.

Everyone inside

We put both the layers and broilers in the little “pasture” with the range house while we cleaned out the brooder box and removed the divider before moving the layers back in to the brooder box.  You can still watch the Baby Chick Cam.  They both clearly liked the range house because after a few hours of wandering the yard they all climbed inside for an afternoon nap.

So far the broilers seem to be doing quite well despite the overnight temperatures dropping to 40 degrees the first night.  I stuck a thermometer in one of the ventilation holes and it registered at least 10+ degrees over the air temperature despite it being overcast and drizzly.  We open the door during the day, but when it rains they only come out to enjoy the proteced area under the porch before eventually heading back in to the comfort of their range house.  It seems to be working great though. 

Enjoying the fresh air

After this season we plan to hinge the roof (we screwed it down) so we can access the inside of the range house if needed.  It would also allow us to prop open the roof if the day got particularly warm.  We also plan to try to add wheels and handles/supports to lift the range house so we can easily move it around making it more of an actual chicken tractor.  We’ve already had to move the house once this week because the broiler hens have been spending most of their time inside generating waste due to the weather taking a turn for the worst this week.  You will notice we have a small tarp on top of the range house.  The only reason for that is because the hardware store was out of actual plywood and only had OSB which won’t withstand the rain we get in the spring.  We plan to replace the OSB with actual plywood and paint the entire range house with exterior paint when we do.

I’m very pleased with how it all worked out and you can’t really beat the cost or the fact that it took less than an hour to assemble. 

Parts list:

• Two 4 foot by 8 foot sheets of 1/2 or 3/4″ plywood (don’t recommend OSB even though you’ll see we used a sheet) – ~$20 each
• Three 8 foot long 2″x”‘ boards – $2 each
• Pair of inexpensive cabinent hinges – $4 to $7 total
• One hook and eye latch – $2
• Draw pull door handle (optional)
• Roof hinge (optional)

Our total came in around $60 dollars.  If you were to add a single nesting box (good for up to 3 hens) you’d add another $10-15 dollars.