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Housing practices vary from region to region. In general, housing:
· Protects poultry from the rain, wind, sun and cold.
· Protects poultry from predators and thieves, especially at night.
· Helps prevent and control diseases.
Farmers change the bedding and clean the poultry housing regularly. They sweep the ground inside and around their homes, especially if they raise free-range poultry. It is important to avoid overcrowding in the poultry house.
Types of housing
Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Thailand
During the day, the chickens are left out to forage. At night, they are covered with a bamboo basket (about 80 cm across and 45 cm high). This basket is big enough for one or two adults and seven to eight chicks. In India, it is kept inside the owner's house at night. In other countries, it is left outside.
Farmers in India place a basket on a beam inside their houses for layers to roost in.
The basket can be used to quarantine sick birds. You car also use it to make sure poultry eat the medicines you put out for them. Mix the medicine with the feed or drinking water and put it under the basket with the birds.
During the night, farmers put free-range birds in a big bamboo basket with a lid. They put the basket under the floor of their stilted homes.
Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Thailand
Philippines
This cage is made of coconut wood or bamboo. One hen and her chicks are kept in the cage for 3-4 weeks after the chicks hatch to protect them from predators and thieves. A clay pot filled with water is put inside. In the wet season, the cage is put under the raised floor of the farmer's house.
For their fighting cocks, farmers in the Philippines build a shelter of two planks of wood. The cock can perch on the bamboo or wooden rod attached to the top of the shelter. A rope around its leg prevents the bird from flying away. A feeder and waterer are placed inside the shelter.
Philippines
Thailand
This bamboo cage can house five adult birds. It is placed on the ground underneath the farmer's house and the whole area under the house is enclosed by bamboo walls. The birds can go in and out through the opening and through the door in the enclosure. Bamboo troughs (made by splitting a large bamboo in half lengthwise) are put inside the cage to hold feed and water
The farmers clean the clean with broom. They put a box on top of the cage for the hens to lay eggs and/brood.
Thailand
Sri Lanka
Two wires are strung between two trees, 3-6 m above the ground. A small poultry shelter for about five birds is placed on the wires. During the day, the birds forage about outside. When a predator approaches, the birds hop up the rope ladder into the shelter. During the night, they go back into the shelter and the ladder is tied up. It is let down again in the morning.
Sri Lanka
Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Philippines, Sri Lanka
This cage is built of wood or bamboo. It is located near the farmer's house (in Sri Lanka, the cage is not fixed but can be moved around). The roof is made of straw, hay, dried grass or dried nipa or other palm leaves. In the Philippines, walls are made by fixing wire mesh or nylon net between bamboo posts.
Bamboo feeders and waterers or tin cans are put inside the house. Rice hulls or rice straw are commonly used for bedding. The floor is made of slatted bamboo so the poultry droppings fall down into a manure pit below. The droppings are cleaned out regularly from both the cage and the pit below. They are used as manure in the fields.
Cambodia, India, Indonesia,
Philippines, Sri Lanka
Cambodia
In Cambodia, poultry are allowed to range freely. They perch on tree branches at night and are protected from the rain by the tree leaves.
India
In India, farmers establish a fence around the poultry house to deter predators from entering the house. They either plant thorny bushes or build a fence of dried, thorny brambles (such as Acacia species). Wire and wood fences are sometimes also used.
Laos
This house is built of wood or bamboo, with a roof of thatched grass. A house measuring 4m × 8m can hold 250300 chickens. On the floor inside the house, farmers put a 10 cm layer of mud. On top of this, they put a 3-5 cm layer of rice hulls. They change the bedding once every two months. Barriers of woven bamboo, 50 cm high, run lengthwise down the house. The hens are let outside to forage during the day.
Laos
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