Your poultry housing system should provide clean water, food and air to the fowl. It should also be safe from predators and provide shelter from the elements like the wind, sun, rain, cold and heat.

The poultry housing system should provide for the needs of the young and mature birds. The birds are active and need to move, sleep, grow and lay eggs in comfort for optimum production.

The poultry housing facility should be hygienic, stress free and with an adequate ventilation and have a dust bath facility for the birds to remain pest free. Ventilation is very important as it removes the excess ammonia, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide from the poultry housing system.

Excess ammonia and carbon dioxide interfere with the reproduction or the egg laying process of the fowl. Temperatures should be well controlled as heat stress causes the fowl to become irritable and harm each other with their talons.

This irritability is due to dementia in the brain due to raised body temperatures as the fowl do not have sweat glands like humans for temperature regulation. They cool themselves by opening their beaks and breathing. The poultry housing facility should at temperatures less than 40 degree centigrade and be slightly humid.

In the temperate zone the poultry facilities are built to face the rising sun to catch the heat while the tropics sees them built in an east-west orientation for minimum exposure to the sun. If the poultry housing facility does not confine they could provide cover from the heat of the sun by growing foliage or building sheds.