Chicken House Small

Our Chicken House Small is made from recycled plastic and is suitable for a maximum of 3 large fowl or 4 bantams. It has a single nest box and one removable wooden perch.The door is designed so that it won't trap dirt in the door slots, and it can be easily opened and closed, either manually or with a Chickenguard auto-opener. Access to inspect the birds can be gained via a full width back door which detaches using quick release pins. When the door is removed, there is no 'lip' on the floor edge. This, and the fact that the roof removes in seconds as well, makes regular cleaning a breeze. Access to the nesting box is quick and easy - just remove two quick release pins and lift off the lid. The entire nest box can be completely removed for cleaning by undoing more quick release pins.This lodge has permanent under-eave ventilatipon, as well as two adjustable circular vents. Even though the sides are made from black plastic, the house remains surprisingly cool, even in strong, direct summer sunlight.Being plastic, the houses require no maintenance. There are few crevices for pests (such as red mite) to hide in, and the house can be thoroughly cleaned very easily - in seconds if you have a pressure washer. And it will dry out very quickly, too. Carry handles are cut into the roof, so it is easy to move. If you need to dismantle your hen house for any reason, perhaps because you are moving house for example, you can easily do so and then rebuild it just as easily. Your hen house will not be damaged by this process.

CAPACITY
Poultry Club of Great Britain Guidelines indicate that this house would be suitable for 3 large fowl or 4 bantams. However, we prefer Soil Association Guidelines which require a little more space per bird, and suggest that it is ideal for up to 2 larger birds or 4 bantams.

LEG SET (Optional Extra)
Legs are available that raise the height of the house by 23cm. The legs come complete with an extended ramp.

WHEEL SET (Optional Extra)
A Wheel Set is available that attaches to the underside of the house and allows it to be easily moved by one person.

Note: Only ONE of the above options can be fitted at a time.

AUTOMATIC OPENER (Optional Extra)
This house has been designed to work with a Chickenguard Automatic Opener. This simply bolts to the front of the house (holes are pre-drilled for you) and the cord attaches to a split ring in the door, replacing the manual draw cord and handle.
We supply the Chickenguard Premium opener, which has the following features:

- Auto Open - Specify Time or Light Level
- Auto Close - Specify Time or Light Level
- Manual Open and Close - Large Buttons
- Simple to set up and reliable to use
- Weatherproof housing
- Runs on 4 x AA batteries with low battery warning
- UK designed and manufactured
- 3 Year warranty

The Chickenguard opener can be bought with this product, or can be bought later (see our Spares/Accessories section). It costs more to buy later, as extra shipping costs will be incurred.

DROPPINGS TRAY (Optional Extra)
A Droppings Tray is offered as an optional extra for this product. In certain atmospheric conditions or if the chickens come into the house after being outside in the rain, condensation can form inside the house. Normally, this evaoprate or drains straight out of the house and is not a problem at all. However, if you use an absorbent bedding material such as newspaper or wood shavings, this will 'wick up' any moisture. This moisture will react with the droppings to give off ammonia, which is not good for the respiratory health of your birds.

The solution is really quite simple, and it is to use a droppings tray to contain the bedding.  Incidentally, we generally find that wood shavings are preferable to newspaper as a bedding/litter material. Droppings trays also make it easier to clean the house. They are easy to to handle and you can simply tip the droppings and shavings into a wheelbarrow.

Our Droppings Traya are made from black recycled plastic (ABS - the same material used for car bumpers). We use 2.5mm thick ABS, which make trays quite rigid and surprisingly tough. The trays are approximately 25mm (one inch) deep, so hold a decent quantity of bedding, such as wood shavings. The surfaces are smooth and they have sloping sides, so they are easy to clean and can be stacked if required. Please note that the trays are not an exact fit, and there will be small gaps between the edges of the trays and the sides of the house.

CONSTRUCTION
The house is made primarily from 9mm thick recycled polyethylene (the roofs and nest box lids are made from 6mm). It is delivered flat-packed and can be quickly assembled by following the comprehensive instructions in our User Guide - you should allow about an hour for this if it is the first time you have assembled one of our houses. Most parts are held together using clips made from our own waste plastic, though quick release clips (linch pins) and some other parts are metal.

DIMENSIONS
Overall Dimensions: 106 (w) x 100 (h) x 116 (d) cm (including ramp, roof overhang and nest boxes)
House Dimensions: 78 (w) x 78 (h) x 76 (d) cm (excluding ramp, including nest boxes)
Internal Floorspace: 59 (w) x 56 (d) cm (excluding nest boxes)
Perches: 1 wooden perch, 59cm usable length
Nest Box: 28 (w) x 23-30 (h) x 30 (d) cm (internal measurement)

COLOURS
This product is available in Green, Blue or Yellow.
This colour applies to the roof and the nest box lid only - all other plastic parts are black.
The door is aluminium (unpainted).

USER GUIDE

Here is the User Guide for this product. It includes full assembly instructions

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