Design and development

An attempt was made to design and develop a floating poultry house suitable for flood affected area. A model of floating house was built under the present study was the carrying capacity of 740 kg loads with sufficient freeboard of 30% excluding the self weights of the supporting empty steel drums in water. It has been found that the model poultry house having floor area of 35 square ft supported by four empty airtight steel drums that are locally available can be used safely to rear about 60 hens for laying purpose. The house can be arrange with four steps vertical caging of compact system for rearing hens during flood. The value of metacentric height of the constructed house was found to be positive (+1.5 ft) indicating its stability at floating condition. The angular displacement of the house due to wind action was also calculated. The analysis shows that the floating structure would be stable up to the wind speed of about 140 km/hr. The cost- benefit ratio of the house was found to be 1.22 indicating its economic feasibility.