Cold weather coop design- help!

[patandchickens]

Quote:
Um, you SURE you want to have banties if it's getting down to -40 C ? That would seem like an undesirable complication. What about getting three NORMAL-sized chickens of a COLD-HARDY breed (e.g. chantecler, buckeye, wyandotte), so you do not HAVE to worry about coop temperature as much? It really makes chicken keeping a lot easier and more pleasant and stress-free, and makes the chickens happier, if you select chickesn appropriate to your climate.

Even for bantams, though, I still think 4x8 is awfully tight to be locked in for much of the winter...

Pat

 

[neVar]

4x8 gives them 10 sq feet /chicken inside the coop (3 chickens is my max according to town bylaws)

i can probably go 4x10 etc we'll see what the space is like. Don't want to go TOO big because then you get the same in it's hard to keep the temps up.

Silkies and a few other bantams have been recommended to me by other chicken keepers (alberta folks) who get the same weather as us. theirs keep laying right through winter and do very well.

Teach- great coop!

 

[anotheregglady]

Hi, we live in the interior of Alaska and have kept chickens for about 6 years. Both banties and larger cold hardy breeds. We converted our kids old wood play house using left over building supplies from our house. We did insulate but it is not tight. We use a 250wt heat lamp that hangs from the ceiling and there is also an incandescent light hanging so they will continue to lay through out the winter. In the winter we put the water up on a shelf and have a light rigged to keep the water from freezing. The roost are also up high. The pellet feeder is on the floor. When it is 0 degrees or colder I shut them in and sometimes they are in for weeks. They seem to do fine even when the temps in the coop are -20F. We use the deep litter method in the winter. Our coop tends to be on the average 20degrees warmer inside than outside when we are having a cold snap. With the temps 0 or warmer they are free to go out in the pen.I have 1/2 of the pen covered with a tarp in the winter and they are able to scratch and bathe and run around.
The biggest problem in the winter I find is the eggs will freeze and crack.
Our coop is on the ground and our neighbors have theirs up and the chickens have access to the space underneath.
We enjoy having the chickens, the eggs they lay, the manure and bedding for our compost. Good luck and enjoy.