post your chicken coop pictures here!

[junebuggena]

I know.. but i think it's instinct to think they'll be cold..
At least I need to put solid doors not leave those improvised ones with only chiken wire on them

Just don't close up every little crack. There is a reason why feathers and down are still used in comforters, duvets, and pillows. They are really good at holding in heat. Chickens walk around wearing down filled coats, all year long.

 

[Chicken Egg 17]

We got tired of winter downpours and leaks and having to use tarps and pop-up canopies over our first little coop. When we finally got another coop 5 years later we invested in a patio roof over the coop (same location) to keep out sun or rain! We stay dry now walking out the sliding door a few steps to the egg collection box every day.

We have to get rain though to get wet we have been to get a little rain these past few days the most of it we got was a few sprinkle last night and it wasn't even enough the get the road completely wet

 

[Chicken Egg 17]

The quote went wrong

 

[Intheswamp]

I know.. but i think it's instinct to think they'll be cold..
At least I need to put solid doors not leave those improvised ones with only chiken wire on them

Just don't close up every little crack. There is a reason why feathers and down are still used in comforters, duvets, and pillows. They are really good at holding in heat. Chickens walk around wearing down filled coats, all year long.

Milagro02, As long as those down feathers are not wet or damp they do a superb job as insulation...nice and toasty. Get them wet and they mat down and become more or less useless. Thus the preceding cautions (by several) about providing adequate ventilation. Moisture *will* build up in badly ventilated coops. Drafts and ventilation are two different things. Drafts can be deadly for chickens but lack of ventilation can, too. Ventilation can be looked at as an "air exchange"...an exchange of moist ammonia-laden air for fresh outside air. Many folks provide ventilation that is located above the chickens' heads so that no draft blows upon the birds. Another way is to have a deep coop fairly well sealed on one end (the roost end) and an open end at the opposite side...more of an open air coop that has a large expanse of opening for air exchange but still provides a protective pocket of air at the back of the structure for the birds to get out of the wind and precipitation.


A concern of mine with this setup is your reported depth of snowfall. How will you get to the chickens for regular maintenance...feeding, watering, egg-retrieval, litter management, etc.,? It seems to me that you will need some type of a sloped roof...3-4 feet of snow would reach toward the top of the latticework, wouldn't it?...might take a substantial roof to provide working headroom.

Is the drip line of the roof toward the near wall (not over the steps)? Do you walk down those steps when there's 3-4 feet of snow? Will you walk down them *every* day there is 3-4 feet of snow to check on the chickens? Sylvestor017's ideas of building a roof over the area isn't a bad one.

The challenges that I see... Keeping water from freezing. Creating a draft-free, but ventilated coop. Assuring access to the coop for management.

The coop design is a good use of space *if* the space can be used in your particular environment and weather conditions.

Best wishes,
Ed

 

[Milagro02]

Milagro02, As long as those down feathers are not wet or damp they do a superb job as insulation...nice and toasty. Get them wet and they mat down and become more or less useless. Thus the preceding cautions (by several) about providing adequate ventilation. Moisture *will* build up in badly ventilated coops. Drafts and ventilation are two different things. Drafts can be deadly for chickens but lack of ventilation can, too. Ventilation can be looked at as an "air exchange"...an exchange of moist ammonia-laden air for fresh outside air. Many folks provide ventilation that is located above the chickens' heads so that no draft blows upon the birds. Another way is to have a deep coop fairly well sealed on one end (the roost end) and an open end at the opposite side...more of an open air coop that has a large expanse of opening for air exchange but still provides a protective pocket of air at the back of the structure for the birds to get out of the wind and precipitation.


A concern of mine with this setup is your reported depth of snowfall. How will you get to the chickens for regular maintenance...feeding, watering, egg-retrieval, litter management, etc.,? It seems to me that you will need some type of a sloped roof...3-4 feet of snow would reach toward the top of the latticework, wouldn't it?...might take a substantial roof to provide working headroom.

Is the drip line of the roof toward the near wall (not over the steps)? Do you walk down those steps when there's 3-4 feet of snow? Will you walk down them *every* day there is 3-4 feet of snow to check on the chickens? Sylvestor017's ideas of building a roof over the area isn't a bad one.

The challenges that I see... Keeping water from freezing. Creating a draft-free, but ventilated coop. Assuring access to the coop for management.

The coop design is a good use of space *if* the space can be used in your particular environment and weather conditions.

Best wishes,
Ed

Thanks for the suggestions, I'll take any advice.
I do shovel whatever is pavered and all the steps. Usually that somewhat green space get snow. I will get that bit cleaned as well. I was also considering building something there but my concern is how to build it so it'll be easy for me to access the feeder (little yellow spot on bottom left) and waterer (inside, just above food)

The long black pipe sticking upward has actually an aquarium heater inside.. Don't know yet how well it'll work but if not, I can easily provide fresh water everyday and try to come up with another idea for this.

I really thought this coop was the greatest idea but yes, the draft situation really concerns me.. The roost and the nestbox are in the upper part and I do have some opening above their heads but do 5 or 6inches enough ?

also the bottom as more then 6" of hay. I'm trying that deep litter thing, this seems to be well established as a winterizing method.

 

[bruceha2000]

Quote:
@Intheswamp had some excellent points/thought provokers.

You aren't even 160 km north of me and my chickens are fine with no heat. BUT their coop is a converted horse stall in an ancient barn so there is plenty of air movement without any part of the coop being exposed to the weather. Thus you will have to work harder to make sure there is ventilation without air and snow blowing on the birds on the roost. Snow is a very good insulator, your issue will be in keeping it out of the coop while maintaining adequate open ventilation ports.

Still, unfrozen winter water is a big deal for me and anyone else that lives where it goes much below freezing. I ASSUME that white PVC pipe connected to the black pipe is the water source? I guarantee you, aquarium heater in the vertical pipe or no, those pipes will be solid ice when it gets cold, and cold in this case means likely -5C or even warmer given the distance from the white pipe to the heater. You will have cracked PVC pipe and when it thaws, water running everywhere.

You can search this site for winter water ideas. When it gets down to those -20C, -30C temps no heated water dish is going to keep up. What I did was build a water pipe with nipples (*) built into the underside of the 4' long nest box (maintenance mistake there) insulated by rigid foam. That is connected by clear tubing to a 5 gallon Igloo drink cooler ('self insulated') directly on the other side of the coop wall (outside the coop so easy access to add water). The cooler is in a cheesy plywood box that also has some rigid insulation though not all that well insulated. Inside the cooler is a really small reptile waterfall pump that continuously circulates the water through the tubing from one end of the pipe and back to the cooler from the other end. I have a 250W stock tank heater in the cooler that keeps the nipples from freezing down to about -10C. It is self regulating, meaning it turns itself on and off based on the water temp. Below that I turn on an aquarium heater set to about 24C and that usually keeps the nipples from freezing down to probably -30C.

* I have saddle nipples but people have seemed to find that the horizontal nipples are less likely to freeze. If I ever rework the system, I'll try the horizontal nipples, there is a lot of distance between the pin and the pipe in the saddle nipples which makes it harder to keep warm water in contact with the pins.

Maybe you need a trap door in the porch floor for easy access to your chickens

Good luck!

 

[Intheswamp]

MG, listen to what Bruce is saying as he has to deal with much the same weather as you do. I've never had to contend with the temperatures and snowfall that ya'll deal with....down here a one or two inch snow can get folks a mite confused.

Some thoughts... Without a lot of construction, it might be better for your water to use a basic bucket-type waterer in the winter...two of them and rotate them out each day. You might consider a cookie-tin water heater. Basically a metal cookie box with a incandescent lightbulb burning inside and the chicken waterer sitting on top of it...simple construction...check the forum for examples.

If you could lean some 2x4's up against the house and brace them at ground level against the edge of the sidewalk you could stretch a tarp over the structure. This would basically created a lean-to protecting that side of the coop. You could go further and put an upright post or two on the open triangle and stretch plastic/tarp over that end. The opening against the house could be used for your entrance. That would create sort of a vestibule area to work in. The rest of the latticework coop walls could be covered with plastic sheeting...but not to the degree that you create a sealed environment...a poor job of sealing would be the best job. BUT, insure the roosting area isn't drafty...shielded from the wind but open to the air of the rest of the coop. The vestibule area should allow plenty of air in. Standard recommendation is for one square foot of permanent ventilation per chicken...more is better (as long as it's not drafty). In the summer more ventilation is definitely better!



Best wishes,
Ed

 

[Intheswamp]

Bruce, the idea of a trap-door crossed my mind, too! <grin>

 

[Sylvester017]

We have to get rain though to get wet we have been to get a little rain these past few days the most of it we got was a few sprinkle last night and it wasn't even enough the get the road completely wet

We get only about a week or two of total rain for the year where we live. However, some days it pours and pours and pours until our lawn looks like a swimming pool. Other days there's only enough sprinkle to make the car look streaked and filthy. No, we don't get a lot of rain but on one or two days' worth of storm we are so-o-o-o glad to have the coop under a patio roof. Our chickens love the rain sprinkles but we don't let them out in downpours.

 

[FarmerPhronc]

This appeared on my facebook page with the following caption: ""We're gonna build a henhouse. I build the best henhouses. And we're gonna make the foxes pay for it." I couldn't stop laughing.