What is the best roofing material for hot weather?

[Chocobo]

I am about to start building my chicken tractor and am concerned about the heat here in Texas.
I understand there needs to be plenty of ventilation and have found great resources here on that but what would be the best roofing material?
Wood painted white?
Corrugated aluminum?
Corrugated aluminum by itself or over wood?
Something else entirely?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[duckinnut]

I think the aluminum will be too hot,the heat will transfer through it. Lowes sells corragated plastic roofing similar to aluminum. the heat wont transfer thru like it will with metal. Here in the NE i had to use plywood with asphalt shingles and I insulated the roof joists for winter but it also keeps out the heat

 

[crazyhen]

If you use corragated material of any kind be sure to put plywood underneath and insulate it too. The plywood holds the roofing in place and prevents sagging and leaks, the insulation holds out the heat and cold. This is from experience here at my place. Good luck with your coop. Gloria Jean

 

[Love my Critters!]

I have 2 horse loafing sheds and one has wood siding and the others have corrugated aluminum tin siding. I live where it is a 110 with <5% humidity and the sun is HOT! The aluminum reflects the sun and heat. Those sheds are by far cooler than the one with wood siding.

 

[elmo]

I'm in Texas, too. You will need to park your coop in the deepest, darkest shade of your yard all summer. That's just a given. If you don't have natural shade, you'll need to create some with shade cloth above the roof of your coop. Since it's a tractor you're building, weight is a concern, so I'd use white polycarb corrugated panels. In the sun, they do heat up and radiate heat terribly (it gets over 120 degrees inside a well ventilated coop of mine with this kind of roof because it gets afternoon sun).

Even with your tractor in the shade, you'll need to keep an eye out for heat stroke. Ice the water, use misters, put out pans of water for the chickens to stand in, etc. Summer here is hard on chickens.

 

[7L Farm]

You said the best. Sprayed on polyurethane. I had this stuff sprayed on my barnominium & it keeps it 10 degrees cooler but its real expensive.

 

[Chick Charm]

Good question. Any material that is beneath shade of some sort will be cooler. So if your coop is under ''shade cloth'', ''plywood'' a secondary roof of just about any material will be cooler. We have extreme heat here. It's not uncommon to be above 120 degrees in the hottest part of summer. S0 I reccommend a secondary roofing or shade structure that allows for air flow betweeen to eliminate the direct sunshine.

 

[2DogsCoop]

We put a metal roof on our coop then insulated the roof. The insulation has really cut done on the heat transfer from the roof to inside the coop.

 

[bryan99705]

The roof can be any material you want, just set it a few inches above the coop leaving a space for the circulation to move the roof's radiant heat away

 

[Chicken.Lytle]

You might try a mylar radiant barrier under the roof panel. If the size is right, you could use an old car sunshade (same material, looks like silvery bubble wrap).