Winterizing question..

Post by **Home Grown Poultry** » Wed Dec 14, 2016 10:35 pm

facing north because we have a crazy south wind most of the time here. but they are sheltered from it with the coop behind them. man I keep trying to come up with a way to face them south cuz they need more light. BUT they do perfectly fine where they are! they are even on wire for the most part although i do throw handfuls of hay in every now n then. plywood walls and a solid roof, they dont get wet at all and thrive out there. of course they are not laying and I have them all in one cage to form a covey.

none of my chicken coops are insulated at all either. although I can see the benefit to what OC did. my main coop is about 30x30, and is ohh shoot at least a 100 year old drive shed, to short to get anything bigger than an old ford tractor in. 2 sides north n west have tin siding, the south is barn board with 3/4" spaces, lots of ventilation, too much with that south wind so I covered the bottom 8' with plastic so the light still gets in. the front faces east and is mostly covered with wood, 1/4 of it is covered in chain link fence which I cover in plastic during the winter. the roof over hang on all 4 sides is open about 2 inches so theres lots of ventilation. the chicken door is open all the time except now at night I've been closing it with a dog crate so no coons can get in.

I put a container of snow inside most pens and haul water daily. 2 culigan bottles on a 3 wheel stroller. I use rubber water dishes n pails from princess auto and smack the ice out with a rubber mallot.

lots n lots of bedding inside the coops. all coops use 2x4 or 2x6 for roosts so the birds can cover there feet while they sleep.

I have 2-3 birds roosting in the trees out back, 100% free range n they seem fine. crazy birds could pick half a dozen other places. LOL

hmmm i think thats about it for me.

Post by **Home Grown Poultry** » Wed Dec 14, 2016 11:24 pm

And oh I also feed a free choice mix of whole corn and BOSS (black oil sunflower seeds) in addition to the laymash.

kenya · Post by **kenya** » Thu Dec 15, 2016 9:57 am

I use the deep litter method as well, I try to keep the doors closed to minimise heat loss, still have frozen waterers but I do have a couple heated waterers as well. I put Vaseline on the roosters combs to prevent frost bite in the really cold weather.

Jaye · Post by **Jaye** » Thu Dec 15, 2016 1:51 pm

IMHO, just because chickens *can* tolerate very cold temperatures, doesn't mean that they should have to, and there's nothing wrong with making things a bit more comfortable for them if you can, or want to.
We have a small coop like you (8 x12, 1/3 is coop and 2/3 is storage) and it is mostly insulated, but still has lots of ventilation all along the eaves,plus an air intake vent about 12" up from the ground on the far wall in the storage area.
I don't think insulating a coop is a waste of time, because it helps to keep in the heat generated by the chickens when they are closed in for the night. Also, our coop has windows facing south-east, so there is passive solar heat built up inside the coop on sunny days, and with the insulation I believe it takes longer to lose that heat after the sun goes down and the night time temperatures drop.
This year, thanks to Killerbunny posting about her 400 watt Econo-heat wall panel heaters in her coops last winter, we bought and installed our own in our coop. Last night it was -12 outside, but inside the coop it was -1. I'm happy with that. These wall panel heaters don't have any exposed heating elements, at about 1/3 of the energy that regular electric heaters use. I turn it on after 7:00 pm (off-peak hydro) and off again before I leave for work at around 6:30 am. I think KB has hers on thermocubes, so that they come on at 35-Degrees F/Off at 45-Degrees F.
https://www.homedepot.ca/en/home/p.econ ... 11100.html
https://www.lowes.ca/portable-heaters/e ... nel-heater

Here's a good article on how to warm your chickens without burning your coop down:
http://www.fromscratchmag.com/warm-chic ... ning-coop/

Happy · Post by **Happy** » Thu Dec 15, 2016 2:05 pm

Wow @Jaye I haven't seen that before! Thanks for posting it and I guess thanks kb for originally posting. What material is on the wall that you have it mounted to?

KimChick · Post by **KimChick** » Thu Dec 15, 2016 2:18 pm

This is our first winter, too! Husband is presently working on getting electricity out to the barn. With that, we can install a heated poultry water station - the plastic 3 gallon kind. He has already put up a wind break against one of the fences and thick straw on the ground so they can hunker down. It's pretty nasty out there right now.

baronrenfrew · Post by **baronrenfrew** » Thu Dec 15, 2016 2:29 pm

Here's an idea http://www.motherearthnews.com/renewabl ... az06djzraw

baronrenfrew · Post by **baronrenfrew** » Thu Dec 15, 2016 2:34 pm

Plastic 3 gallon: that will freeze and break. No heating cable will stop it as the thermal mass will freeze somewhere. Or sooner or later the heating cable will fail. I tried galvanised heated mounts for the waterer to sit on...piece of junk.

I like Al's idea: from Princess Auto rubber pots and hammer out the frozen ice with a rubber mallet.

Right now I use old cooking pots and hit them on the big stones in the stone wall of the barn.

Other option is a heated dog bowl.

Post by **Home Grown Poultry** » Thu Dec 15, 2016 4:03 pm

I want to make some sort of solar heater to heat my garage. that looks really awesome! I burned an entire small propane tank just today over a few hours. what I want to do is build a greenhouse on the south side, use it to start plants, and possibly house my quail over winter. I also figured I could heat the shop up somewhat with it. hmmm if I put one of those solar heat collectors inside the green house it should work even better. hmmmm

yup the princess auto rubber dishes are a fraction of the cost of say tsc and I dont care that they are not the same or of lower quality for one simple reason. they will take them back at anytime for any reason. did I smack a hole in one once with a regular hammer? yup and they replaced it no questions asked, I really didnt think they would and wasnt expecting them to. it was my fault but hey guess what... I bought another 6 rubber pails that very same day. I love there wherehouse style of store and the fact that if they sold it, they will stand behind it. Iv had most of my rubber dishes for the last 4 years and only had a problem with a couple, one I broke, one leaked the day I bought it and both were replaced.

Happy · Post by **Happy** » Thu Dec 15, 2016 5:12 pm

A solar wall would be awesome! Or a greenhouse...I've looked at a few sites with the coop attached to the greenhouse. Ok @thegawd get to work and post pics please lol!
I actually have a plastic 3 gallon electric waterer that is starting it's 5th winter now. There's been maybe 3-4 days that I've had to bust a skim of ice but it's been incredibly reliable. It sits on garden stones to raise it up. Maybe I've been lucky but I'd certainly buy another to replace it.