Help: Insulating a chicken coop for winter

[obleo]

We got our first chickens this year, no eggs yet, but soon, or else in the pot they go!:smile:

Here's my question: We have 2 open sides, 6 by 10, with chicken wire, the back side is corregated steel. I know winter is a little way off but I started thinking about how to insulate the place so the don't freeze their tail feathers off. We have an oil heater that we're going to put in there, and I'd like to keep at least some of the heat in there.

They peck at everything so I can't use foam panels and roll insulation is out too...anybody got any ideas how to insulate this? One of the walls is almost up against an adobe wall and the other is totally open.

Any advice or expertise would be greatly appreciated.

[LC]

Without knowing, in general terms, where you are located it is hard to give advice. Your gardening zone would help.

Chickens don't need a warm place. They DO need adequate ventilation. If you can smell ammonia then the chickens are in danger of getting pneumonia from it and need better ventilation.

They need warm, or at least liquid, water. It is good if the housing is secure enough that their combs don't freeze at night. A light to keep them laying is good. Other than that they don't really need tight well insulated housing unless you live in the far north.

If you are far north then I'm sure someone with experience there will be along in a little while to give better advice on that.

Good luck.
LC

[obleo]

I'm in northern NM, in the mountains. It sometimes gets 20 below at night. But normally sun in the day. But the wind does blow when it snows, alot, and that wind can sure drop the temp a bit much and I'd like to keep the inside of the coop as dry as possible also.

I'm thinking 6 mil plastic stapled to the inside of the coop, then a layer of insulation on the other side of the chicken wire with plastic stapled over that. It would help cut down on the wind tremendously, still give them daylight and help hold the heat in.

Any opinions? Also, I have a couple of huge bags of cedar shavings, is that okay to use in the bedding for them?

And thanks, I'd forgotten about the water freezing...have to get a heater for the water....dang...

Thanks again

[Belle]

This will probably earn me some rotten tomatoes thrown at me, but styrofoam sheets would work well and won't hurt the chickens. They can't digest it, so it goes right through them.

[maduro cigar]

We got our first chickens this year, no eggs yet, but soon, or else in the pot they go!:smile:

Here's my question: We have 2 open sides, 6 by 10, with chicken wire, the back side is corregated steel. I know winter is a little way off but I started thinking about how to insulate the place so the don't freeze their tail feathers off. We have an oil heater that we're going to put in there, and I'd like to keep at least some of the heat in there.

They peck at everything so I can't use foam panels and roll insulation is out too...anybody got any ideas how to insulate this? One of the walls is almost up against an adobe wall and the other is totally open.

Any advice or expertise would be greatly appreciated.

Just put an asbestos suit on the chicken. Sorry obleo, I couldn't resist it. LOL

[obleo]

Just put an asbestos suit on the chicken. Sorry obleo, I couldn't resist it. LOL

Don't apologize......That is TOOOO good! So when dh comes home and asks if I got any responses, I'm sending him to YOUR place! Be prepared....his response to me at first was almost the same thing, but he told me to start knitting them little sweaters and booties and little hats with tassles on the top...I ALMOST slugged him (not really), but we had a good laugh.

Humor is good...thanks, I needed another one for the day!

[Bear]

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[Hardpan]

I used roll insulation in the walls, covered with chip board, and Styrofoam on the ceiling. On one end the wall is put in with hinges so the whole end can be opened for cleaning, that "wall-door" has Styrofoam in it. It cost more than I wanted but it has been good for ten years except when a raccoon got up in the ceiling and broke the Styrofoam.

You're probably going to have put up four walls though with some sort of vent up high that can be opened or closed to provide the right ventilation. A light on a timer that comes on in the morning to give them 14 hours of light seems to get you more eggs in the winter.

[obleo]

Gosh guys and gals...thanks for the info...got a little time, Lord willing and the creek don't rise, to get what I need....come to think of it, I guess I better get the stuff now!
Great site Bear, never would have thought of that...I can now visualize what I need to do and get.

And thanks Hardpan, didn't know I needed light in the winter...duh!

Great board, huh?

[hisbluelady]

We have black plastic over the wire/wood sides of our coop, and it seems to work well. There is a gap at the top. But when dh took the plastic off last summer and the street light shone into the coop all night, they stopped laying. Do they need it dark at some time during the night?

I love the title to this thread...it shows up as "Help: Insulating a chicken". Can't you just picture those hens running around with little pink fiberglass coats? They wouldn't need a coop I guess! ;)

[obleo]

"Help: Insulating a chicken". Can't you just picture those hens running around with little pink fiberglass coats?

That's tooo funny!

[Island Girl]

I've been told in a most forceful way that chickens are not to have cedar chips. The oils/resins in the cedar irritate the chicken's feet, so only wood chips/shavings from fir trees are what I now use. I use the white chips used for hampster bedding, etc.

Good luck! Make sure it is raccoon proof. The raccoons just seem to never give up!

[screamedat2much]

We have 300+ free range laying hens that provide us with eggs for our restaurant and retail sale. Our winter procedure is simple, provide them with a few heated watering trays, and about 3 incandescent bulbs per house set on timers for both warmth, and to insure adequate light (13+ hours) during the winter months. The houses are simple, ranging from a metal Sears 10X12 shed, to a wooden shed ...all with sawdust on the floors. Summer (New Hampshire) ventilation is provided by a 12 inch "whirlybird" vent mounted on the roof of each shed, with a tiny electric fan beneath driving it with air.....works just like air conditioning. The girls enjoy going outside on winter days as well as summer, just provide them with some grit to peck at, and remember, if you want lots of eggs....give them LOTS of food.......it helps to find your local day old store for bread, ANY kind of veggies or fruits, as well as some grain and some laying mash. After awhile, as strange as it sounds, you'll know what they want/need just by the sounds they make......my wife thought I was whacked by telling her that, but she has since become familiar with the sounds and squawks. We've gone somewhat against the grain of replacing birds with age, as we have a 6 year old Leghorn that produces an egg a day......all of our birds have free access to our gardens, and they keep the place relatively bug-free, with only an occasional fruit/veggie loss from pecking. So, the true answer to your question is....give them a way to stay out of the cold wind, provide them with the correct lighting....a little heat from a simple bulb....and PLENTY of food and water...they need alot of energy to stay warm and create huge eggs frequently from a relatively small body.

[obleo]

thanks sa2m, that's pretty simple.

And Island girl, thanks for the note on cedar chips. It's the stuff you get from wally world for hamster cages. Bought tons of it originally for making my own firestarters with wax and just have a ton of it left. Oh well, backing to the drawing board....great advice, y'all, thanks!

[koolman68]

We are in Michigan and use the modular sheds by a company called royal. They are hollow in the walls and we just use a light and water heater underneath and have never lost a chicken. While egg laying decreases in winter, we still get eggs.

[Stanb999]

We are in NEPA on a mountain top. The ladies get no heat but as noted plenty of ventilation. But you don't want a draft. We made the house 7' tall with the highest roost 3' up. It helps them to be off the frozen ground so provide a roost. The other thing is we put a large window on the south side of the house to give light and warmth. This works good even when the high temps. are 15 or so. For water we use a large heated dog bowl. they are cheap and relatively indestructible at least to chickens.

edited to add. You can do the deep mulch bedding method in the winter. Basically you just add hay to the top. The stuff on the bottom rots slowly and gives off heat all winter. But it's a nasty mess come thaw. But it works some.

[Freeholder]

As long as your chickens have a dry place out of the wind, and, as already noted, plenty of food and liquid water (you don't have to buy a heater, you can rotate two or three of the black rubber pans -- take one in to thaw each day, or just break the ice out), they don't need insulation OR a heater! Even in your climate. I had chickens in a small barn in the Interior of Alaska. They survived seventy below; the barn was insulated but not tight, and it was just as cold in there as outside, only less drafty. We did lose some combs and some toes, but we also got eggs all winter (frozen, if we didn't get to them fast enough!). We probably would have gotten more eggs with light and a warmer barn, but without electricity we did the best we could.

My main suggestion for keeping chickens where the winters get cold is to get birds with small or no combs (pea combs are best), large bodies (more mass holds heat better), and fluffy feathers (better insulation).

Kathleen

[morningstar]

We keep our hens in an old cow shed that is pretty drafty, so in the winter, we pile bales of straw on the outside of the building for insulation. We've found a church that buys about 2doz bales for their fall festival, and no one ever wants the straw when they're done so we get them for free!

In the spring, I use the straw as mulch on my garden.

Also, during snow, chickens don't always like to walk on snow (mine don't, at least) so out in their yard, I'll break one of those bales over the snow, and then load it up with scratch grains.

[obleo]

Wow guys and gals...thanks a heap! I thought it was going to be like setting up the Hilton for them to stay warm in the winter....they're tougher than I thought.
This has helped me tremendously...here it is the first week of Aug and I was thinking I had to get started NOW to make it cozy but I guess I can take the rest of the month off!

Thanks again

[zoose]

We're in the Nevada Mojave desert and temperatures vary for 110 in the summer to the teens in the morning in winter.

Our coop is a pole barn that I put a floor in. It has electricity so I can run a fan in the summer or a light bulb in the winter. The water is usually frozen in the mornings so we'll just bring out a fresh waterer. We've got almost 30 hens ( hard to count when they are running around) and the on cold nights they are not in the roosts, they are crammed into the nest boxes.

In the summer heat I put a mister out once but it scared them, they wouldn't go near the thing. We put out a couple rubber livestock feeding bowls and I fill them with a couple gallons of water. They are only a few inches deep and about 18" in diameter.

The hens stand in them and cool out.

Getting back to the winter we have a lot of wind here so we'll use straw bales to make wind breaks on the north side of the coop. They look silly stuck to the fence like Wal Mart bags when it really gets windy.

They are chickens (little velociraptors) and they will eat anything. They love leftover macaroni, bread that's been in the freezer too long and scrambled eggs.

[momof23goats]

As long as your chickens have a dry place out of the wind, and, as already noted, plenty of food and liquid water (you don't have to buy a heater, you can rotate two or three of the black rubber pans -- take one in to thaw each day, or just break the ice out), they don't need insulation OR a heater! Even in your climate. I had chickens in a small barn in the Interior of Alaska. They survived seventy below; the barn was insulated but not tight, and it was just as cold in there as outside, only less drafty. We did lose some combs and some toes, but we also got eggs all winter (frozen, if we didn't get to them fast enough!). We probably would have gotten more eggs with light and a warmer barn, but without electricity we did the best we could.

My main suggestion for keeping chickens where the winters get cold is to get birds with small or no combs (pea combs are best), large bodies (more mass holds heat better), and fluffy feathers (better insulation).

Kathleen

Kathleen is right. I have mine in a hen house, it is a huge one.and I did get a water heater last year, as the temps went down and stayed down. and it was much easier on me, as I didn't have to carry water daily, with a heated bucket. I put plenty of straw in the house and keep them fed good. thats it.

[doctor_fungcool]

... .... ..

[Sunflower]

We are in northern NH and we have a small flock of 8. Our coop is a bit large for a small flock, so we stacked bales of straw around the perimeter of the coop on the interior. The floor is also covered with a thick layer of straw, not hay. The straw is more absorbent and lofty. Hay mats down. We have a row of windows on one wall, that we covered with plexi glass that can lift open on warmer days. We also have ventilation vents at the roofline. It is very cozy in there. The hens love to sit on the stacks of hay and look out the window! It is really funny to look out my window and see them watching me back! LOL We are already in the 30s-low 40s at night now. Woodstove weather already. Good luck! :grin:

[Sunflower]

We are in northern NH and we have a small flock of 8. Our coop is a bit large for a small flock, so we stacked bales of straw around the perimeter of the coop on the interior. The floor is also covered with a thick layer of straw, not hay. The straw is more absorbent and lofty. Hay mats down. We have a row of windows on one wall, that we covered with plexi glass that can lift open on warmer days. We also have ventilation vents at the roofline. It is very cozy in there. The hens love to sit on the stacks of hay and look out the window! It is really funny to look out my window and see them watching me back! LOL We are already in the 30s-low 40s at night now. Woodstove weather already. Good luck! :grin:

I almost forgot.....we give them cracked corn and dry oatmeal to help them stay warm. They reward us with extra large eggs.:grin:

[obleo]

Thanks y'all...this is our first winter with our hens and I am always looking for ways to make them happy and stay warm. Hmmm, never thought of giving them dry oatmeal...they're sooooo spoiled, but they just love to give us eggs.

Great advice here, keep it coming, thanks again.

[The Constitutionalist]

I was looking through the topics and saw "Help: Insulating a chicken" (the whole topic didn't fit). I was going to suggest a goose down jacket. :P

[Housekeeper]

I have to admit...the first time I saw the title of this thread I read: Help, INSULTING a chicken....:razz:

[Cjihopso]

add[quote=obleo;173371]We got our first chickens this year, no eggs yet, but soon, or else in the pot they go!:smile:

We have 31 hens and 2 roosters and keep them on one end of an old calf barn that has a lot of split side boards which do little to stop the wind. The first thing I needed to do was stop the wind from blowing thru the sides of the shed. I have a roll of reinforced foil that I picked up in a surplus store. I stapled that to all the inside walls and it really worked well. Any thing like this would work if you can some how staple it to something secure so that it won't blow away or rip. Sounds like your going to need some solid walls all the way around to do it right. Can you post a couple pics of what you got now....it would help to get a better idea for suggestions.

I included a couple pictures of the inside of my chicken house and one of the outside. The chicken part is at the extreme left side starting at that door. The next thing I need to do is add some insulation and cover that the same way as the walls. I use a heat lamp at night for a little warmth. I liked the idea of a light with a timer to add more hours. I will do that.

[obleo]

Great pics, Cjihopso...

Well, it turns out that with all the advice and info you all have given over this period of time, it is now Dec 31, 2008 and I had a bit of frost bite on one of my hens but not bad, have had to turn the oil heater on low a few times as the nights have been too far below zero than I care to count. Even on the low setting, it's about 8 to 10 degrees warmer in the coop than outside....got a warmer plate for the water. Put foam insulation panels in the roof and that seemed to help alot.

I have hay on the dirt floor that they scratch around in and do their "dirt bath" thingy when it's too cold to let them outside. They have two places to run to outside when it's warm enough and that's under the RV and under a trailer where there's dirt and the snow didn't get to. They like under the RV the best. And thanks for the idea of spreading the hay in the snow for them to walk...they were so funny never having seen snow before and you could almost hear them saying : "EWWWWWWWW, whatever this stuff is, I don't like it"...as they sorta tippy toed out of the pen, take a step, shake one foot off, slowly take another step and shake the other one off...this went on for about 20 mins...funny to watch though.

I have mice that used to live in the guy's next door coop but he took his old rooster to Phoenix for the winter (lol) and so now their in MY coop, caught a few on stickey traps but it seems the population is decreasing and I'm hoping it's because my chickens have found that it's okay to eat the dang things!

I've also discovered that they're fussy eaters too...I put out squash, pumpkin, kitchen scraps, etc., and they just turn their noses, er, beaks up at it and walk away. What a bunch of fuss pots! They love spaghetti, peas, corn, tomatoes, hot dogs, hamburgers, lettuce and beets. Anything else and they're just like a two year old...and you should hear them gripe when they see me with a bowl thinking its something really good and when I put it in their bowls, they go up and sorta "sniff it" and shake their heads and walk away! Snobs!

Oh well, that's how things have shaken out for me with my first winter with chickens. Have some redesigning to do on the coop for next winter, but nothing major...just saw the flaws and fixed them as I went along...

You all were such a help and I can't thank you enough...I'm still getting eggs so that must mean something in all this cold, almost bitter cold, weather...thanks again.

[Yooper]

Hey, glad to hear that all your "girls" are weathering the cold well! My, this sure has been a bitter December. One of our roosters had his comb slightly frozen. I do feel badly for them.

Sound like you have some pretty spoiled chickens there! They are sure going to love spring! (I keep telling my pullets that... they just look up at me ask "What's a spring?")
Love those winter eggs!

[suzy]

Wondered how they were making it through the winter. Its interesting to see what works and what doesnt. Always wanted to have chickens again, but were in the city. Might still try it later this spring.

suzy

[Saul Mine]

Don't use any type of fuel burning heater in an enclosed space. It burns the oxygen and the critters will suffocate. Unless of course you have a clever ventilation system and ... Oh skip it! Use light bulbs to keep the water from freezing and trust nature to take care of the chickens.

Oh, and you use pine shavings in the coop. I'm told you fill the coop to the ceiling with pine shavings and then check occasionally to make sure they don't make a hole and get stuck in it. I don't raise chickens, but I've been studying the idea.

Speaking of foam, it is a real fire hazard unless it is covered. The fire rating of foam is the rating of whatever it is covered with. So if you want to use foam insulation just cover it with paneling or drywall or something.

[Yooper]

Well, it's 18 below zero this morning w/o the windchill and I have to say, I'm impressed with how the chickens are doing...especially the young pullets we had purchased a few months ago. We have a heater base for their waterer so it doesn't freeze and the past few nights have hung a heat lamp with a 250 watt infrared bulb to add warmth.
Yup, those pine shavings on the floor sure keep those little feet warm too!
If it can be done up here, it can be done anywhere!!