It is temperate enough in the winter to leave the screen door open at night? I thought your area got colder--sort of high desert.
Fortress coop ... in some ways
catscan,
It seldom gets terribly cold here ... ordinarily the winter temps are at worst a week around 10f degrees or a few days down to -2f degrees. The -20f degree days we got 3 winters ago ... are record lows that I likely will never see and no one else in the valley will see again either. I of the opinion they were 100 yr lows. If it gets awful cold here ... I'll attach a polystyrene wafer to the door ... sandwiched between two sheets of 1/4 inch plywood. Last winter the hens and guineas all did well without the insulation wafer on the door. This winter will be even less cold inside because I'll have the insulation finished on all 4 walls. The only major contributor in the winter to moisture inside the hen house is the hens breathing. Isn't the average rainfall where you live about 25-30 inches? I seem to recall it being about 30 inches in Ukiah ... just north of Santa Rosa (we were looking to buy a home there).
Kelly in Moxee
17". Ukiah is coastal--We people of the Central Valley scoff at the soft living populace of Mendocino County.
Right ZZ?:0)
catscan,
Well ... we like(d) the Russian River and the views of the vineyards near Hopland. I shudder to think of the cost of homes and acreage there. I know what this little farmette that we enjoy here would be worth somewhere between 5-10mil there today. I wouldn't move there unless I could have all we have here. I have a friend nr San Diego who earn a great income but his mortgage is 1/3 of his income and his mortgage is more than 4 times what mine is. He took his wife home to visit his parent for the 1st time ... to the far east. My wife has gone home every year with 1-2-3 children in tow. Mortgages in CA are devastating the populace ... now with the newly announced Federal rescue of Fannie Mae Freddie Mac ... the experts are speculating that home prices are gonna drop ..... 15-25% perhaps nationwide in the next couple years..
Kelly