I have turned my grandkids small playhouse into a coop I need to know how to insulate it for winter untill I can build a bigger one next year.I want to use blue board on the inside but my husband says the chickens will pick it all off before winter is over.We can put it on the outside but then it will spoil the looks of the coop.What have you insulated with?Need ideas. We live in northern Maine so it does get cold in the winter.Thanks
insulating coop
green04735 your husband is right! I can tell you from personal experience that they will eat as much of it as they can reach!!!
Wherever you put the foamboard you will have to put something else over it (like luan). It can't be sheetrock cause they'll peck through that too. I was just asking on another thread about this subject and a Michigan person told me they only insulated the ceiling in their coop. Their coop has a wooden floor some 6" off the ground and they put in a lot of litter to provide warmth from below. They also have heat lamps over each roost for nights that go to 0 or below. The water dish has an old heat pad below it to keep the water from freezing over.
MollyD
If you don't mind if the coop is heavy, you could line the inside of the blue foam with plywood. This is what we do. We use a plywood and foam "sandwich".
Anyone,
I can say from experience ... if you need to insulate ... cover the insulating material with something like OSB or 1/4 inch plywood or abitto board (shiny white ... think marking pens). If you don't cover the insulating material(s) ... you'll almost certainly end up replacing the insulating material and the poultry will not have been well served by the 1st effort if they've been allowed to ingest polystyrene or fiberglass or whatever.
Kelly in Moxee
Thanks everyone for the info
Heat lamps are almost more important than insulation if you can do them.
I have covered the insulation with cheap sturdy fabric that I got for a buck a yard at walmart. where everthere was a seam I duct taped over it and stapled it firmly to the wall so they couldn't get hold of it to pull it loose. To tell you the truth, cheap paneling or luan is about the same expense and a LOT easier. I picked up some chipped and marred paneling at menards for about 6 bucks a sheet.
A small coop with many chickens with heat itself. All you need is to keep the water thawed. I'm the one with the deep litter and the ceiling insulated. It reduces the size of the coop by lowering the ceiling and reflecting the heat back down.
So even in Michigan they stay plenty warm? I don't insulate, but I'm much further south...
Yes, I am a zone 4 and we have only had just a tiny bit of frostbite on a roosters comb once.
I used to live in north central Washington where it regularly got below zero for days at a time. We never insulated our chicken coop. Kept the water thawed with a water heater. We had a light on a timer so it came on at about 3 am and we got eggs all winter. They seemed to do fine. We never had frozen combs or anything.
We just played the "eat the foam insulation" game with our coop. The walls are all insulated, but my husband wanted to insulate the floor too. (We've already been in the 30s at night here in MA). Sooooooooooooooo, he thought he was doing a good thing until they started pecking away. They could just barely reach the bottom of the coop from their run underneath it. He covered it with thin plywood as well.
What kind of lamps do people use?
Thanks.
you can get what is called a brooder lamp, with clamps on it. any size bulb in it, up to 250 watts... if you want it on all night, use a red one...
but BE SURE, before you clamp it on something, that you otherwise secure it by wrapping or attaching the cord. the birds can knock it off, and if it falls it will start a fire.
SECURE YOUR LAMPS!
Thanks for the info tf.......
Being that the coop is all insulated.....do you think we'll need a red light for heat only? I've been reading that people farther north than me do not use a heat light - just a plain one only for light -???
Any thoughts on this?
Don't want the girls to be cold.....but don't want them too hot either.
i think it is personal preference. do you want them laying all winter? will they be "cooped up" some days?
are they heavily feathered, and what size combs?
my DH and I may be overkill, but the first winter he dug a trench and ran electric out there. i have lights for me to see by, lights to leave on in case we suspect a skunk or coon is about. or oging and checking on them. in the winter it is aften dark when i go lock them up, and i don't want to lock anything in there that doesn't belong.
i have some lights in timers, others have switches, and some i just unplug and plug in as needed.
so, i guess i have no answer except that we spoil our chickens. also, though, i usually have chicks in the brooder, which is still in the hen house. so plenty of excuses to keep it warm and dry...
I have electric in my coop as well. There is a chandilier on the cieling for me to see by (and give my chickens something to brag about) and I run a string of christmas lights on a timer to keep them laying (It was the easiest and most econimical way to have a red light) In the past I have used any light on a timer for the added daylight, it comes on before dusk and stays on till about 11 PM. I used to run it earlier in the morning to closely mimic daylight hours (7 to9), but then it was on all day using energy. Last year I had one hen that pecked so I switched to the red.
I also have a couple of 100 wat with large reflectors that I can hang over the perch and turn on in below zero weather.
I keep the waterer sitting on an old heating pad to keep that thawed, but we have also used a bird bath heater in the bottom.
I get as many eggs in winter as the rest of the year. I know the light makes the diffrence as one of the chickens unplugged it for 3 days and on the third day, I only had 2 eggs!
I also buy "scratch and dent" veggies at the grocery so they get green treats during the winter. I have a rope about 3 feet off the floor that I string the occasional cabbage or apples on and the chickens have to jump for it. It keeps them entertained and exercised when it's really crummy out.
yes, they do ned winter entertainment!
my coop never gets cold enough for their water to freeze, unless i forget and leave it outside...
It get's cold enought here to freeze water in my living room!
I keep a red light for my birds as I think they need it most at night and the white keeps them awake. Real heat lamps will not put out heat anywhere except on the chickens, something to do with absorption by living creatures. Don't know how to find those any more though.
We intend to put electricity in....we were just thinking about the whole heat lamp thing. Trust me, the girls are ridiculously spoiled in the coop department....my husband always goes a bit overboard with his projects.
We figured regular light for eggs.....just not sure about a red one.
Thanks for all of the advice....
Teresa
We have the red light bulbs at the local tractor supply type store, which isn't an actual TSC but is similar. I use them in my brooder lamp also.
Are they the same thing as the red IR bulbs?
I think so--they are meant to heat and are sold for brooders. There is also some bulb that does not give off light--just heat, but I don't remember what it is called. I have also used plain red flood light bulbs (small ones) in the brooder as the chicks matured and needed less heat.
My first red IR bulb was a 250 watt and I didn't realize how hot it got. I put my hand on the shavings under the bulb to see why the birds were not going near it. Darn near burned my hand. No wonder I could smell wood. I think it would have caught on fire if I'd left it any longer. Scared the poop out of myself! Now it is way higher up and working just fine. I think next time I'll go with a lower wattage. Might use the 250 watt bulb in the coop this winter though. It would heat the whole thing up deliciously! By then my babies shouldn't need a brooder lamp any more!
Quote: "By then my babies shouldn't need a brooder lamp any more!"
Ha! who do you think you are fooling? There will be chicks. Unless we get the Intervention together before then.
I know you can get the infrared lamps at pet stores in the reptile section......I used to have one for my iguana.
No, no, no. I am done with eggs for now.
I have 12 frizzle eggs and 5 silkie eggs that arrived this morning from one place. The silkies were a surprise bonus. Her hens that laid the eggs are all frizzled blue and black Cochins and Cochin x Silkie crosses, and a couple of frizzled naked neck hens in the pen, so there is the possibility of naked neck chicks. The roo is a smooth lemon blue Cochin. I figured I'd get some fun chicks out of that. She said the silkie surprise eggs may be white, blue / splash, or white x splash.
I got 7 other silkie eggs this morning. They are going to be a mix of at least 3 colors from white, black, blue, red, grey and splash.
On the way are 6 salmon faverolle eggs (he just emailed to say he is adding some bonus bantam eggs), 12 bantam buttercup eggs, and 12 Delaware blue eggs.
This does not count the EE, silkie, millie, cochin, OEG, and serama egg mix currently in the 'bator. Not all will be fertile.
So, NO MORE EGGS. (unless i win the creme brabanter and white rock bantam eggs I bid on last night after I'd had a couple of glasses of wine...oops)
Ah Ha!
Drinking and egg bidding.....no good can come of that :)
Yeah but LOOK at them....they are so cool!!
http://www.eggbid.com/listings/details/index.cfm?itemnum=1221531263
She may bid slower drinking...
jylgaskin,
Really great information ............ "a small coop with many chickens with heat itself " ... couldn't have been said better.
So many (too many perhaps) worry about heating when each bird is like a little heater. Just close their door and they'll keep each other warm.
Kelly in Moxee
They are cool.......you're right.....I especially like the colored ones....neat...
Kelly wouldn't that depend on what your climate is like? Here we have brutal winters with -20F and windchills of -40. How warm do you think those chickens would stay without any supplemental heating?
MollyD
The chickens might survive--but with frost bitten combs and wattles they would be miserable creatures indeed.
We live in an area with many days of 0 or just above, with lows of -10 to -20. With just occasional use of additional lights for heat, I have only had one incident of frost bite and that was the tips of the roosters comb. I don't use regular heat lamps because of the expense, not just purchase price, but of running them.
I really think keeping them dry and free of drafts makes a big diffrence.
I make sure my chickens are cold hardy breeds. I suppose if I had the more delicate breeds and wasn't as concerned with economy, it would be more inclined to heat.
I do have to collect the eggs more often though, usually twice a day. I don't think my chickens are miserable at all.
MollyD1953,
You are correct. If it gets down to -20f ... the henhouse would need some heat source. We had -20f happen here 4 winters ago (I figure it was a 50-100 yr low). I had a heat lamp, windows blocked with layered polystyrene cakes covered in plastic tape plus the 60 chickens and guineas in a room they helped to heat. The walls and ceiling were insulated quite well too. We had no drafts and just the small door with a ramp for them to walk up to. My ducks just played in their hot tub.
Kelly in Moxee
Kelly I have a greenhouse outlet that's designed to turn electricity on when the temp falls below 35 and off at 35. I plan to hook up a reflector with a red 85 watt spotlight to this so that it goes on only when needed to keep them just above freezing. We're planning on building a larger coop with a separate area for the ducks and geese (they tend to harass the chickens). They will be separated only by a wire wall so body heat will be shares. I may place a reflector in each area off this same outlet.
MollyD
jylgaskin--I don't think your chickens sound miserable at all! What I was trying to say--cause I was rushing--is that the worst that seems to happen with chickens in extreme cold (so long as they are in a confined draft free space with good insulation) is that their combs may freeze (especially rooster's) and that makes them miserable (but not dead).
We are pretty mild here--the coldest is an occassional high 20s--and I never use supplemental heat. But out winters are extremely wet--we have rain instead of snow--and that is a big problem with some breeds.
MollyD1953,
We get a longer than I like, sometimes foggy, cold and dry then wet winter. I'd hate to be a chicken but my poultry are a lot better off than the cattle and goats around here.
My ducks don't like the henhouse. They just swim in the water all night long.
Kelly in Moxee