metal chicken house

I have a n amout of metal left over from roofing my house. (Galveloom?) Just moved from Maine to Mississippi. Can I use the metal to make a new coop, or would the metal (green) be too hot for them?

thanks........Paul

My coop is made entirely of metal roofing (silver colored,) because it was available. In the heat of midday summer, my chickens go in there because it's cooler than out in the sun. But it is a very open coop. Your climate is similar enough to mine that I would also build very open. I don't see any reason not to use metal if it is breezy enough inside. (I do put plastic up over the windward side for winter, just to stop the force of winter wind.)

Mine has half of one wall and part of one wall made of hardware cloth. In addition, there is between 6" and 12" of open air space between walls and roof, all the way around. A good design in the south (I now realize) is a three sided building; lots of people do this with an attached and covered run. here is a link to a thread about hot weather coops:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/163417/please-show-me-your-hot-weather-coops

Like Flockwatcher said, if it has enough ventilation it should be fine. I have a metal shed coop. In the summer, I leave the doors open and they lay eggs in there fine. They don't hang around in there too much as it is hotter than under the grapevines, LOL. But it does get VERY hot in there if I don't leave the doors open. As in fry an egg on the walls hot.

In winter, there is a problem with condensation unless I run light bulbs in there. I have ventilation but fog rolls over the coop and wets everything because of the ventilation. It is uninsulated...that is why I suppose.

If I could do it all over again, I'd use my double wall plastic shed for a coop. But for various reasons I am going to keep the metal shed as a coop.

Hi MR. Flockwatcher,

Thank you for all the info you've given me. I really am grateful.

Do you think I could use the metal for flooring in the house?

Best regards,

Paul

Don't let anyone tell you metal won't work. Ever heard the story of the three lil pigs? Predators have no chance. The key is ventilation ventilation ventilation ventilation. Not because of heat,but the smell.

mississippi get very hot in summer and it last for 5-6 months. if u use the dark metal make sure the coop has lots of ventilation and maybe a fan.

Hi Chickens are sweet,

Thank you for reponding to my question. We are not normally bothered by fog so it is not considered a problem. I am concerned about proper ventilation as we have days that go over 100 degrees.

enok said:

Hi Chickens are sweet,

Thank you for reponding to my question. We are not normally bothered by fog so it is not considered a problem. I am concerned about proper ventilation as we have days that go over 100 degrees.

Click to expand...

Lots of over 100 days will get pretty hot in there. You might try something like this with a removable wall/door that you put back up for winter.



http://thecitychicken.com/hhotm.html
see the first pic of the extra door on front of the metal shed

http://thecitychicken.com/pictorialhistory.html
scroll down to about midway and there is a metal shed with screen

http://www.squidoo.com/chicken-shed
please note she thinks it is too cold for winter and I agree

We have two coops made out of recycled tractor trailor boxes, both metal. Our first coop has a metal floor and insulated walls. Our Second one has wooden floors and metal walls with some type of wall board on the wall, not insulated.

The first coop also has two regular sized windows and a full sized door which are open on most days and a roof vent. I do find with the metal floor I have to put a bit more shavings on it in the winter months. You also have to be careful with dampness, I find it does not dry out , kind of spreads all over the coop and settles in the lowest corner,and I do get a problem with an amonia smell once in a while. In the summer it has stayed pretty cool althogh when it hits above 90 I will run a fan for them. In the winter it is always about 10 degrees warmer inside the cop than out side.

My second coop is a real learning experience indeed. We were hit with the hurricane in August both coops were flooded with about 24 inches of water so the nice wooden floor that was once in this coop is really warped and uneven. I orginally painted the floor white, but you would not know it now. I use sand in this coop, it is easy to clean and stays drier than the wood chips and I am able to even out the floor with the sand. I do have issues with thier water as the floor is not even and it often flows out one side of the feeder, again problems with amonia and it takes a real long time for the wood to dry out. We placed windows on each side and a large door. We did not put a ceiling vent in this one. We had one snow storm this winter , and the temps havent dropped under 30 degrees and my poor roos all have frost bite.... this is simply because we don't have a roof vent and we have exposed metal on the ceiling of the coop which collects condensation, which casuses the coop to be damp, thus the roos get frost bite. You don't need fog to have condensation,just a little dampness and cold can cause the condensation in miine its so bad at times it drips. we are going to add a roof vent this spring and see if that helps. if not we are going to add that thin blue insulation to the exposed metal and see if it helps with the condensation. Again the temps in the winter are a lot warmer inside than out and tolerable in the summer, if it hits 90 or above I give them a fan.

I have been told that you have to be really care ful whith wooden floors as the chickens are more suseptable to mites because to wood hold the moisture, so I do preventive measures to keep those little buggers away But my coops are almost impossible to get into, so I do not have any issues with predators as long as we close the doors, no one can get inside at night. I hope this info helps