Greetings,
First, a littke background. I live in California where we only hit hard freezing temps a few days out of the year. We get frosty mornings more often than that, but not all winter. Also, I have nine chickens. Our coop is an upcycled/remodeled wooden play structure. The main building is almost 5’x5’ and about 6’ tall. Three walls have 18-inch square windows which are open all year except for during the strongest storms, in which case I close a sort of wooden shutter over one or two of them. There is also a little overhead ventilation by way of drilled holes covered in hardware cloth. This year, we grew the coop by enclosing the deck, which is about 3’x5’ sits around roost height. I cut about an 18-inch square doorway between the two “rooms”.
The upper level has a large (12-inch?) circle window, and I recently cut a vent around 39 inches wide by 3 inches (ish) tall on the adjacent wall. The coop seems nicely ventilated now. However, my buff orpington likes to roost on the steering wheel that was never removed from the deck of the play structure, which puts her comb at about the same level as the newest vent, and right beside it. Once we do hit those colder (for California... barely freezing) will she be smart enough to roost elsewhere? Should I attempt to remove the steering wheel? Also, I don’t know whether any of the roosts can get drafty. There is more roosting space than necessary. Will they resituate themselves if any areas get drafty, regardless of pecking order? Thanks for your help.
First, a littke background. I live in California where we only hit hard freezing temps a few days out of the year. We get frosty mornings more often than that, but not all winter. Also, I have nine chickens. Our coop is an upcycled/remodeled wooden play structure. The main building is almost 5’x5’ and about 6’ tall. Three walls have 18-inch square windows which are open all year except for during the strongest storms, in which case I close a sort of wooden shutter over one or two of them. There is also a little overhead ventilation by way of drilled holes covered in hardware cloth. This year, we grew the coop by enclosing the deck, which is about 3’x5’ sits around roost height. I cut about an 18-inch square doorway between the two “rooms”.
The upper level has a large (12-inch?) circle window, and I recently cut a vent around 39 inches wide by 3 inches (ish) tall on the adjacent wall. The coop seems nicely ventilated now. However, my buff orpington likes to roost on the steering wheel that was never removed from the deck of the play structure, which puts her comb at about the same level as the newest vent, and right beside it. Once we do hit those colder (for California... barely freezing) will she be smart enough to roost elsewhere? Should I attempt to remove the steering wheel? Also, I don’t know whether any of the roosts can get drafty. There is more roosting space than necessary. Will they resituate themselves if any areas get drafty, regardless of pecking order? Thanks for your help.
