Preparing Your Flock & Coop for WINTER

[henless]

Question for Blooie & Beekissed ~ Do you find the tarps are true to size? I bought some 10x12 tarps, and they ended up being 9x11 instead. I don't mind extra tarp at the top, but I had really wanted grommets to put my screws/washer through to attach to the corner posts.

@KDOGG331 ~ I use screws/washers to attach my tarps & shower curtains to my coops.

@oldhenlikesdogs ~ My coops are built into my old barn. All sides are hardware cloth, so I put up tarps/plastic in the winter for wind block on the North & West sides. I'm in East Texas, so our winters are nothing compared to yours, so I build for the summer heat and just block the wind in the winter.




I need to get a pic of my winter prep. I'll try and do that this weekend.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

Dumb question here I'm sure but so do you just attach it to the panel or something else? I know you said you use zip ties but I guess I'm just nit getting what the zip ties attach to.

You can attach right to the welded wire fencing around the run. I use the small bungie loop with ball for quick connect and disconnecting.

These are 8 in tie down straps, 25 for $8 at Home Depot. Come in varying sizes and are handy.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

Question for Blooie & Beekissed ~ Do you find the tarps are true to size? I bought some 10x12 tarps, and they ended up being 9x11 instead. I don't mind extra tarp at the top, but I had really wanted grommets to put my screws/washer through to attach to the corner posts.

@KDOGG331 ~ I use screws/washers to attach my tarps & shower curtains to my coops.

@oldhenlikesdogs ~ My coops are built into my old barn. All sides are hardware cloth, so I put up tarps/plastic in the winter for wind block on the North & West sides. I'm in East Texas, so our winters are nothing compared to yours, so I build for the summer heat and just block the wind in the winter.




I need to get a pic of my winter prep. I'll try and do that this weekend.

Any tarp I've purchased was the size it stated. Did it have the wrong dimensions of package or was it just in the wrong place on the shelf at store?

Nice airy coop BTW. Seems perfect for TX heat.

 

[TalkALittle]

Many tarps are from 6" to a foot smaller than the stated measurements. I don't know why it is that way, but when I was shopping around for my clear poly tarps last year, just about every website stated that the measurements were not exact and the tarps would be slightly smaller than advertised. It worked out fine for me.

I used the bungee/ball fasteners fed through screw eyes that screwed into the coop and run at intervals that matched the grommet spacing.

FYI, not all tarps have the same grommet spacing. The site I got mine from stated the distance between grommets. If you need to add more you can do so for less than $20 with a pair of grommet pliers.

 

[Blooie]

They are usually 6 inches smaller all the way around. When I ordered mine it clearly said : Actual dimensions 19'6"x19'6".

 

[Blooie]

Been reading everyone's winter preparations and I think I should feel guilty but I don't, my large fowl are kept in a large tin pole shed with my donkeys and goats, it's not insulated, I have a east facing door that stays open year round for the donkeys to come and go, my chickens have the run of all parts but where the hay is stored, they all find the best spots to roost, we did add a few clear panels to let more light in, but I never light my birds, most of my poultry is out and about all winter, I don't even use any water heaters, I use rubber buckets that the ice gets knocked out twice a day and refilled with warm water.

It can get brutal here some winters in Wisconsin, but my birds do fine, so I do drool over everyone's greenhouse runs but my larger chickens don't even have one. I know my birds all acclimate to the weather and do fine, even my frizzle Cochin bantams. I do throw out corn and black oil sunflower seeds twice a day to get them moving around, and some hay to pick through and stand on. I also will use some hay bales as wind blocks and my chickens love sitting on them and pecking them.

Some really interesting information, and I enjoy how everyone has a different opinion on what is considered cold for poultry. A day of 30 degrees is a warm balmy day here in the middle of winter.

I know it seems like I'm doing a lot, but not really. Just making sure water doesn't freeze and that they have a dry place to stretch their wings. I'd be happy with covering the run to keep out the 60+mph winds we often get with just about anything. Having it be a clear tarp so it's sunny in there is just a bonus. I also have an uninsulated, unheated, unlit coop. Funny, we have a bit of 'reverse enjoyment' here.....I'd love for my girls to have the setup you have. Just a nice big open area with lots of hay bales and total freedom. Unfortunately living in town I just don't have that kind of open space, so I have to make do, knowing that they'll be confined to the run a lot. We're about like you are.... 30 degrees feels like such a beautiful day!! I have chicks being brooded out in the run in the teens and twenties and that seems like a perfectly comfortable temperature range after the sub-zeros we get!

 

[Skeeter10]

Been reading everyone's winter preparations and I think I should feel guilty but I don't, my large fowl are kept in a large tin pole shed with my donkeys and goats, it's not insulated, I have a east facing door that stays open year round for the donkeys to come and go, my chickens have the run of all parts but where the hay is stored, they all find the best spots to roost, we did add a few clear panels to let more light in, but I never light my birds, most of my poultry is out and about all winter, I don't even use any water heaters, I use rubber buckets that the ice gets knocked out twice a day and refilled with warm water.

It can get brutal here some winters in Wisconsin, but my birds do fine, so I do drool over everyone's greenhouse runs but my larger chickens don't even have one. I know my birds all acclimate to the weather and do fine, even my frizzle Cochin bantams. I do throw out corn and black oil sunflower seeds twice a day to get them moving around, and some hay to pick through and stand on. I also will use some hay bales as wind blocks and my chickens love sitting on them and pecking them.

Some really interesting information, and I enjoy how everyone has a different opinion on what is considered cold for poultry. A day of 30 degrees is a warm balmy day here in the middle of winter.

just a hint try not to use warm water as best u can it freezes faster i found that out the hard way i filled my waterer one night at 630 with warm put it in walked back out a half hour later it was froze the next time i filled it with cold it didnt freeze for a couple hours

 

[TalkALittle]

just a hint try not to use warm water as best u can it freezes faster i found that out the hard way i filled my waterer one night at 630 with warm put it in walked back out a half hour later it was froze the next time i filled it with cold it didnt freeze for a couple hours

The temperature outside must have been different each night, either that or your coop exists in an interdimesional rift where the laws of thermodynamics don't apply.

Just like a pot of warm water will come to a boil faster than a pot of cold water exposed to the same heat, cold water will freeze faster than warm water.

 

[Blooie]

Um I must beg to differ. Many years ago after pondering this very thing during a balmy South Dakota winter day of 42 below zero - actual temp, not wind chill - I decided to put it to the test with a gen-u-ine scientifical 'speriment. A news report the night before triggered the urge in me to prove or disprove what the weatherman was showing. After bundling up in every layer I could and still be able to walk, I took out two pans of water - one room temp, the other hot. I tossed the room temp water and it fell to the ground as water, freezing then into an ice puddle that stayed there until May. The hot water was tossed immediately afterward - it POOFED into a puff ball of frozen vapor in the air...it was like being hit in the face with a sandstorm! It froze instantly even as it left the pan.

You can look this up as well...I can't remember what the actual effect is called, but yes, hot water freezes faster. It's the reason I prefer to use a bucket waterer with a stock tank heater and horizontal nipples on it rather than take warm water out to the birds. Warm water in cold air creates vapor and that vapor settles on the first thing it contacts...in the case of a waterer that thing would be the combs and wattles of the chickens' faces as they drink. It's also the same reason I don't take them out a nice warm bowl of oatmeal to start their day.

 

[Skeeter10]

exactly what im saying