In the 1907 book "Poultry Architecture - A Practical Guide for Construction of Poultry Houses, Coops and Yards", George B Fiske states a couple of things that seem to be contradictory to a couple of mainstream current ideas that I'm finding both in current books and on this site and others. I'm trying to figure out which side of the fence I'm going to land on when I build my coop, and am honestly thinking that these old recommendations seem to make more sense. So I'm going to put this out and ask for people to give any reaction or links to agriculture research reports that might support or contradict these ideas.
#1: Actually, everything I’d read until Fiske’s book talks about ventilating the coop at the top, near the roof. On page 13, Fiske notes that the plans he is reviewing have ventilation at the top of the roof, and says, “… this system of ventilation is defective. As has been frequently explained, the proper way to ventilate a poultry house is by means of a shaft running from within a few inches of the floor to several feet above the roof. Thus a draft is created that draws up the cold air and bad odors from near the ground, while the warm air at the top is thus brought down and the fowls are kept much warmer than would be the case if a hole in the roof let out all the warm air.”
Does anyone have a ventilation shaft like Fiske discusses? I’m looking for folks with hands-on experience had with this setup: Does it work well? What size shaft is needed? Should the part of the shaft that is above the roof have any particular construction details to make the drafting work better? And I was also wondering if there is any research that is more recent than this indicating that this is not correct.
#2: There is current disagreement about warming coops in the cold weather. But it seems like most people feel that chickens should not be in insulated or heated coops. The arguments are persuasive: If the hens are allowed to keep cold, they will develop better layers of feathers to warm themselves in the winter, but if they are kept warm they will not have this protective feathering and will be susceptible to failures that might occur if something happens to turn off the heat (power failure for example). Also, there is the risk of fire that is noted with the common use of heat lamps when the clamp fails and there is no protective cage or other mechanism to keep the bulb from landing on the floor of the coop.
I live in Michigan, and we get some pretty bad cold weather in winter. I live in a city, and the only chicken keepers that I know are neighbors that I chicken-sit for on their vacations. They had a small plastic koop against their house, and then purchased a wooden coop from one of the big box stores. Fall gave way to winter, and the hens ended up not having that protective layer of feathers (or not enough). The lost significant weight and caught ‘colds’, and my neighbor ended up selling the wooden coop and returning the girls to the little plastic one. I know the ‘big box’ store coops are pretty flimsy, but this event made me think that we really do need insulation and heating here.
Fiske notes in his book on page 5:
“It has been left for the West Virginia experiment station to determine just how much difference there would be in egg production between similar flocks kept in warm and cold houses. Two houses, built exactly alike and situated side by side, were selected for the experiment, in each of which were placed twelve pullets. One house had previously been sheathed on the inside and covered with paper to make it perfectly tight. Both were boarded with matched siding and shingle roofs. The fowls were fed alike in each case. The morning mash consisted of corn meal, ground middlings and ground oats, and at night whole grain was scattered in the litter. They also had fresh water, grit and bone and granulated bone. The experiment started November 24 and continued for five months. The following table shows the number of eggs laid during each period of thirty days :”
The results he lists did not paste well, but the outcome was:
Month 1: 87 eggs warm house / 39 eggs cold house
Month 2: 130 eggs warm / 106 eggs cold
Month 3: 138 warm / 103 cold
Month 4: 120 warm / 124 cold
Month 5: 154 warm / 114 cold
TOTAL: 629 warm / 486 cold
Fiske then states, “The experiment clearly indicates that it is important to build warm and substantial houses for winter egg production. In very cold climates special pains should be taken to make the roosting place warm.”
I know that the "warm house" in this experiment didn’t have substantial insulation, but it still suggests to me that with all other things being equal, the warmer chickens were more able to do their normal things (laying eggs) than their cold chicken counterparts.
Does anyone know of any research that supports either side of this argument? I’m looking at using 4 inches of insulation in the walls, floor and ceiling, plus a solar powered warmer with battery backups.
Thanks for your input! I’m hoping to not start any arguments or create any bad feelings. And instead of focusing on what people believe and have heard, I’d like to focus on any applicable research into these questions, or any actual personal experiences with chickens that would be useful.
Thanks so much! Barb
#1: Actually, everything I’d read until Fiske’s book talks about ventilating the coop at the top, near the roof. On page 13, Fiske notes that the plans he is reviewing have ventilation at the top of the roof, and says, “… this system of ventilation is defective. As has been frequently explained, the proper way to ventilate a poultry house is by means of a shaft running from within a few inches of the floor to several feet above the roof. Thus a draft is created that draws up the cold air and bad odors from near the ground, while the warm air at the top is thus brought down and the fowls are kept much warmer than would be the case if a hole in the roof let out all the warm air.”
Does anyone have a ventilation shaft like Fiske discusses? I’m looking for folks with hands-on experience had with this setup: Does it work well? What size shaft is needed? Should the part of the shaft that is above the roof have any particular construction details to make the drafting work better? And I was also wondering if there is any research that is more recent than this indicating that this is not correct.
#2: There is current disagreement about warming coops in the cold weather. But it seems like most people feel that chickens should not be in insulated or heated coops. The arguments are persuasive: If the hens are allowed to keep cold, they will develop better layers of feathers to warm themselves in the winter, but if they are kept warm they will not have this protective feathering and will be susceptible to failures that might occur if something happens to turn off the heat (power failure for example). Also, there is the risk of fire that is noted with the common use of heat lamps when the clamp fails and there is no protective cage or other mechanism to keep the bulb from landing on the floor of the coop.
I live in Michigan, and we get some pretty bad cold weather in winter. I live in a city, and the only chicken keepers that I know are neighbors that I chicken-sit for on their vacations. They had a small plastic koop against their house, and then purchased a wooden coop from one of the big box stores. Fall gave way to winter, and the hens ended up not having that protective layer of feathers (or not enough). The lost significant weight and caught ‘colds’, and my neighbor ended up selling the wooden coop and returning the girls to the little plastic one. I know the ‘big box’ store coops are pretty flimsy, but this event made me think that we really do need insulation and heating here.
Fiske notes in his book on page 5:
“It has been left for the West Virginia experiment station to determine just how much difference there would be in egg production between similar flocks kept in warm and cold houses. Two houses, built exactly alike and situated side by side, were selected for the experiment, in each of which were placed twelve pullets. One house had previously been sheathed on the inside and covered with paper to make it perfectly tight. Both were boarded with matched siding and shingle roofs. The fowls were fed alike in each case. The morning mash consisted of corn meal, ground middlings and ground oats, and at night whole grain was scattered in the litter. They also had fresh water, grit and bone and granulated bone. The experiment started November 24 and continued for five months. The following table shows the number of eggs laid during each period of thirty days :”
The results he lists did not paste well, but the outcome was:
Month 1: 87 eggs warm house / 39 eggs cold house
Month 2: 130 eggs warm / 106 eggs cold
Month 3: 138 warm / 103 cold
Month 4: 120 warm / 124 cold
Month 5: 154 warm / 114 cold
TOTAL: 629 warm / 486 cold
Fiske then states, “The experiment clearly indicates that it is important to build warm and substantial houses for winter egg production. In very cold climates special pains should be taken to make the roosting place warm.”
I know that the "warm house" in this experiment didn’t have substantial insulation, but it still suggests to me that with all other things being equal, the warmer chickens were more able to do their normal things (laying eggs) than their cold chicken counterparts.
Does anyone know of any research that supports either side of this argument? I’m looking at using 4 inches of insulation in the walls, floor and ceiling, plus a solar powered warmer with battery backups.
Thanks for your input! I’m hoping to not start any arguments or create any bad feelings. And instead of focusing on what people believe and have heard, I’d like to focus on any applicable research into these questions, or any actual personal experiences with chickens that would be useful.
Thanks so much! Barb
Hi Barb.
