To Insulate or Not to Insulate...

Great Article - thanks

More ideas for my chicken notebook. This has given me a whole new view on coop building. Well done!

in Minnesota I have our girls in their run and their coop is for sleeping and egg laying. Our run is wrapped in clear plastic on 3 sides to allow sun in and protect from wind and snow. The top is a metal top. That is the only insulation I use. The girls have thrived. Our winters can get down to -25 so if it gets -10 I will turn on the heat lamp and feed them more cracked corn (to raise their body heat) but they are doing great!

I found this article well written and full of specifics which I'm sure will help me when I finally get my flock. I was especially heartened by the opening, in which the writer notes their own time of reading and dreaming and planning [my current state] prior to "taking the leap." Some other things I have seen and read about people getting chickens, geese or other poultry who are completely clueless about the needs of that poultry, or even considering that chickens etc might have specific needs, makes me cringe for some of the poor birds out there.

I'm sure despite all the reading and you-tubing I've done, there will be a lot more to learn from the birds themselves once I actually have them, but I feel like I am building a solid base with articles like this one.

Thank you for the information. My son were disgusting this issue today. We have 6 Red Sex Links and live in northern Utah.

We insulated the coop and I actually put a dog bed heater on the wall to keep my feeders and water from freezing. Idaho can get cold and we only have 3-4 chickens so this was a good read thank you.

Thank you. This is a great read!

Great post!
I live in Eastern Colorado, this post helped me to answers the exact same question about my coop!

I will have to check out this open air style of coop.

It’ always nice to get input from chicken keepers with more experience. Lots of great advice and plenty of details. Thanks!

Thanks for the list at the end. Easy to make a decision based on those criteria.

Love hearing about different experiments.

thanks for spelling it out

Great advice. I am worried the eggs might freeze and explode. If they start pecking the broken eggs the could develop a taste for them

It was interesting to read the results of your 3 winter experiment. I also like the recap at the bottom of the article. Overall, a well written article!

Great article , it’s a good read . I laughed ( didn’t cry), and learned a lot . We all have such different set ups and birds , there are no blanket statements in animal raising .... I like your summary at the end , kind of like the readers digest version of the article.

Good job

This is something that I have been debating on. I don't have severe winter's, but it does get quite wet and windy. This information is quite helpful and being based on actual observation is great. Thanks so much for contributing your experiences.