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    Interior walls for chicken retirement home

    100% agree. I'm really not worried about moisture since one whole "wall" is going to be hardware cloth open to the rest of the barn. It's a big space and really for winter it will be like an indoor run with some roosts and access to outdoors. Plus the whole arid climate thing.
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    Interior walls for chicken retirement home

    Understood. It's a whole 100 year old barn so I'm working with what I've got. The other half finished "room" I'm pretty sure is full of aspestos. It's obviously been drywalled much longer and has very suspect "tile."
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    Interior walls for chicken retirement home

    I would love to have all the animals. My first jobs as a kid were at horse barns. Unfortunately I'm only allowed 6 chickens since town grew up around the house.
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    Toys for the Winter Chicken House

    Hi from your neighbor to the south in WY (used to be in MT). We get plenty cold here (-20F) and the chickens go out every day. I have a similarly small coop to you (omlet eglu cube). I have the run wrapped in clear tarp. The girls do ask to speak to a manager when it is that cold and they take...
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    Interior walls for chicken retirement home

    If you had a chicken house that already had drywall for the interior walls, what would you do? Background: A year and a half ago I bought a house. One of the big draws for me was that my century home came with a century barn even though it's now in the city. I've been super happy with my Omlet...
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    Omlet Eglu Coop - How to Keep it Warm in Winter??

    I strongly advocate against heaters for chickens. They are a huge fire hazard and if you lose power and your chickens aren't acclimated then they can die from the sudden cold. All the long time keepers in MT told me not to heat my first winter because of this. Sure enough, every winter on the...
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    Omlet Eglu Coop - How to Keep it Warm in Winter??

    I ordered a custom size shade tarp/cover for the run. Don't remember where from, but an internet search should pull some options. It does seem to help. When we were in grizzly bear country and I had electric poultry netting around the omlet, I would let them sleep out in the run if they wanted...
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    Omlet Eglu Coop - How to Keep it Warm in Winter??

    Just did the conversion and -4° C is around 25°F. Pretty normal daytime high for us in WY in the winter. As long as they have a place to get out of the wind and there is a patch free of snow or with the snow tamped down, they'll be out doing chicken things. I have a thermometer in my coop and...
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    Omlet Eglu Coop - How to Keep it Warm in Winter??

    Yes, I cover the slide out dropping tray with bedding. Makes it much easier to clean (though my friend swears by using a spatula to scrape her's). I cover the whole thing with bedding enough so there is no plastic showing and it will be below but mostly not touching the roosting bars. I have 5...
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    How to keep my chickens' combs from freezing

    100% agree! I have plymoth rocks (barred and saphire gems) that I adopted because they are a cold hardy heritage breed. And generally they are. For whatever reason some of my girls have (or had) big floppy combs. I've been saying if I get to choose, my next chickens will be buckeyes. I say if I...
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    How to keep my chickens' combs from freezing

    I'm in WY and first got chickens in MT so we get down below -20° as well and have weeks of below 0. Though we are dryer. We've got wind! Absolutly no heat for adult chickens. I followed this advice from the old timers in MT and I'm glad I did. It is a huge fire risk. On the poultry chat...
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    Omlet Eglu Coop - How to Keep it Warm in Winter??

    No jacket. I believe it blocks some of the ventilation holes. Condensation is a recipe for frostbite. We don't have any issue with wind through the vents, they are angled just for that reason. Be aware that inside the coop it's generally the same temp as outside (I have a thermometer). Wind and...
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    Omlet Eglu Coop - How to Keep it Warm in Winter??

    Deciding if you move it in the winter depends on how much snow you get. I bought my egglu in MT and have it in WY now. It's often not possible to move in the winter because it's snowed in or frozen to the ground. If you can move it, I would keep moving it to give them new stuff to peck. Here...
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    Winterizing run options, opinions needed

    You might look up wiggle wire and channel tracks. I think they are originally for greenhouse sheeting but lots of people seem to use them for runs similar to your set up. I'm in windy Wyoming with a much smaller chicken tractor that parks for most of the winter. I have thick plastic tarps. I...
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    Omlet Eglu Coop - How to Keep it Warm in Winter??

    That's just it, you have individual rungs. To a chicken there is one that is better and a way to face that is better. Omlets have kind of a grid floor that allows hens to face multiple ways. As described below they have to settle but they aren't stuck with just one orientation. I just introduced...
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    Omlet Eglu Coop - How to Keep it Warm in Winter??

    The thing that helps with this is that the roost spots are all even and the same. I've seen plenty of fighting when there are different levels and types of roosts in my friends coops. There can be pushing and shoving to get in first or not let anyone else in, but that happens in any coop. In my...
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    Omlet Eglu Coop - How to Keep it Warm in Winter??

    They fit. I was in Montana when I first got this coop, down to -20°F. I'm a bit south in Wyoming now so in theory it's warmer. I'm looking at our weather though and it says we got down to -25 this winter, though I don't think I saw that at my house, I might be in a bit of a microclimate.
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    Omlet Eglu Coop - How to Keep it Warm in Winter??

    I just added a 5th bird to mine. One more could probably fit depending on size (I have Plymouth rocks). If I rescue another chicken I'll have to adjust my winter roost. I give them a 2x4 wide end up for winter so their feet can tuck into their feathers. The issue may be the run area. I'm...
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    Check out my 1st coop

    Nah, chickens will all fight over the same nest box.
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    Thoughts on this design

    Considerations: how many chickens, what is your predator situation? Look up designs specifically for chicken tractors if that is what you want. Anything not designed from the beginning to be mobile is going to be a beast to move. I've got an omlet eglu cube which I absolutely loved when I didn't...
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