Anyone use Clear Acrylic or Clear Heavy Duty Plastic to Winterize Coop

[ladychicken&Ducklover]

So, I have a 12x20 chicken/duck "house " thats housing 5 hens, 2 roos and 3 ducks.

The ducks have a built in pond on their side of the house.

One of my "baby" roos, is a White Crested Blk Polish.

He is Such a Fantastic Boy , loves and protects " His" Girls so very much.

I live in Upper Michigan where our winter days Usually hover -20 Plus , degrees for days on end..not to mention sometimes getting 2ft plus " dumping " of snow in a matter of hours.

This is my 1st winter with chickens .

I did ALOT of research before selecting ALL Winter Hardy Breeds.

Ive mentioned before on BYC that the Polish was given to me by someone who couldnt keep him.

My winter research is leading me to make a decision on how to protect everyone for our Long - Sunless days.

With my coop being 6ft tall with a mostly 2x4 frame, with about 48 inches between frame support beams, so Im planning on taking sheets of 6ft, 7/16 OSB plywood, and cutting them in half and Temporarily Screwing the

boards onto the TOP 1/2 of the coop THEN making 2x3 ft " HEAVY DUTY CLEAR Plastic , HOMEMADE segments of " frame " and screw it onto the bottom 1/2 of the house to act as Part insulation and to allow Sun in , even

though the bottom half of the

house will have snow piled up on the outside, but there will still be SOME light.

NOW,

my OTHER option would be to screw 2x3 ft lengths of ACRYLIC CLEAR sheets along the bottom half of the house.

Has ANYONE else tried this route??

I can always just "board" the whole coop up with the OSB , but I just thought I could make the TOP HALF of the coop, wood, then the LOWER HALF to where they could see out .

I appreciate ALL AND ANY THOUGHTS on this.

Thanks

 

[Kaitie09]

We use the clear plastic all winter and it works great. Our coop is completely covered as 6ft high. We cover the top and 2 walls that get the most wind and sun with the plastic and leave one wall open so that they can still get good ventilation. The plastic creates a greenhouse effect where it heats up the inside. We tried to completely cover the run once and it got pretty warm in there on sunny days.

I think the clear sheets on the bottom won't protect them from the snow that will be coming in from above. They will end up with just a little strip of clear ground.

 

[kittycooks]

I use 3mil plastic for the winter and I'm in Minnesota. I too carefully chose winter hardy birds. It is important to have some ventilation to keep the environment dry. I made some sliding plexi windows that I can open or leave cracked during a storm.
[http://www.kittycooks.com/how-to-winterize-your-chicken-coop.html]How to winterize your chicken coop[/url]