Broiler Housing to insulate or not to insulate?

[Spinich_man]

We are looking at building a decent sized chicken coop to house broiler chickens. We live in the pacific northwest and get a lot of rain and colder days, and milder winters(except for this past winter). We are wondering how to insulate this coop. Should we use spray foam? My biggest concern is mites! We had a HUGE infestation last year in a different barn and I never ever want to deal with that again! I don't want to put up spray foam insulation only to have the mites burry inside and I've got to pick it all out just to get rid of the suckers! Our plan is to do a concrete floor with 2 ft tall walls with a wooden framed structure. Our walls and roof would be made of corrugated sheet metal. As we will have chicks in there at all times of the year we need to make sure that we are keeping some of the heat inside the coop over the winter. Thank you for your expertise!

 

[chameleon]

Hi, and

How many chicks will you have in there at a time? And what are your winter temperatures like? I have personally found that the chicks do just fine outside without insulation, I just provide them with a heating pad cave (https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...d-in-the-brooder-picture-heavy-update.956958/) and they can warm up in there whenever they need to. My temperatures rarely drop below 32 degrees though. If you're winters get colder than that you'll probably get better advice from someone else.

Anyway, sorry if that's not the answer you're looking for, I wouldn't know what kinds of insulation to use as I've never insulated my coops. Hopefully you get some better tips on insulation from someone else soon.