Building a Coop For Canadian Winters

[chickensforus]

Your coop looks awesome!

 

[6of6chicks]

Wow - my jaw just dropped when I saw your coop! It's stunning - solidly built and gorgeous to look at!

Nice looking chickens too, lol!

 

[Dusty8ball]

Great job Bud! I have just started to build my coop and live buy the wise words of build good, build once.

 

[ChickadeeSue]

Great job on the coop, do you heat it in the winter? I am in southern Alberta and we go down to -35c at times!

 

[Hokum Coco]

Quackers: Many in BYC say that insulation is not necessary. Then again, some say it is. I will build a coop for a friend in about three weeks and I will insulate it again. I was imposed a 150 dollar maximum (that coop will have nothing to do with mine in terms of materials and design), so I decided that I'll insulate it with hay. I just don't feel right about not insulating! I live in Canada also.

Insulating is not necessary in some cases but I find it is a good practice especially in the summer against the heat.
You did a nice job building the coop buddy.

 

[Hokum Coco]

Great job on the coop, do you heat it in the winter? I am in southern Alberta and we go down to -35c at times!

I live in Canada also.



I have been keeping chickens and birds for decades.

Your best practice I find is to not be too concerned about winterizing or heating your coop to help your birds combat the cold.

Predator proofing "ABSOLUTELY".

Your efforts should be spent in winterizing your birds and letting them acclimatize to their surroundings.
This is done by feeding them whole corn as an added supplement in a separate feeder.

The extra nourishment is more then adequate to bring them through the
"COLDEST" winter.

Do keep an eye open for birds that maybe not be adapting well to the new menu and may be at the lower end of the pecking order they can sometimes run into problems and may need extra TLC.

That being said in a perfect world the flock will flourish and do just fine .

I do not add any extra heat or lighting.
Egg production does slack off but I have more than enough eggs for the table all winter long (24 hens).

Some people may disagree with my method but it has worked well for me and I am not about to change.

I look at it in the same light as winterizing your car.

You really do

"NOT"


have to winterize your car if you can keep it in a controlled environment at all times otherwise you are in for

"MAJOR" problems.

When it comes to lighting if you find you are short on eggs it does apparently help. I personally do not bother in my operation eggs are sold only to neighbours when they are available (if the sign is out I have eggs). Eggs in my operation have a tendency to crack and freeze during the winter months (we do not discard them and are fine but use them in house not for sale) the more eggs you produce during these months the more eggs will fall into this category.

I have roughly 24 Golden Comet hens the longest I ever been out of eggs can be measured in hours >12<24. You will find that the egg supply in any hen is a finite resource the quicker you milk the eggs out of a hen the faster it will be spent and end up in your stew pot.

On average one hen produces somewhere between 600 to 700 eggs in its life time. Lighting only effect the speed of delivery of the eggs which at the end of the day would amount to less than a year in the hens life is my guess

If you do decide extra lighting is necessary have your light on a timer to lengthen the day "MAKE SURE IT IS SECURED BY 2 MEANS OF SUPPORT" one being a "SAFETY CHAIN" in case one fails especially if it is an incandescent bulb or heat lamp.

I personally raise hens as a hobby; and for their manure to enrich my vegetable garden any thing else the hens provide is merely a bonus.

Here is one BONUS NOW not many people can enjoy seeing in their back yard on a regular basis.



Nest boxes
In my nest boxes I fold a feed bag to fit (nest boxes are 1 ft³). When a bag gets soiled; fold a new one; pop out the soiled; pop in the new. Feed bags are a nylon mesh bag.
Frozen poop just peels off in below freezing temperatures and just flakes off in summer when left out in the sun to bake and dry.

I have 65 trips around the sun it is the best method I have stumbled upon.

Make sure the twine is removed from the open end of the bag it can get tangled around your birds.

 

[ApiaryandAviary]

Hi everyone I thought I would share with you my coop construction project. So it all started off in 2010 when one of my students (I teach English as a Second Language to Quebec francophones in a village 40 minutes east of Montréal) told me she had a chicken coop. I found that hobby of hers to be quite interesting and started to look into the matter. My house was built from 2009 to 2010 by a contractor who happened to be the father of two other students. He was very patient with me because I knew almost nothing about construction. For example, I didn't know if a 2X4 was metric or imperial... So for over 8 months, the contractor let me watch every step and he pointed out that I was a very quick learner. Hooray! So having been initiated to the art of building things, I wanted to build a chicken coop. I decided to apply everything I learned with the contractor and he thought I was crazy. Exterior sheathing, furring strips, wool batt insulation, polyethelyne vapor barrier, everything. So I told him, "Well, our winters can be harsh and hot summer days can be a bummer. Might as well do it correctly the first time around. He laughed hysterically when I told him I figured it would take me two months to build the coop at my pace. "We could do that in two days!" So I told him, "Yeah, but I want to plan, measure and do it slowly in order to learn." He laughed again, slapped me on the back and gave me a bunch of left-over building materials. I then gathered my construction scraps, bought a few things, drew plans and got to work. So here it is, complete with pictures. Enjoy Merci! Here, nothing has been nailed together. I only wanted to see if everything was square and looking good. The coop was built with 2X4s because I wanted to insulate the walls with wool batts. I didn't want the hens to freeze in winter and the batts also keep a coop reasonably cool in the summertime. The coop is 4X6 + an 18-inch extension for the nest boxes (3). I guess you could call this the sub-frame with four posts to hold it above the ground. My contractor rolled by and hollered, "How long did you take to frame that??" I yelled back, "I'd say forty minutes!" He laughed, said I was doing fine, and went on. One of the walls with two windows. These windows ended up being exit points to the run. Now this is the floor with an exit that ended up being useless. Not wanting my hens to freeze their butts off in winter, I put wool batts and a polyethylene vapour-barrier. My contractor, amazed at all the care and attention I put into "Hen Comfort", simply said, "He's nuts!!" My neighbour help me bring this to the back of my house and there it sits, just beside my deck. I dug around the perimeter, buried some wire and topped it off with gravel. Then, I stood on this floor and jumped on it like a maniac to let it compact the gravel. So up went the first wall. The interior is about 5'5'' high because the coop was also designed to be a playhouse for children. So if I lost interest in this hobby one day or my neighbours are disturbed by the hens, I'll only have to clean it up, paint it and presto, cool little place for children to play. I took this picture pointing West, where the wind simply blasts us at all times during the year. The wool batt insulation wasn't a crazy idea after all. On very cold days, the temperature can go down to -25 C (-13 F). With a 175-watt red heating lamp, it was 2 degrees C (36 F) inside. Water did not freeze so I was pretty chuffed up. Once the roof was up, I was very happy because the project was really taking shape. As you can see in the background, I was running a few projects at the same time. Had to stain my deck in a hurry because the Spa was due to arrive shortly. Three nest boxes. Each is about 10 inches wide, 15 inches deep and 12 to 15 inches high. I didn't really know how to make trusses so I improvised. Two years later, no sagging, no warping, thank goodness. Maximum insulation wherever possible. I was obsessed with the idea that the hens could get cold and I had a lot of leftover insulation anyway. Cedar shingles on the roof and 6-inch wide siding. I was very happy with the results. This was, after all, my first ever "construction" project. Ceiling was also insulated with wool batts. I did not intend to do so at first. Then, my contractor told me that it would help in retaining heat during winter time. He was quite impressed with me building abilities. Hooray Finished project with the useless exit. That was quickly removed. My student gave me two hens and that's how it all started! Nothing too fancy, but a lot of pride I succeeded! The next summer, I added this chicken run. I wasn't supposed to build this run. But I wanted the hens to have a litle more space to roam. So the two windows on the coop ended up being exit points. Chicks I bought last week At this moment, I have 12 animals in the coop and run, of which 5 will go to a friend because I will build a coop for her, her husband and their three children. Having a good time this week looking at me as I decided that I had had enough of a messy environment. So I shovelled 500 kilos (about 1 100 pounds) of sand into the coop and in the run. Not coarse sand as most BYC people recommend. But it's still better than mud, hay and wood shavings. Hope you enjoyed this!

Nice

 

[Kristasflock]

Hi Everyone, this is my first season with backyard chickens. I have 4 red sex links and I live in Ontario, Canada about an hour and 20 mins West of Toronto. I unfortunately have a crappy pre constructed coop and I was debating wether or not to move the chickens into our garage for the winter or keep them outside in our backyard.

What do you think would be best given that our winter temps can drop to -40C with wind chills?

 

[cindyo]

congrats! it's a really well built coop
I have a question... do you protect your run from winds with any plastic or panels during winter? I'm from Montréal south shore, planning on get my first chickens until next year

 

[Ted Brown]

You are replying to a thread started in 2012 with the last post in 2016, OP created the thread and then has not been on since.

In response to your query about using plastic or panels in winter; yes! Chickens generally do not like walking in snow, if the run is open it will fill with snow and your flock will end up spending most of their time in the coop.

I live in Quebec near Ottawa. My run is part of a pole shed, in the winter I tarp all sides but the one that is open to the rest of the pole shed. Also very secure against predators so the pop door is open 24/7, the chickens can go the run when they want not when I go out in the morning. The majority of my flock spend most of the day in the run not the coop.

Other comments:
1. Insulation and closed walls invite small critters to make their home in the walls, not desirable.
2. Chickens DO NOT require heat during the winter!! They need to be sheltered from winds and the coop well ventilated to allow humidity/amonia to escape.
3. Their feed should have high protein (eg 20%) especially during the winter. If you also keep roosters the calcium content should be minimal (under 1%) with a separate calcium (crushed oyster shells) source for the hens to eat when they decide it is needed.

Most of what the OP said above is contrary to what is generally recommended by folks knowledgeable in keeping chickens. The most glaring issue is no ventilation.