Canada winter & eggs chickens

[mikelacite]

Hi,


I live in canada . winter temp is about 14 to -4 F , with downs of -31 F for 1-2 days some times .


We are building our coop and considered isolating it .. Waht would be the best to do for isolation and warming ? what are your ideas ?



The coop would be for 3 chickens for starting and would be 40 by 6 0 inches more or less inside + the outside garden .




thank in advance

 

[Peplers chicks]

I don't really know what you guys name the stuff on your side of the globe, but here we calls it pink aerolite, little expensive, but I found that a proper closing with carpet underveld works good enough, and it is 70% cheaper here

 

[mikelacite]

Hi!

thank for the idea !

and you think that at minus 15 Celcius (15 F ) it will be ok for them ?

 

[FuzzyButtz]

I live in Northern AB, where -15C is considered a warm day, lol. My girls are in a non-insulated coop (1/4 inch plywood walls) with a 250Watt Heat Lamp (Red) on 24/7. Around March i'll bring it down to 175Watt Heat Lamp (Red) until I can wean them off it for the summer. Is a heat lamp not an option? If you do decide to go with heat, take into consideration the size of your coop, type of birds, and number of birds as well as good ventilation and a dry coop.

 

[Peplers chicks]

I live in Northern AB, where -15C is considered a warm day, lol. My girls are in a non-insulated coop (1/4 inch plywood walls) with a 250Watt Heat Lamp (Red) on 24/7. Around March i'll bring it down to 175Watt Heat Lamp (Red) until I can wean them off it for the summer. Is a heat lamp not an option? If you do decide to go with heat, take into consideration the size of your coop, type of birds, and number of birds as well as good ventilation and a dry coop.

So true, I used heat lamp on newly chicks for about 3-4 weeks(braai chicks), and is very costly, so true about size etc. so many of us forget that chickens generates heavy heat from crouching together in a bundle, a few chicks together in a corner can raise temperatures more then normal body heat.

 

[Hokum Coco]

I have been around the sun 63 times.
I live in Canada (Indian for COLD).
I do not heat my coop.
Feed extra corn for extra cold.
Works for me.
Lost birds to heat never to cold.
Do what you think is best.

 

[FuzzyButtz]

I enjoy heating my coop because it's only plywood (no insulation), and it gives me piece of mind. That being said, it was -15C over night and I didn't get around to changing the broken heat bulb yesterday so they went all night without their heat.. This AM we had the first Egg we've had in 3 months. I think if you're chickens are healthy and well fed, Heat certainly HELPS them, but isn't entirely necessary. That being said, we are due for another cold snap and i'm hoping to get it changed today.

 

[Allysha1990]

We live in Manitoba and we are getting a long reptile heat lamp to point at the nesting boxes. Ours isn't insulated, although I plan on snatching up and free insulation material little bit at a time so I can eventually insulate it. Today it is -10'C which is a good day here!
I would imagine you could save a lot more money in the long run by insulating and using less heat bulbs.
My only issue is that my eggs are frozen by the time I get to them in the morning

 

[FuzzyButtz]

We live in Manitoba and we are getting a long reptile heat lamp to point at the nesting boxes. Ours isn't insulated, although I plan on snatching up and free insulation material little bit at a time so I can eventually insulate it. Today it is -10'C which is a good day here!
I would imagine you could save a lot more money in the long run by insulating and using less heat bulbs.
My only issue is that my eggs are frozen by the time I get to them in the morning

Yeah, my egg was partially frozen this AM too w/o the heat lamp on.. then I ended up breaking it by accident anyway, lol.

One thing that really helps is filling your coop. If all your chickens get along and have enough space to maneuver, fill it if you so desire - their body heat really helps.

 

[Allysha1990]

I want to get some more hens to add to my flock. I only have 10 chickens and 2 ducks in total at the moment