card board on walls

[Chicken Rob]

cardboard wont hurt my girls right ? been very cold heat lamp just not doing trick . coop is cement block building 10 by 10 . i got some 1/2 inch thick packing cardboard . going to glue to walls and ceilings ,... have 18 girls getting 12 eggs a day .

 

[tackyrama]

Won't hurt em but probably won't last for long. Chickens love to peck cardboard apart. That and styrofoam! It must be an obsession with them, probably like popping bubble wrap with kids. I just reread your post about the glue. Bad idea! After the cardboard is gone they'll start eating the glue.

Bye the way - WELCOME TO BYC!

 

[speckledhen]

Cardboard is just thick paper, really, so it will hold moisture. There is one part of my plywood wall, which is the backside of the roost, and wet poop against it keeps a wet spot there every day. If it was paper, I'd think it would really hold onto moisture and make things worse.

 

[patandchickens]

I agree with Cyn, cardboard gets wet and stays wet, and if you've got a block building and weather cold enough to want to insulate, chances are real high it will get damp from condensation where it contacts the block wall (it isn't really that good an insulator).

Better would be to put plywood over the cinderblock (preferably flush against it, rather than on studs, unless you want a mouse farm -- although on studs, if you put fiberglass batts or foamboard behind it, will certainly give you much better insulation, tho at greater expense as well).

That will also help keep the coop air MUCH MUCH drier. The difficulty with cinderblock walls in any but a very dry-air climate is that they have lots of thermal inertia and every time you have a bit of warm air coming in, from mid-winter to mid-spring, it condenses out and makes the air indoors really unhealthily humid.

I suppose you could even use OSB (chipboard), being cheaper -- although it will not hold up over time as well as plywood.

Good luck,

Pat

 

[jaku]

I wouldn't think that cardboard would even add much insulating to cement block, as it probably insulates pretty good itself. The other posts are correct though- they LOVE to eat styrofoam. They haven't bothered my cardboard much, but the styrofoam is gone even higher than I thought they could reach.

 

[Chicken Rob]

thanks for anwsers. i see frost on cement block walls inside . wont work to well with cardboard. i just changed out shavings because they were all damp. i have vent fan in ceiling , which i covered didnt wont to suck heat out . but i guess that kept moisture in , which is why shavings damp. i opened vent today , only 15 out now was colder . i have heat lamp and 100 watt light on . . i guess better to have dry area not damp . i will insulate next year . still getting 16 eggs from 18 girls yesterday ... thanks