Chicken Sunroom Anyone?

[chixr4kidz]

Does anyone have any plans or pictures of an enclosed "sunroom" attached to the coop for a small flock of chickens? My free range chickens love being outside but w/ cold icy weather already here, I need to get an outdoor room made quickly. Any suggestions?

 

[texaschickmama]

My grandmother just built a new greenhouse. They used clear plastic that is wavy. It turned out wonderful. I have never seen this plastic come in clear before. Sorry, I don't know the name of it, but they got it at Lowes. Home Depot has it too, but she said that Lowes was cheaper. It comes in big sheets and is absolutely clear. That would be good to make a sunroom for your chickens. I hope you know what I am talking about. I bet if you go to Lowes they would know. Just ask for the clear sheets of plastic like to make a greenhouse out of. Hope that helps.

 

[patandchickens]

Ha, I've just started building one myself! Mostly I am hoping it will provide some daytime solar heating for the building the chickens are in (just 2 chickens in a 16x35' building, and it gets to -30 C here in winter). But it will also give the chickens a "porch". (I'm aiming for enough throughput of air that the 'sunroom' doesn't actually get all that warm inside - I want it to heat the building, not sauna the chickens!)

No idea how well it will work - I'll let you know in February!

Pat

 

[2468Chickensrgr8]

Wow ! What a great idea !
I too would like to see some sunroom photo's for the coop....

 

[horsewishr]

GREAT idea. What if you had plasic panels you could just slide in, using the fence posts of your run? You could slide 'em in when the weather gets cold, and take 'em out when it's warm.

 

[SeaChick]

Re: clear plastic corrugated panels. We used them for the roof of our run. There are several brands and the ones available (on special order around here) through Lowes and Home Depot were twice as expensive as the brand I got: Sun-Tuf. I had to call about 10 independednt building/lumber supply places before I found it. Comes in panels aprox 8' x 2' and was something like $13 per piece. Very cool stuff!!!

On the other hand, I'll bet you could make something pretty nice using discarded/salvaged storm windows. Try a local Habitat For Humanity Re-Store or place a wanted ad on freecycle or craigslist!

 

[tammyhooper]

plastic sheeting will stop most of the wind chill factor but it won't stop the cold from penetrating. The same is mostly true of the plast panels although they are alittle better at keeping out the wind and they are sturdier. I know because I live in an old building and have used many different things to try and keep the cold out of broken warped windows.

 

[EurekaSouth]

Quote:
Now, THAT'S a great idea!!!

 

[patandchickens]

I'm not convinced it's necessary to "keep the cold from penetrating" for this sort of arrangement... it takes very very little sunlight at all to get solar heating of the space, and after all, you are not trying to make a tropical greenhouse in which to cook the chickens, right?

It would just be for daytime use, yes?

(The main reason to worry about heat loss from an Actual Greenhouse is that in that case you don;'t want the temps to drop too low at nighttime. But this would not be a concern if it's used for chickens during the day, rather than plants round the clock)

Pat

 

[ole-crone]

What started as a new chicken coop has turned into a 'sunroom'. We used the Starplates. The coop never got finished last summer so we have wrapped it with clear plastic and inside is their feeder, waterer and dusting box. It doesn't connect to the coop but is just a few steps from it. They seem to enjoy it and the coop is much cleaner now that we've removed the feeder & waterer. I'm still waiting for them to find the box for baths.

We'll probably finish the upper part of it as a coop next summer and leave the lower section as their personal spa area.