Chickens for 10-20 years or more? Pull up a rockin' chair and lay some wisdom on us!

[galanie]

So how do you know if you have enough ventilation?  And come this winter, don't you want to close all your windows/vents to help keep the heat in so the girls don't get frost bite?

This. Ignore the windows. Look up, just under the roof. See all that open space? That's ventilation, and tons more than those little windows provide. This roof will not have condensation on it. If it does, that defies my 40+ years experience dealing with metal roofed buildings in a humid climate. See how the little ridges between the roofing and the roof boards haven't been filled in at the ends? Perfect! If that roof has condensation on it, someone is spraying it with a hose.

A metal roofed building needs ventilation not from some windows or a door, but right up at the roof level itself. Just like in that picture. If you've sealed it off all under there then you'll get moisture. I'm aware that warm air meeting cold metal creates condensation but with good air flow, it dries quickly enough that you never notice any.

And if the top of the coop area below the roof is covered, as I suspect it is, you need vents in the top covering.

 

[galefrances]

Good Morning! Here's a cute link.

http://images.businessweek.com/ss/05/11/egreetings/image/01.swf

Thanks for my laugh today I always know that when I start off with a smile or laugh, the day only gets better.

 

[Back2MyRoots]

Closing all the windows/vents keeps the humidity in. 32 degrees and humid is much worse for them than 22 degrees and dry. It's the humidity that causes the real problems.

My daughter used to live in Auburn, I'll have to ask her how cold it gets there, but somehow I don't think you get too many nights below freezing. However, you do get a good bit of rain in the winter, and damp cold is worse then dry cold.

Bottom line, more important to keep the coop dry than to keep it warm.

We do get a lot of nights below freezing, but it's usually warmer during the day. We rarely get what we call a "hard freeze". Last year, we had a fairly warm winter. The year before we had weeks of nights in the lower 20's. All the older folks around here and predicting one heck of a winter for us this year.

And if the top of the coop area below the roof is covered, as I suspect it is, you need vents in the top covering.

It is covered so I'll check in to getting more ventilation. We haven't had a problem with condensation or moisture yet, but I don't want it to become a problem!

This will be our first winter, so I am still worried about what to expect. I know I'm not supposed to "need" heaters, but it's in my nature to keep the animals warm! Our goats have a heater in the barn and they really huddle in around it when the temperatures dip. The old barn dog (who normally hates the goats) will pile right in with the goats and snuggle down too.

 

[smyers32]

Well I've read over 300 pages of this thread and I keep seeing the same questions asked over and over. So, I imagine my question has been covered somewhere in the 500 pages I haven't gotten to yet. I've had my hens for about 2.5 weeks now. The girl I bought them from said they are 2 years old and reliably laying every other day. There are 6 of them, so that's enough eggs for the two of us. However, they aren't laying...at all. I got 6 good looking eggs in the first 8-10 days, now nothing for well over a week. I suspect the ones I did get were all from the same hen. They are free ranging during the day, but they stay within about a 10' perimeter around the barn and I checked everywhere today to see if they were hiding eggs. Nothing, so it seems the one hen that was laying has stopped also. A couple of them are obviously molting, but otherwise look healthy. I did treat them all for a respiratory thing, but only 2 of the laying hens showed any symptoms(4 youngers pullets all showed symptoms, but they aren't to POL yet) I know the season and the molting slow down production, but shouldn't I be getting a little something here and there??

 

[ChickenCanoe]

They usually stop completely when molting. Most of mine are. I went from 18 eggs a day from 24 birds 3 weeks ago to the point where I only got 3 eggs yesterday.
Let them molt and then try adding some light when they recover.
The move disrupts them too.

 

[Gargoyle]

The move disrupts them too.

Yup, that could easily be a factor. They laid when they first arrived, because they already had eggs in the pipeline.

Once they flushed those out, the big change in environment after two years of being in the same place will have an effect. They'll get over it; they have short memories, they'll forget the old place.

 

[Beekissed]

We do get a lot of nights below freezing, but it's usually warmer during the day. We rarely get what we call a "hard freeze". Last year, we had a fairly warm winter. The year before we had weeks of nights in the lower 20's. All the older folks around here and predicting one heck of a winter for us this year.


It is covered so I'll check in to getting more ventilation. We haven't had a problem with condensation or moisture yet, but I don't want it to become a problem!

This will be our first winter, so I am still worried about what to expect. I know I'm not supposed to "need" heaters, but it's in my nature to keep the animals warm! Our goats have a heater in the barn and they really huddle in around it when the temperatures dip. The old barn dog (who normally hates the goats) will pile right in with the goats and snuggle down too.

In Alabama???

You got you some really spoiled animals! I can't imagine that it gets that cold in AL that you would have to heat the barn. If you didn't heat it the animals would naturally develop the coat for winter wear and be just fine. When you heat it, it keeps them from needing that coat and so they do not develop it and therefore are too cold when it's not really that cold. It's a catch 22 situation...you warm them, so they do not prepare for cold weather and, thus, they then need you to warm them.

Animals are much like plants...they need hardened off to thrive in the outside temps. If you always keep them in a greenhouse, that is where they will thrive and they will not do well when exposed to actual outside temp fluctuations.

Your animals will be healthier in the long run if you condition them to live hardy in the environment in which they live...if you are always compensating, you will always HAVE to compensate. If the power goes out you will have vulnerable animals who are not adapted to the cold. Same with chickens...if you warm them you will have to keep warming them, no matter what.

 

[MagicChicken]

Quote:
Galanie, I understand what you are saying and it makes sense, but in my case the metal roof gets condensation in the run area too - which has hardware cloth screening on three sides of the structure. That doesn't make sense to me, but it happens. My shadecloth ramada (shadecloth "roof", not a solid roof) also gets condensation on those same mornings. So does the side of my house. So maybe it's partly an air movement thing. When the air is still it condenses on surfaces with a temperature differential. We get a lot of radiational cooling here in the desert. Still air and no cloud cover = lots of radiational heat loss = lots of temperature differential on top versus bottom of a relatively flat roof, or outside versus inside of a house. Throw in a little humidity and you get condensation on virtually everything.

The roof on your coop has more slope than the roof on my coop/run. I'm wondering if that makes a difference. If the coop is designed so the heat of the chickens causes an upward air movement, and the roof is designed to direct that air movement up and out, maybe it's the chicken heat that creates enough convection to move the moist air up and out of the coop even on a still air day... and maybe my coop/run is so open there's not much convective process going on... which may be aggravated by the fact that I don't have many chickens in the coop, either... Just speculating, trying to figure this out before I build my next coop.

Was going to make a plywood/rolled roof instead of a metal one next time, but then I took a rainwater harvesting class and they said if I wanted to use the water for the chickens I'd be better off with a metal roof. So I'm back to figuring out the condensation thing again...

Will definitely add more slope and more open-rafter space for the coop roof next time, but I'm not sure what to do about the run.

I like the half-monitor designs that have been posted. I'll probably do something along those lines for the next coop project. I'd repost the links but they've gone missing.

 

[Beekissed]

Awhile back in the thread I asked OTs what they did to save money on flock management during these times but not many answered and I didn't get to list things either but here goes:

• Free range
• Ferment the feed
• Buy from a local mill
• Buy cheaper whole grains to mix with layer mash
• Sell excess eggs to recoup feed money
• Currently using leaves for bedding....have stored 4 packed down trash cans of leaves for the winter bedding
• Built trough feeder from cheap rain guttering and scrap lumber
• Nipple waterers to conserve time and water waste
• Split off mother ACV to make more of the same out of cheaper, plain ACV
• Grow pumpkins to supplemental feed and even collect pumpkins from folks who don't know what to do with them after using them for decoration
• Build coop from cheap materials and scrap lumber and other items
• Use natural husbandry to avoid health management costs and promote better laying and a better product for sale
• Cull for laying to improve overall flock laying efficiency and to avoid feeding nonproducers
• Broody hatch replacement hens and extra roosters for eating or replacement
• No lighting or heating of coop
• Keep dual purpose breeds so that there will be some meat on the carcass of culled layers and extra roosters...cheap eats
• Raise meaties on free range and fermented feeds to keep costs down and put more meat in the freezer and jar
• Use family dog as flock predator control unit, which also keeps dog healthy and avoids vet costs and justifies dog food costs

I think that's it...if I remember more I'll add to the list.

 

[pigeonguy]

I believe you said you use ash's for mite control. Did you talk about making nu stock in this thread. That's all I can think of off the top of my head.