City coops

[Gooseface]

6 birds, 4x8 coop elevated 32” off the ground. Run is 6x12, plus an auxiliary run off the main that’s 17x10. No insulation, all the rafters are open for ventilation and covered with hardware cloth.

 

[RobertaD1]

You should be fine then! My coop is an open front.... they spend more time in front of the windows in the winter than away from them.

 

[Bear1978]

We have a very nice chicken officer..

A chicken officer? There’s such a thing?? What does she do? Go around investigating chicken habitations?? I want THAT job! Lol!

But I have a 4x6 coop with a 12x12 run (144 sq.ft.) for my 6 hens. They’re not out in it yet as I’m still in the process of renovating the playhouse into the coop and building the enclosure. We live in rural central Arkansas. So it’s not uncommon for people to have chickens. My yard is an acre lot so I have room to work with. I’m not insulating mine. I just used clear silicone sealant and filled in the cracks from the outside as not to give the chickens a chance to digest any of the silicone and made sure it didn’t expand into the interior of the coop.

But good luck! And seriously! Chicken police!

 

[RobertaD1]

If you want to insulate something... then do the north facing wall only. it will help with the wind... and still allow for the extra space.

 

[21hens-incharge]

Northern Colorado here. Seeing negative 10 is common in the winter. We go below that but not for more than a few days at a time.

No insulation here and open sofits on my coops. We are 10+ years running that way.

A chickens built in down coat is better insulation than folks realize.

 

[Nikki Biron Throm]

A chicken officer? There’s such a thing?? What does she do? Go around investigating chicken habitations?? I want THAT job! Lol!

But I have a 4x6 coop with a 12x12 run (144 sq.ft.) for my 6 hens. They’re not out in it yet as I’m still in the process of renovating the playhouse into the coop and building the enclosure. We live in rural central Arkansas. So it’s not uncommon for people to have chickens. My yard is an acre lot so I have room to work with. I’m not insulating mine. I just used clear silicone sealant and filled in the cracks from the outside as not to give the chickens a chance to digest any of the silicone and made sure it didn’t expand into the interior of the coop.

But good luck! And seriously! Chicken police!

Ha! She’s the ‘humane officer’ in town responsible for strays, etc. They lumped the chicken thing in her job description. She has to come out, see our setup and give us her stamp of approval before we can get the chickens. City policy says 24 square feet, 4 hens, no Roos. We have an existing dog run we don’t use that’s 11’x15’, and since dog kennels are not under city building ordinances, we can put the coop inside the run and it’s fine. We will move the coop to the side of our shed and use the kennel to make a 5’x15’ run off of the coop.

 

[RobertaD1]

If you put a roof on the kennel... would that change its status? No reason for why Im asking... Im just nosy...
The roof on a run does help with snow, and keeping the run drier.

 

[jreardon1918]

Those are very tight restrictions. I would recommend not further restricting by insulating. Every square inch directly to the chickens, not to the pests that will want to reside in insulation. Raised in your case will help some.

It is the humane officer? You would think with that title, they might see a need to help alter the restrictions to account for humanity.

 

[RojoMarz]

Regarding cold...it helps to have the 'right' kind of chickens. Look for cold hearty breeds.

 

[Compost King]

Instead of taking advice from people not in wisconsin on insulation of a chicken coop, I would go to the Wisconsin Thread and ask the folks there. Wisconsin cold and the cold other northern states are about 20 degrees apart. I doubt many people realize how much colder things can get once you get west of Lake Michigan. Wisconsin has temps that could freeze some of my southern birds solid.