Cold weather & the hen house

[ChickenLover208]

After looking through the photos of nesting boxes I saw many types of houses. Living in the mountains of Idaho I am feeling like my girls will be a tad chilled during the winter in the house we have built. It's 3/8's plywood. Anyone insulate their house? What about the use of heat? (Not like we keep our house but something so they are not in 30 degree weather)...

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

I have an uninsulated 3/8 inch plywood coop as well, and I would not worry at all unless it is drafty. You want some ventilation up high so it is not blowing on the chicken and you don't want a "wind" coming through the coop either.

If they are dry and it is a nice tight coop with proper ventilation, 30 degrees is no problem at all. I am assuming you have large fowl and not bantams.

Some bantams like Seramas may have trouble with freezing weather- I read they need supplemental heat. My Nankins will be getting a heat lamp this winter in that coop as they are not cold hardy.

 

[Blooie]

After looking through the photos of nesting boxes I saw many types of houses. Living in the mountains of Idaho I am feeling like my girls will be a tad chilled during the winter in the house we have built. It's 3/8's plywood. Anyone insulate their house? What about the use of heat? (Not like we keep our house but something so they are not in 30 degree weather)...

I live in the Big Horn Mountains of Wyoming. My coop is not insulated, although there was a lot of heated discussion about that early in the construction. (I was for it, hubby and a few people here on the forum were not) The coop is 8 feet high sloping down to 6 feet, and we have a large vent on the high side, which is the east side, as well as their pop door, people door, and a window. There's a window on the south side, and vents up high on the west and north side. We are putting one more window in.

When I put the chicks out they were 5.5 weeks old and I used a heat lamp for the first day or two until I realized by peeking in on them one night that they weren't even using that section of the coop. The heat lamp came out, the vents remained open, and even though it got down to 22 and snowed like crazy a couple of nights they were just fine. They are now almost 11 weeks old and our nights are still down into the high 30's. They are thriving with beautiful thick feathering and very active. So I think that as long as your coop is well built, has plenty of ventilation (since moist air holds more cold than dry air) and you can let in some warm south sunshine during the day they will surprise you with how well they cope with cold. They sure surprised me.

It also makes a difference, I think, if you've chosen breeds or varieties that are considered "cold hardy." Some breeds do need the insulation and the extra heat.

 

[Messipaw]

I live in NY. We have cold snowy winters. Sometimes more cold then snow. It reached into the single digits this winter and the winters before. My six hens were fine in their coop . It's eight by four feet with extended nesting boxes. I used hay and straw instead of sand in the winter and made sure there was no humidity being trapped. That's the key. Proper ventilation. There is a really good thread on BYC about open air coops and the deep liter method. I read it and followed it and had no problems with my coop or chickens. I didn't want to run electricity because I was afraid of a fire. So we don't have heat or extended light in the winter. Hope this helps. Good cluck to you. LoloL

 

[Brennychicks]

Slightly off topic, but is it wrong to use a reptile bulb in a brooder? I have had to isolate a chick and am want to be sure I am not doing it harm. Thanks

 

[4 the Birds]

Slightly off topic, but is it wrong to use a reptile bulb in a brooder? I have had to isolate a chick and am want to be sure I am not doing it harm. Thanks

Put your brooder lamp at one end of the brooder box/area so that the chick(s) can sit under it for warmth or away from it to cool down. Day old chicks need 90 to 95 deg temps and then reduced 5 deg per week. Many times people have brooders that are not large enough. I use 10 dollar brooder lamps found at tractor supply with big bulbs or heat bulbs. As the chicks get older you can switch out to lower wattage bulbs.

 

[AtholCoop]

After looking through the photos of nesting boxes I saw many types of houses. Living in the mountains of Idaho I am feeling like my girls will be a tad chilled during the winter in the house we have built. It's 3/8's plywood. Anyone insulate their house? What about the use of heat? (Not like we keep our house but something so they are not in 30 degree weather)...

Fellow Idahoan checking in.

Skip the insulation, unless you like to provide free housing to mice. Every outbuilding I've ever seen with insulation turns into a mouse hotel with the quickness.

Skip the heat unless you're brooding chicks. Chickens have one of the best forms on insulation nature supplies in their feathers. They will acclimate to the colder temperatures and fill out with feathers. The problem with heating the coop is two fold.

1. in order to maintain good air quality in the coop you need to have tons of ventilation, ventilation and heat don't go together very well. If you shut the ventilation down to conserve the heat you're going to have a very swampy coop in a very short period of time.

2. If the chickens don't acclimate to the colder temperatures they won't do well if you have a power outage, and they will be less inclined to go outside.

 

[JackE]

Fellow Idahoan checking in.

Skip the insulation, unless you like to provide free housing to mice. Every outbuilding I've ever seen with insulation turns into a mouse hotel with the quickness.

Skip the heat unless you're brooding chicks. Chickens have one of the best forms on insulation nature supplies in their feathers. They will acclimate to the colder temperatures and fill out with feathers. The problem with heating the coop is two fold.

1. in order to maintain good air quality in the coop you need to have tons of ventilation, ventilation and heat don't go together very well. If you shut the ventilation down to conserve the heat you're going to have a very swampy coop in a very short period of time.

2. If the chickens don't acclimate to the colder temperatures they won't do well if you have a power outage, and they will be less inclined to go outside.

X2. 30 degree temps are nothing, to a chicken. In the winter, we can get temps into the low single digits. And that is not including windchill. My coop is not only unheated and uninsulated, but it's open-air, the whole front wall is open, covered only by hardwarecloth.

 

[Blooie]

X2. 30 degree temps are nothing, to a chicken. In the winter, we can get temps into the low single digits. And that is not including windchill. My coop is not only unheated and uninsulated, but it's open-air, the whole front wall is open, covered only by hardwarecloth.

Hey, Jack E! Did you notice my post earlier in this thread where I said we didn't insulate? You are most certainly allowed to say "I told you so" at this point! I have it coming as stubborn as I was being! LOL

 

[Mama Kay W]

Another Idahoan checking in, up here about 60 miles from the Canadian border.

We did insulate our coop, during winter it can easily get to -20 especially with the wind chill, and believe me if I could of done it again I'd built a coop with OUT insulation. It's very hard to get good ventilation for them with the insulation and with "cold-hardy" hens you don't need it.

The only thing you may need to deal with is the waterier freezing, even with insulation it gets under freezing inside the coop, we do have a heater inside but don't use it anymore, they never want to come out and can't acclimate to the winters.

Plus it would save on the cost of building the coop.