Damp Coop

Hello Plymouth MA from Hudson MA,
My girls were wet tonight when they went into their coop, what a sorry looking bunch of chickens. I was afraid they might get too chilled tonight since the temps are dipping into the teens & highs tmrw only in the 20's. I ended up plugging in their brooder light for a little while, I figure it will help them to dry out a bit & maybe it will dry out any dampness in the coop from all the precip we've had the past 24 hrs. I've had about enough winter....I'm ready for spring!

 

I have nothing to say but HI from the vineyard.

 

Well it depends. I had to take some drastic measures myself due to constant rain and high humidity, freeze/thaw... ugh.

Does it really reek of ammonia? It doesn't sound like it from your post, so you're still ok. For the most part, the high humidity levels alone won't ruin it for you. You'll want to make sure you're getting enough ventilation to help the air change. How deep is your litter? And more importantly, how much of your litter is composed of droppings?

I've curbed problems with high humidity by using DE (occasionally), adding shavings, deep stirring, adding dead leaves (helps fluff up the bedding), and even partial bedding changes if ammonia becomes a problem. You should be fine by what you're doing now. Just monitor your ammonia

I have a raised 5x4 coup with 12" bedding and found my bedding had a high poop ratio to shavings. With the cold, rainy, freezing, humid weather, I found that the bedding was starting to compost on it's own. If I had a bigger coup, I would be happy about it, but this is not good news for me. It's composting (hot) since there's enough moisture in the bedding to start it. After much investigating (no signs of water leaks), I came to the conclusion that the BOTTOM/FLOOR of my coop was creating condensate due to the temperature difference between the freezing outside and the warm inside of the bedding. The floor is a 1" subfloor, with vinyl, and it didn't occur to me to add a moisture blocker of some kind, since I figured the bedding would be enough of an insulator. I never said I was a builder, lol.

So if dig all the way through the composting bedding, there's a thin layer of wet bedding on the surface of the vinyl. Ugh! I had to change out 5, 5 gallon bucket fulls of bedding and stir up with DE to take it back to acceptable levels.

 

Boy Im glad I read this thread. Ill be putting down the lino in my new coop on Saturday and happen to have a roll of moisture barrier left over from a bathroom remodel...Ill put that down before the lino. I dont think it could hurt anyway.

 

I do the deep litter method also. With the way this winter is shaping up, I find I've added shavings more often than I'd expected. I also use more (food grade) DE than at other times of the year. So far, so good...but spring may be a real bear! Oh, and be sure that your ventilation is adequate - with the fluctuating temps we've been getting in New England this winter, I think the humidity issue is a big deal, healthwise. The past couple of days is a good example - it's been "warm" and rainy, and the girls are soggy and dragging a lot of moisture into the coop, then BAM! it's winter again, temps at night in the single digits (or lower). Moist cold is a much bigger deal than dry cold - frostbite, resp. illnesses, etc.
Oh, for the warm, dry days of summer....

 

Yup, I'd suggest doing as much of a cleanout as you can stand (especially in problem areas like near the popdoor, around the waterer, and under the roost) and replace with dry shavings.

If you cannot or are just not *going* to do that, then adding a bag of dry shavings on top of what you've already got is probably a reasonable bet, but a cleanout -- at least of the worst areas, and going all the way down to the floor unless you hit a layer of dry stuff down there -- is going to work best.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat