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- #11
You are all so great and this is so interesting to read. I cannot thank you enough for talking me through all of this. It is such a learning experience and it REALLY helps me to be able to talk things through and work it over in my brain. Sometimes I get stuck on one thing and just can't progress. I am so thankful for the continued conversation.
As for ventilation, I have never calculated it before. I had to google to figure out how, so I hope I did this right. The coop (really I suppose it is technically more of a henhouse?) is a room in a larger building with a door to the outside and about 9' ceiling height. The room itself is about 14 ft x 13 ft (divided in part with a wall of chicken wire where the chickens stay), with an open stairway to the approximately 1200ft2 attic. There is one 2.5 ft x 4 3.5 ft window, and the 3 ft x 6.5 ft door to the outside. Plus the chimney and I have no idea how to calculate that in. The chickens are mainly in only to sleep and lay eggs, and are outside even in the winter except on the harshest of days.
I think this means we have the potential for about 38 ft2 of ventilation? In the winter, the main door and window are closed except for the pop door in the window, but in Sweden houses and buildings were built with something called a "self draft" ventilation, meaning they were built to refresh the air with passive circulation by means of purposeful ventilation holes, chimneys, etc. They are supposed to circulate about 0.35 l / m². Anyway, our own home has the same kind of ventilation as the workshop, passive.
I *think* this is adequate as I have never noticed moisture or any other issues in there. I DO notice an insane amount of dust build-up from the pine shavings which travels annoyingly all over the attic and really wish there was a way to get rid of that.
As for the water leakage, I have purchased the horizontal nipples and am currently searching for a container to use that will be hardy enough for cold winters, hopefully using a pond warmer or something like that to keep it from freezing. I do have the waterers outside already in the fully enclosed run, as is the food. I believe the water leakage was slow enough to just get into the litter on the floor of the coop, be absorbed and become "cementified" with the litter and poop, etc. It never, ever felt wet to me. It was only when changing the litter that I could see just how hardened and compacted it had become on the bottom, say, 4" layer. When we tried the deep bedding (?) method, it was about 14(?)" thick when I removed it all in spring.
I am thinking of moving the food back into the coop because the wild birds are insane and get into the run through the pop door and smaller birds through the chicken wire and eat half the food. Right now I have a diy "no spill" feeder that was supposed to keep the problem to a minimum but the birds are still going in.
I actually spent 6 hours out in the coop yesterday making some redesigns. It still looks so dingy and horrible but I was able to make some improvements. I built a poop shelf. I moved the roosting bars so that there is only one all the way across, and made it about 13" from the wall behind. I built the tray beneath it about 12", and also runs the whole length of the back wall. It is about 20" wide I think. I had a square of old vinyl flooring from when we redid the kitchen and by cutting it down the middle it actually fit PERFECTLY across the length of the board. I stapled it up along the wall behind, as well. it didn't reach far, but is way better than nothing. At least stuff won't fall down in the cracks behind.
I also found a piece of corrugated plastic roofing from the outside run we built and it fit perfectly on top of the egg nesting boxes. It had a very sloped roof but they still went up there and pooped quite often, especially the younger birds.
I wish I could show pictures but I honestly am embarrassed at how dingy and sad it looks compared to all of the beautiful coops I see posted here. I built all of the nesting boxes and everything inside from scraps we had from other projects and I wish it could be prettier and brighter.
I am sorry and thankful for those of you who read my long posts. I apologize that I cannot seem to say anything in a succinct way, but again, the conversation is so helpful. Thank you again!
As for ventilation, I have never calculated it before. I had to google to figure out how, so I hope I did this right. The coop (really I suppose it is technically more of a henhouse?) is a room in a larger building with a door to the outside and about 9' ceiling height. The room itself is about 14 ft x 13 ft (divided in part with a wall of chicken wire where the chickens stay), with an open stairway to the approximately 1200ft2 attic. There is one 2.5 ft x 4 3.5 ft window, and the 3 ft x 6.5 ft door to the outside. Plus the chimney and I have no idea how to calculate that in. The chickens are mainly in only to sleep and lay eggs, and are outside even in the winter except on the harshest of days.
I think this means we have the potential for about 38 ft2 of ventilation? In the winter, the main door and window are closed except for the pop door in the window, but in Sweden houses and buildings were built with something called a "self draft" ventilation, meaning they were built to refresh the air with passive circulation by means of purposeful ventilation holes, chimneys, etc. They are supposed to circulate about 0.35 l / m². Anyway, our own home has the same kind of ventilation as the workshop, passive.
I *think* this is adequate as I have never noticed moisture or any other issues in there. I DO notice an insane amount of dust build-up from the pine shavings which travels annoyingly all over the attic and really wish there was a way to get rid of that.
As for the water leakage, I have purchased the horizontal nipples and am currently searching for a container to use that will be hardy enough for cold winters, hopefully using a pond warmer or something like that to keep it from freezing. I do have the waterers outside already in the fully enclosed run, as is the food. I believe the water leakage was slow enough to just get into the litter on the floor of the coop, be absorbed and become "cementified" with the litter and poop, etc. It never, ever felt wet to me. It was only when changing the litter that I could see just how hardened and compacted it had become on the bottom, say, 4" layer. When we tried the deep bedding (?) method, it was about 14(?)" thick when I removed it all in spring.
I am thinking of moving the food back into the coop because the wild birds are insane and get into the run through the pop door and smaller birds through the chicken wire and eat half the food. Right now I have a diy "no spill" feeder that was supposed to keep the problem to a minimum but the birds are still going in.
I actually spent 6 hours out in the coop yesterday making some redesigns. It still looks so dingy and horrible but I was able to make some improvements. I built a poop shelf. I moved the roosting bars so that there is only one all the way across, and made it about 13" from the wall behind. I built the tray beneath it about 12", and also runs the whole length of the back wall. It is about 20" wide I think. I had a square of old vinyl flooring from when we redid the kitchen and by cutting it down the middle it actually fit PERFECTLY across the length of the board. I stapled it up along the wall behind, as well. it didn't reach far, but is way better than nothing. At least stuff won't fall down in the cracks behind.
I also found a piece of corrugated plastic roofing from the outside run we built and it fit perfectly on top of the egg nesting boxes. It had a very sloped roof but they still went up there and pooped quite often, especially the younger birds.
I wish I could show pictures but I honestly am embarrassed at how dingy and sad it looks compared to all of the beautiful coops I see posted here. I built all of the nesting boxes and everything inside from scraps we had from other projects and I wish it could be prettier and brighter.
I am sorry and thankful for those of you who read my long posts. I apologize that I cannot seem to say anything in a succinct way, but again, the conversation is so helpful. Thank you again!
