Farming and Homesteading Heritage Poultry

[Beekissed]

Lacy, there are some really good, heavy, food grade white jugs that restaurants get cooking oil in that they just throw out in the trash afterwards. I've scored many of those jugs...most are around 3-4 gal., square, with a screw on lid. I had collected them at one point to use for just the purpose you propose in a small green house I was going to build. Folks paint one side black, fill them with water and stack them up so that the black side is absorbing heat all day and then releasing it through the white side into the interior of the room during the night. They last simply forever and can be used for so many things but their square design makes them particularly good for this purpose of passive solar heating.

Here's a pic of some.....

 

[bnjrob]

Quote:

That's the other thing I was trying to think of... some kind of heat sink like what is used in a green house, but like you said, it has to have the sun hitting it. I'm trying to think if it would be feasible to get a few of those blue 55 gallon barrels and paint them black and have them in the coop in the sun during the day (after I get my windows built next year) and then move them under the roosting boxes to release their heat for the birds during the night. But one of those things full of water is probably going to weigh 800 pounds and I know I couldn't move it. Know of anything lighter that could be put in the barrels that will hold the heat?

I have seen that greenhouse and I love it! I plan to build one some day (I hope). I plan to make step sides and put straw bales on them to do straw bale gardening on during the extended growing season I would have. I was thinking that come winter time, I would set up some temporary pens in the thing for the birds.

Have you gone to the Mother Earth News website and looked at articles for different heat sources? Their magazine goes over making solar heat collectors that hang on walls to collect heat and disperse it into houses and heat water for use. I would try there and see if there is something there that would fit your set up. No way you'll be able to move big drums full of water several times a day.

 

[Fentress]

No problem with frotstbite here in S.E. Va., but it is not all that cold, although it has already been colder that last year. Last year it was barely freezing and I had minor damage on my rooster's comb, lost two points. But, I had 20 chickens tucked into an 8 by 9 A frame. It was completely open on one end, but there was not enough room and air to get the humidity aware from the birds. This year I have 36 chickens in a 10 by 16 stick built, open front coop, with a gable roof. A lot more room for the air to circulate and no more frost bite.

 

[Lacy Blues]

Lacy, there are some really good, heavy, food grade white jugs that restaurants get cooking oil in that they just throw out in the trash afterwards. I've scored many of those jugs...most are around 3-4 gal., square, with a screw on lid. I had collected them at one point to use for just the purpose you propose in a small green house I was going to build. Folks paint one side black, fill them with water and stack them up so that the black side is absorbing heat all day and then releasing it through the white side into the interior of the room during the night. They last simply forever and can be used for so many things but their square design makes them particularly good for this purpose of passive solar heating.

Here's a pic of some.....

Oooo, I like that idea. I can move those if needed.

Have you gone to the Mother Earth News website and looked at articles for different heat sources? Their magazine goes over making solar heat collectors that hang on walls to collect heat and disperse it into houses and heat water for use. I would try there and see if there is something there that would fit your set up. No way you'll be able to move big drums full of water several times a day.

Thanks for this tip. I will check out Mother Earth News.

 

[suncatcher]

Subscribing... Tons of useful information here!

 

[suncatcher]

 
Anyone elxperiencing any issues with combs and waddles in this wonderful winter weather?

Big time. 

They do lots better with night time temps in the teens than they do with them in the single digits. 

Working on ways to warm up my coops (if it is even possible) in the winter time.  I didn't realize it got so cold here.  We're two USDA zones different than where we were in California and it sure is a big change. USDA says 9a with average lows of 20-25 but now we're in 7a with lows of 0-5 degrees.  Record temps for this week are -25 degrees.  I hope I don't see that!

Does anybody have any ideas on how to warm a barn without using electricity?  I know some will say to just breed for winter hardiness or that I shouldn't have gotten hot weather birds and brought them to such a cold place.  Well, I already had them when I moved here and they take the intense heat very well.  The cold, not so much.  I'm not willing to give them up.  I like them very very much and I would rather make some modifications to my barns to help them through the winters than to chop all their heads off.

I've thought about a hot bed like you would do for a winter sprouting/maintaining area for plants but I believe those need full sun to maintain temps.  Also thought about compost.  That makes too much humidity though. 

When I lived in California, I had a barn that had interior walls as well as exterior walls and that air space made quite a difference in insulation value.  We closed it up at night.  In the morning, it was warm inside that barn.  I never noticed any condensation anywhere and the birds never had frostbite.  It got colder than 20 degrees on occasion too but that temp now would be a very welcome low temp.

I plan to make big windows with plastic coverings next year (spring) that can let the sun into the coop during the day making nice warm sunbeams for my birds to bathe in during the day.  Putting on inner walls is probably my best bet and then closing it up at night?  I've been trying to increase ventilation like everybody says I should and I've been seeing more frostbite on younger birds.  Usually it is the older males (1 year +) with the bigger combs and wattles that suffer the most.

Or, should I make double walls as mentioned above and then have ventilation and sleeping boxes?

I'm ready to pull my hair out and I feel so bad for my birds when I can't even go outside in the evening to clean up uneaten food and close up the building for five or ten minutes without my fingertips burning because they are so very cold!

I am going to at least insulate the roof in one of my coops this coming year, that way the chickens who insist on roosting way up high just under the roof will hopefully be protected from frostbite on their comba. I would think insulating would also help keep the heat out, but don't live in a super hot climate, so not sure.

Yep, those heat exchangers are really cool, and work well, just have to find a good window that gets a lot of sun. In passive solar houses they use what is called a Trombe wall, this is made out of concrete, brick or some other type of rock, this allows them to release the heat they store during the day into the room at night. We have a ton of passive solar homes here in Colorado.

ETA, even a double wall would help some.

Back to catching up on reading this site......

 

[Rhinoman]

Seems like you'll be fighting mother nature, good luck, that always works out so well.

Just get birds that suit your environment.

This endeavor is challenging enough without adding the burden of stock that isn't suited to their environment.

JMHO

 

[Lacy Blues]

Seems like you'll be fighting mother nature, good luck, that always works out so well.

Just get birds that suit your environment.

This endeavor is challenging enough without adding the burden of stock that isn't suited to their environment.

JMHO

Yep I think you're right. That's probably what I ought to do. Axe all my rare birds. Doesn't matter if I don't want any other kind or that good ones are extremely rare, I just need to make it as easy as I can on myself and go with something else.

 

[Darkangael]

Your birds will adapt it will just take a bit.

 

[ronott1]

Yep I think you're right. That's probably what I ought to do. Axe all my rare birds. Doesn't matter if I don't want any other kind or that good ones are extremely rare, I just need to make it as easy as I can on myself and go with something else.

Your birds will adapt it will just take a bit.

This was discussed in regards to H RIRs.
A line had been separated for many years--one in Florida and one up by Canada. The ones in Florida had bigger combs because they needed those to survive the heat. In the North, they needed smaller combs to avoid frostbite.

The new ones will adjust to the new area. It will take time and some will die off for the fist generations.