FunnyBunny89
Songster
- Apr 3, 2024
- 439
- 688
- 171
Hi all! We inherited an old chicken coop when we bought our forever home that used to sit in the shade of a very large digger pine tree. We had the property cleared of all diggers, and now the coop is in the sun 100% of the day. It does have a young oak growing next to it but it's not in a location that provides shade yet. In the meantime, I have been working on this coop for over two months; making it fox proof, (hopefully) rodent proof, and insulating it to help deal with the heat. It came with a metal roof and I can't replace it by myself, nor does my husband want to bother. So I am doing my best to make it work. I don't have any before pictures, but let me describe it for you...
It was built with quarter inch plywood that was old and peeling at the edges. It had two large window spots but one of the panes was missing. It had no guards along the gaps and the roosting boards were overlapping each other a lot, so they were covered in old poop stains. The floor plan is great but the walls and stuff were not.
We tore it all down and kept the framing, with some fortification added, and rebuilt it with repurposed barn wood that was given to us by one of my husband's clients. A new window was purchased and framed in. My husband and I built the door together with more barn wood. Once the exterior was done, I began investigating for holes, gaps, leaks, and drafts.
I've been cutting plywood and closing all the gaps along the base and walls to keep drafts and rodents/snakes out. I also used plywood for the walls to block the drafts that were coming straight through the barnwood. Because it's lapped, there are a lot of tiny gaps, especially wherever the boards are warped. I didn't bother with insulating material because the siding is almost two inches thick, and the plywood itself is a half inch thick. I find that it insulates quite well with the air gap between the plywood and the barn wood.
I did however put insulating foam into the ceiling, held in place by more half inch plywood. The metal gets so hot! It was like a heater!
Since the door has a closed window on it, I added two vents that can create a cross breeze.
I installed a fan on the side that lets air in for days when the breeze is gone, and it seems to help a lot.
So, after all that, the coop is holding at 86 degrees right now, at 12:39pm PST with the weather app showing 83 degrees. The high today will be 87. My goal is to get the coop to not bake the chicks when they want to go in... they have ice water now, and will get more later to make sure they stay cool.
We are planning to add sand for the floor once the straw is used up. We already have some, it's construction sand, nice and grainy and no more dusty than the straw. We will lay a base of gravel and put 4-5 inches of sand on top. Since the floor is dirt, I think that will help cool the coop down too.
With all of this being said, does anyone have any further suggestions for bringing the temp in the coop down? Or considerations for winter time? We get a lot of wind, rain and snow here but it never gets below 25-30 degrees F, usually.
Oh yeah!!! I also bought white solar reflective paint for the roof, will have it in a day or so. I think that should help a lot.
Thanks for reading and if nobody has input, I hope this can help others who are building in the sun!
It was built with quarter inch plywood that was old and peeling at the edges. It had two large window spots but one of the panes was missing. It had no guards along the gaps and the roosting boards were overlapping each other a lot, so they were covered in old poop stains. The floor plan is great but the walls and stuff were not.
We tore it all down and kept the framing, with some fortification added, and rebuilt it with repurposed barn wood that was given to us by one of my husband's clients. A new window was purchased and framed in. My husband and I built the door together with more barn wood. Once the exterior was done, I began investigating for holes, gaps, leaks, and drafts.
I've been cutting plywood and closing all the gaps along the base and walls to keep drafts and rodents/snakes out. I also used plywood for the walls to block the drafts that were coming straight through the barnwood. Because it's lapped, there are a lot of tiny gaps, especially wherever the boards are warped. I didn't bother with insulating material because the siding is almost two inches thick, and the plywood itself is a half inch thick. I find that it insulates quite well with the air gap between the plywood and the barn wood.
I did however put insulating foam into the ceiling, held in place by more half inch plywood. The metal gets so hot! It was like a heater!
Since the door has a closed window on it, I added two vents that can create a cross breeze.
I installed a fan on the side that lets air in for days when the breeze is gone, and it seems to help a lot.
So, after all that, the coop is holding at 86 degrees right now, at 12:39pm PST with the weather app showing 83 degrees. The high today will be 87. My goal is to get the coop to not bake the chicks when they want to go in... they have ice water now, and will get more later to make sure they stay cool.
We are planning to add sand for the floor once the straw is used up. We already have some, it's construction sand, nice and grainy and no more dusty than the straw. We will lay a base of gravel and put 4-5 inches of sand on top. Since the floor is dirt, I think that will help cool the coop down too.
With all of this being said, does anyone have any further suggestions for bringing the temp in the coop down? Or considerations for winter time? We get a lot of wind, rain and snow here but it never gets below 25-30 degrees F, usually.
Oh yeah!!! I also bought white solar reflective paint for the roof, will have it in a day or so. I think that should help a lot.
Thanks for reading and if nobody has input, I hope this can help others who are building in the sun!
and the corner shade, one of the chicks on the cool side of the coop where they usually spend their afternoons, and one of them using the field cover I built. I spray the ground down so it can stay cool under there. They seem to like it!
