It never occured to me to use bags of leaves...I have tons of leaves having two seventy foot tall trees in my front yard. It does not get that cold here that I was going to heat the coop. It is new and as yet there is no ventilation or windows but humidity or smell does not seem to be an issue. I have a foot of straw on the floor, and five dog crates in two stacks...one three high and one two high for nests. It is open all day while they free range in the yard. The coop is 10x10x10 high with a loft in half. A lowe's kit. They all roost in the boards that span the top where the loft isn't. They have this elaborate bunch of real tree limbs that act as a ladder system to get up there.
I moved here from Florida so I consider twenty to be really cold but neighbors tell me that no one heats their coops. There are eleven in the coop...six hens but only two old enough to lay...and five roosters but only one who rules the roost. All bantys but two. It seems to me that they could keep each other warm but not all spread out on the roosts way up in the top. I can 'drop' my ceiling pretty easy with a tarp tacked to the edge of the loft and over the current 'roost boards'...and tack it at the top of the door. That will lower the ceiling to six feet. I'm figuring I'll put the bags of leaves on the sides and tack them to the sides of the coop to keep them from falling over.
I worry that mine are in the dark...not that I care about eggs at this point. I don't lock them in at night until they all go up and roost...but some mornings when I go out to let them out...they are down in the straw. Is it that they are impatient to get let out, or that they are cold and got down? Anyone have a guess? They have food and water in there. I did build one of those cookie tin waterers.
I got the cookie tin at Goodwill for fifty cents, and got an old lamp for a dollar I took apart to use for the electrical. I used a churchkey to open up a hole on the bottom of the side, and tin snips to make the hole big enough to put the plug and wire through. I bent the sharp places over with pliers and secured the wire (to the outside) with duct tape to protect it and hold it in place. I laid the bulb in a nest of loosely bunched tin foil, taped the switch to be permanently 'on'...and taped the cover on. I put it under one of those gallon red and white plastic waterers and it actually makes the water almost warm. I only used a 25 watt bulb and I unplug it if it does not go down to freezing. It took less time to make it then it did to explain it here.
This is my first year...and first winter with chickens. Next year I plan on having 24 in the fall so I wanted a coop big enough for at least that many. But with my eleven I feel like it is too big for them to keep themselves warm. I love the leaf bag idea...I'll be filling bags the first day they are dry enough.
Terry in Tennessee with the three spoiled Pugs, the Chihuahua...the eleven chickens and the parakeet...all living happily ever after.
I moved here from Florida so I consider twenty to be really cold but neighbors tell me that no one heats their coops. There are eleven in the coop...six hens but only two old enough to lay...and five roosters but only one who rules the roost. All bantys but two. It seems to me that they could keep each other warm but not all spread out on the roosts way up in the top. I can 'drop' my ceiling pretty easy with a tarp tacked to the edge of the loft and over the current 'roost boards'...and tack it at the top of the door. That will lower the ceiling to six feet. I'm figuring I'll put the bags of leaves on the sides and tack them to the sides of the coop to keep them from falling over.
I worry that mine are in the dark...not that I care about eggs at this point. I don't lock them in at night until they all go up and roost...but some mornings when I go out to let them out...they are down in the straw. Is it that they are impatient to get let out, or that they are cold and got down? Anyone have a guess? They have food and water in there. I did build one of those cookie tin waterers.
I got the cookie tin at Goodwill for fifty cents, and got an old lamp for a dollar I took apart to use for the electrical. I used a churchkey to open up a hole on the bottom of the side, and tin snips to make the hole big enough to put the plug and wire through. I bent the sharp places over with pliers and secured the wire (to the outside) with duct tape to protect it and hold it in place. I laid the bulb in a nest of loosely bunched tin foil, taped the switch to be permanently 'on'...and taped the cover on. I put it under one of those gallon red and white plastic waterers and it actually makes the water almost warm. I only used a 25 watt bulb and I unplug it if it does not go down to freezing. It took less time to make it then it did to explain it here.
This is my first year...and first winter with chickens. Next year I plan on having 24 in the fall so I wanted a coop big enough for at least that many. But with my eleven I feel like it is too big for them to keep themselves warm. I love the leaf bag idea...I'll be filling bags the first day they are dry enough.
Terry in Tennessee with the three spoiled Pugs, the Chihuahua...the eleven chickens and the parakeet...all living happily ever after.
