Hi! I've browsed through many of the Hoop Coop threads and have done searches using key words specific to my questions but didn't really find an answer to my specific questions, so I'll start a new thread...
I live in Vermont and our Hardiness Zone is 4 (-25 at times). My husband and I have kept a few hens in a small house for many years now but this year we got 32 chicks, of which probably 15 will remain at the end of the year (the rest will reside in our freezer), so we'll need something bigger. We have a pasture adjacent to our house on which we plan to keep a movable chicken house with Premier One fencing so the birds can forage outside (BTW, Premier One poultry fence is fabulous--we've never lost a girl to weasels, fishers, raccoons, coyotes, foxes, skunks, stray dogs... nothing! And during the summer their house is open 24/7). Recently I discovered Hoop Coops and am now obsessed with them. In the next couple of weeks we will need to build ours.
My questions are:
1) Does anyone have experience with keeping chickens in a Hoop Coop through a New England Winter?
2) What color tarp do you use on top? In summer? In winter? I'm thinking dark for cool in summer and clear for a greenhouse/warming effect in winter. They'll have some access to outside during the day in winter so the house will be open during the day and I plan on making sure there's plenty of ventilation when it's closed up. I also plan on using deep bedding in the winter for warmth from the ground up.
3) I saw the blog of a farm that insulates with that silver bubble wrap insulation stuff in the winter. They had their Hoop Coop completely enveloped in it. Is all that really necessary in Vermont? It seemed like overkill. Thoughts?
4) Do you think it would be a good idea to stack hay bales up around the outside, one or two bales high, like you see around 100-yr-old farmhouse foundations in the winter?
Thanks for all your ideas and thoughts!
-Heather
I live in Vermont and our Hardiness Zone is 4 (-25 at times). My husband and I have kept a few hens in a small house for many years now but this year we got 32 chicks, of which probably 15 will remain at the end of the year (the rest will reside in our freezer), so we'll need something bigger. We have a pasture adjacent to our house on which we plan to keep a movable chicken house with Premier One fencing so the birds can forage outside (BTW, Premier One poultry fence is fabulous--we've never lost a girl to weasels, fishers, raccoons, coyotes, foxes, skunks, stray dogs... nothing! And during the summer their house is open 24/7). Recently I discovered Hoop Coops and am now obsessed with them. In the next couple of weeks we will need to build ours.
My questions are:
1) Does anyone have experience with keeping chickens in a Hoop Coop through a New England Winter?
2) What color tarp do you use on top? In summer? In winter? I'm thinking dark for cool in summer and clear for a greenhouse/warming effect in winter. They'll have some access to outside during the day in winter so the house will be open during the day and I plan on making sure there's plenty of ventilation when it's closed up. I also plan on using deep bedding in the winter for warmth from the ground up.
3) I saw the blog of a farm that insulates with that silver bubble wrap insulation stuff in the winter. They had their Hoop Coop completely enveloped in it. Is all that really necessary in Vermont? It seemed like overkill. Thoughts?
4) Do you think it would be a good idea to stack hay bales up around the outside, one or two bales high, like you see around 100-yr-old farmhouse foundations in the winter?
Thanks for all your ideas and thoughts!
-Heather