How did chickens ever survive without insulated & well lit coops?

[redhawkou812]

Thanks to all. I lived in the coop as a toddler while my folks built the new home & I noone in the family remembered the place being insultated. Heck the house wasn't insulated. Woooo.....showing my age, hey? The disease & preds are the next concern. Disease more than preds. The dogs will help keep the 4 legged away & netting will keep our pesky owl at bay. We just picked up 14 this weekend expecting to loss a few, well, just because. But they are all healthy, active, & eatin' more like the bloodhound than lil chics!

 

[greathorse]

Winter time debates regarding this issue are some of the best reading on this site. There are a lot of folks that simply cannot bear the thought of having their chickens shivering in the cold. Others (I am one of them) believe that heating and tightly insulating coops is doing the birds a huge disservice. We had a string of days last winter when temperatures got to negative 18 degrees and my birds were fine. My coop had open screened windows to the south. My RIR had a bit (very little ) frost bite on his comb,not one hen had frost bite and the hens even laid a bit. I did have a 40 watt bulb in the coop for light to encourage laying. I have a very old book written by the author of The Farm Journal Magazine, and he goes into quite a lengthy discussion regarding the harm that is caused fowl by tight non ventilated coops. I dont imagine Tennessee has a lot of negative zero Farenheit days.

You will make your own decision. Good Luck.

 

[morelcabin]

Quote:
I bet your parents never asked you if you were born in a barn, did they?...what a perfect excuse for leaving the dang door open all the time:>)

Actually my father grew up in an uninsulated house here in Canada...I remember spending the night there just once as a kid...and it was only because there was a turn in the weather and it was a blizzard outside. My grandmother put me and my three siblings in a bed and covered us with three of those big canvas type wool horse blankets. They were so heavy we couldn't move...and the wind acutally blew snow through the walls all night long. I tell you I sure did appreciate what my dad said about "living in his day" after that night.

 

[vermontgal]

1. Many chickens over the years have in fact not survived. If you are not attached to a particular bird, this is not a big deal.

2. With a larger backyard flocks of 8-10 or 20-25, a larger number of chickens put out more body heat. On truly cold nights, the chickens on the edges might freeze.. Very small flocks (2-4 birds), may be a relatively new phenomenon?

3. Insulating or heating the coop at -30F is a different deal than insulating or heating the coop at +30F. I try to keep my interior coop temperature above 10F - sometimes it goes a little below. With four chickens in an insulated coop, I typically turn on a 100 watt heater at -15F. On the chance that we have a power outage when it is very cold (below -20F), the chickens would be allowed into the basement of my house.

If I had 25 chickens, I probably would not worry about either heat or insulation.

If I had more than 25 chickens, I'd start thinking about how to build a poultry heat exchanger to get some of that heat into my own living quarters!

 

[cmom]

Here is a great reference book, Gail Damerow's 'Storey's Guide to Chickens' is an excellent guide, as well as this web site an excellent source of information.

Also here are some other good sites and info.
Henderson's Chicken Breed Chart
http://www.mypetchicken.com/aboutChickens.aspx
https://www.backyardchickens.com/lcenter.html
http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/BRKPoultryPage.html
https://www.backyardchickens.com/coopdesigns.html
https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=2593-Treats_Chart

 

[Kitchenella]

When I lived in Michigan I had about 15 birds and didn't heat or insulate the coop. It was attached to the garage so that side was very well sheltered from the wind. I did put a heat thing in the water just so I wouldn't have to keep refreshing it when it froze.

Animals are amazingly adaptable. I remember one winter when the weather forcasters were telling everyone to bring in their pets because it was going to be so cold. My little daughter begged me to bring in our young Great Pyrnees dog. When I was getting ready to go to bed I went out to check on her. She wasn't even in the dog house. She was laying in a snow pile just outside the door with her tail over her nose looking very cozy. I left her there and she was fine. I'm sure if I had brought her into the warm house she would have been miserable in her fur coat.

 

[cybercat]

Quote:
Nope you do NOT need an isulated coop in TN. We are also building on a slope and it is easy to work with dig a ditch and build with block to a point just above ground. You can make it level that way then add your wood walls. We also have alot of woods so I plan on free ranging once my chicks are full grown. Since I am buying a breed which gets good wieght I am not that concerned about hawks. They will be locked up at night so that takes care of night time predators. There are alot of people on here from TN many do bantams but many also do large chickens. I am on a Tn homestead list and many there also free range without problems.

You do not have to do anything special for chickens in TN. No insulation or extra heat is needed. Just build your coop securley and you will be alright. A run would be a good idea till chicks are big enough to be out roaming. If you have not yet check in with all us Tns in the "Where am I where are you" thread down further in the forum.

Welcome to BYC and chickens.

 

[Beekissed]

No insulation, no heat~

Mountains of WV, where its both cold and damp during the winter.

No freezing, no deaths, a little frostbite that resolves itself. Cont. laying throughout the season, no added lighting. LOTS of ventilation from gaping holes and cracks in the building, large windows covered with plastic for the winter. Pop door left open all year long, no exceptions.

Tough birds, no illness or death.

 

[Granolamom]

Hi there, and

!
You could do a search and find out what breeds do best in colder climates. Also, use a 2x4 for a perch, so that they can sit on it and tuck their feet under their bodies (no frost-bitten toes).
As for sun, though, I understand that chickens (just like most other creatures, including us), need sunlight to be healthy, so you might want to clear some of the trees away for that.
I TOTALLY envy you for having built a sweatlodge on your land!!! There isn't one anywhere within 2 hours from us, and at some point we'd like to have one of our own, too. (Might contact you for tips on how to build one...

)

 

[CHICKENCHASERWV]

I have a 8x12 coop and a 24x50 covered run and i am using the open coop design. I have 3 walls and they are lined on the inside with tyvek and have the soffit area open on both sides. The front of the coop has no door and two open holes one is 1x4 and the other is 4x4 with the door in between it faces south and they will not have insulation from the cold or heat. I will run electric to the coop but just for my convenience. I live in West Virginia please read Robert Plamondon Poultry News Letter on line he has great information on open coop designs.