How do you heat your coops

[karlamaria]

Electric door opener, that sounds awesome....  My run is peaked in the middle so I'm hoping the tarps do okay, they are heavy-duty and strapped down with bungees. I just don't have any money to go fancy. I'm a poor recent college grad who only just got promoted at my store (not even doing what my degree is right now because the teaching market sucks)

I hear you, I'm out of work now and thanking my stars I saved my tax money to do it with or I would be in trouble ! I'm sure your coop and run will be fine. We used heavy duty zip ties to hold down the tarps last year, they worked great. But we used cheap at first and they broke in the wind. We got te big black heavy duty ones next and they worked well.

I just purchased some clear tarps on the cheap tonight from TarpaFlex US's website.  https://www.tarpaflex.com/acatalog/clear-heavy-duty-tarps.html


I got a 10'x20' for the Top and West and North side of the run for $20 and two 7'x10' tarps for for the East faces on either side of the door for $11.  After shipping and handling et. al. it came out to just under $65.

I booked marked this! If my plastic does not hold up I'm ordering these! Wish I had seen this earlier, they look awesome! I'm going to order a few just in case, in fact I'm going to get some for my back porch to. I love that there so clear! Thank you for sharing!

 

[blondiebee181]

I hear you, I'm out of work now and thanking my stars I saved my tax money to do it with or I would be in trouble ! I'm sure your coop and run will be fine. We used heavy duty zip ties to hold down the tarps last year, they worked great. But we used cheap at first and they broke in the wind. We got te big black heavy duty ones next and they worked well.

I booked marked this! If my plastic does not hold up I'm ordering these! Wish I had seen this earlier, they look awesome! I'm going to order a few just in case, in fact I'm going to get some for my back porch to. I love that there so clear! Thank you for sharing!

Yeah, I got mine at D and B tractor supply and the tarps were not cheap, used to tarp down hay stacks in bad weather. I get my heavy duty zip-ties at Home Depot. Gonna go buy a small mechanical thermometer today too so I can get an idea of the temps in my coop night to night. If the girls seem really uncomfortable, I'm thinking of insulating the inner roof with a car window sunshade, but the nights in Boise rarely get below 20F and chickens will be okay in much lower than that.

 

[Gifa]

I booked marked this! If my plastic does not hold up I'm ordering these! Wish I had seen this earlier, they look awesome! I'm going to order a few just in case, in fact I'm going to get some for my back porch to. I love that there so clear! Thank you for sharing!

Yeah, I think $20 for a 10'X20' tarp is ridonculous cheap. That's big enough to cover three sides of my run... for $20 bucks.

 

[blondiebee181]

Yeah, I think $20 for a 10'X20' tarp is ridonculous cheap. That's big enough to cover three sides of my run... for $20 bucks.

My 10X20' wasn't much more...like 25$

 

[karlamaria]

Yeah, I think $20 for a 10'X20' tarp is ridonculous cheap. That's big enough to cover three sides of my run... for $20 bucks.

I paid 40.00 for the thick plastis, you got a great deal, and I'm getting them in case the plastic does not work well in my wind and snow . We have winter 7/8 months of the year! It's nineteen degrees out in the mornings already here ! By the end of the month below zero. A good covered run is worth it's weight in gold!

 

[PurplePoppiPpl]

as for keeping coops draft free but still have chicken door open... i was think of cutting slits in cloth or shower curtain material and at first pinning them far apart acroos the door so they know they can get out but gradually inching its way closer until the fabric touches....

 

[karlamaria]

as for keeping coops draft free but still have chicken door open... i was think of cutting slits in cloth or shower curtain material and at first pinning them far apart acroos the door so they know they can get out but gradually inching its way closer until the fabric touches....

with pen pen totally enclosed your coop should be draft free. That's why many of us enclose the pen, so the wind and snow can not get in. My pen is dry and weather proof so even the coop stays warmer. Best part of covering my pen, even the door to my pen is coved well so I can open and close it but it keeps out the weather. We just got doe laying sand down so all we have to do is scoop the poo, and we clean the coop every 2 weeks all winter so no wetness ,causing ammonia, or humidity problems .

 

[Missa Chickabee]

This Article is excellent. Well worth the read.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/winter-coop-temperatures

 

[bruceha2000]

I was looking into building a chicken nipple system for my run also... but I was concerned that if it got cold enough that frostbitten chickens is a legitimate concern, it would be cold enough to freeze my chicken nipples off, so to speak.


How do you maintain a chicken nipple system in the winter months?

Haven't used it yet, since I just got the chicks in June. And I am changing it to an insulated 5 gallon igloo drink cooler based on another BYCer's design but:

I have a 5 gallon bucket with a lid. I drilled a hole low in the side, put in a barbed hose fitting. 3/8" clear tubing from the bucket to a shut off, and from the shutoff to the 3/4" pipe with the saddle nipples. At the other end of the pipe is a "T" with another barb fitting and a drain shutoff. Clear tube goes back to a second barbed fitting near the top of the bucket. On the inside is yet another barb and tubing that goes to a small pump. Using this, I can circulate water from the bucket through the tube and pipe and back to the bucket. I also bought a 250W livestock water heater http://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-All-...817384&sr=8-6&keywords=livestock+water+heater

It can either float or sit on the bottom. It has its own thermostat. Assuming this all works, I just need to figure out how often I need the pump to run to keep the water in the pipe and hose from freezing.

That is the PLAN, we'll see how it works out. Shouldn't have to worry about frozen wattles with nipples. The 5 gallon container change is simply because I can't see spending extra money to heat the area around the bucket

Hopefully, I WILL have time to take pictures to post. I was going to wait until I had the new container in but the way things are going, I might just do the current system. Technically speaking, there is little difference.

Bruce

 

[bruceha2000]

It's down to 19 here now, cold cold, and time to wrap my pen up in 6 mm clear plastic.

Too late, since you've already done it but I found 8 mil VERY CLEAR plastic at ACE Hardware. Amazingly much stronger than the 6 mil. And did I mention CLEAR?

I wanted the girls to be able to see out of their coop (and us to be able to see in). I was going to use plexi-glas but

the cost! $124 for a 4x8 sheet!!! No time this year, but hopefully next year I can make frames so the "plastic glass" can be easily reused yearly rather than pulling staples out of it in the spring and then having to put it back up in the fall.

Bruce