- Oct 2, 2013
- 20
- 0
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Hi there, I'm a newbie on the forum, but have been doing a bit of browsing over the past few days.
My husband and I have recently moved, and inherited a chicken coop at our new home with 16 Isa Brown hens.
The coop is wood framed, with wood slats inside and out (so no exposed framing on the inside, however we don't believe there is any insulation in the wall interiors). Approx 10x20 feet. The owners before us insulated it, by stacking square straw bales along the perimeter walls. It seemed to have worked, because the hens are all 5+ years old.
We decided to do a clean sweep of the coop yesterday and emptied the coop of all the bails to replace them, and give the girls a nice fresh start before winter comes. However, the deeper we got into it, the worse it got. The bails were packed with mouse tunnels, and nests, and we believe maybe even a weasel has been living in there, and there were many eggs packed in between the bails (although we've never lost a chicken).
From a sanitary point of view, we would like to try something different than straw bails for insulation now, but aren't particularly eager to reframe the inside of the coop.
We have been considering just adhering rigid insulation to the perimeter walls, and putting some plywood over it. It might not be pretty, but could it work? We're not sure of what R value we should be aiming for, for our coop. I know that some people say coops don't require insulation, but we can have weeks of nearly -40C weather here in the winter sometimes. We will definitely have a heat lamp on in there to keep the water thawed, but how much more should we do?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!
My husband and I have recently moved, and inherited a chicken coop at our new home with 16 Isa Brown hens.
The coop is wood framed, with wood slats inside and out (so no exposed framing on the inside, however we don't believe there is any insulation in the wall interiors). Approx 10x20 feet. The owners before us insulated it, by stacking square straw bales along the perimeter walls. It seemed to have worked, because the hens are all 5+ years old.
We decided to do a clean sweep of the coop yesterday and emptied the coop of all the bails to replace them, and give the girls a nice fresh start before winter comes. However, the deeper we got into it, the worse it got. The bails were packed with mouse tunnels, and nests, and we believe maybe even a weasel has been living in there, and there were many eggs packed in between the bails (although we've never lost a chicken).
From a sanitary point of view, we would like to try something different than straw bails for insulation now, but aren't particularly eager to reframe the inside of the coop.
We have been considering just adhering rigid insulation to the perimeter walls, and putting some plywood over it. It might not be pretty, but could it work? We're not sure of what R value we should be aiming for, for our coop. I know that some people say coops don't require insulation, but we can have weeks of nearly -40C weather here in the winter sometimes. We will definitely have a heat lamp on in there to keep the water thawed, but how much more should we do?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!
