Is frostbite avoidable without electric heating? Should I add heat to my coop?

[Ponypoor]

Oh good. I was going to weigh in that for me they are the cheapest thing around apart from woodchips that are free, but are not dry!

Kiln-dried wood shavings also will keep things drier than fresh shavings, if you can’t get pellets.

If the mold is around the roof/soffits then it’s an issue with the cold air on the outside meeting the warm air from the inside creating condensation.

The way to mediate this is to make sure the surface inside doesn’t react to the cold outside air. I would put in an exhaust fan and insulate the roof, this will make sure no condensation occurs.

I am not familiar with Killz, here we remediate mold (like that black mold) with either a 10% bleach mixture or a mold spray one can get at any hardware store. Mold needs to be scrubbed off as the roots of the mold spore grows into rough surfaces.

With houses we remediate by using a blasting medium (sand blasting but using something like sodium or even liquid nitrogen instead of sand), this removes the mold and a thin portion of the surface material to get at the mold roots. Then scrubbed with the bleach or mold spray, I detest mold, so hard to get rid of.

Now for a small chicken coop that’s a bit over kill, some good elbow grease and scrubbing will do the job. A good Spring cleaning job to do, I don’t see it too bad just some black speckles, which I cannot really say is mold or what - err on the side of caution.

 

[Ponypoor]

I think I put what we do somewhere in this thread already, but in case I didn't, we have horribly high humidity here, and here's how we beat it.

First, adding ventilation doesn't help because now you're bringing in that 90% humidity into your coop. Mold will start growing, and the chickens will most likely develop respiratory illnesses.

So to reduce the humidity inside of the coop, no open water. We use DIY nipple buckets.

Now you have to deal with the ammonia from the poop, as that'll make them sick too. We use horse bedding pellets on the floor. Those dry out the poop. Our coops have no odors.

They still need air circulation, though, so we took out one of the two windows, installed a digital exhaust fan, and put a vent in the human door, which leads to the garden shed. That runs if the humidity hits 70% in the coop, which isn't often, as it's usually in the 60s in there.

We also heat the coops to 40°F, which helps in that respect because they free-range when it's 20°F or above and sometimes come back wet or with feet full of snow.

Yes an exhaust fan is a perfect solution and relatively inexpensive. Just need to have some sort of power supply into the coop, that could be tricky if they don’t know basic wiring.

Removing the air from the coop is a great way to keep moist stale air from accumulating. Passive ventilation doesn’t work great in colder climates, but mechanical movement with even just a small exhaust fan can make the world of difference.

 

[SourRoses]

Snow....

Hey 2... I wanted to point out that the posting format for forums is different than a chat box or social media. A post on the forum should contain at least most of what you want to say - except if you forget something or someone is responding back and forth with you.
Hitting the post button on only a sentence (or word) comes across as clutter, especially due to the fact forums have headers for each user and wide spaces for signature lines. I think at this point about 3-4 pages worth of this thread are taken up with your posts due to that quick-clicky-send button of yours.

 

[2 Acres]

 

[2 Acres]

Yes an exhaust fan is a perfect solution and relatively inexpensive. Just need to have some sort of power supply into the coop, that could be tricky if they don’t know basic wiring.

Removing the air from the coop is a great way to keep moist stale air from accumulating. Passive ventilation doesn’t work great in colder climates, but mechanical movement with even just a small exhaust fan can make the world of difference.

That basically what I do in my coop with 2 space heaters.

 

[2 Acres]

My coop is dry.

 

[2 Acres]

That basically what I do in my coop with 2 space heaters.

The air in the coop continuously moves

 

[2 Acres]

I actually found a mouse in a water coffee can. It must have jumped off the deep end. it drowned and became dinner.

I get satisfaction watching them drown. Nasty vermin

 

[Debbie292d]

Hey 2... I wanted to point out that the posting format for forums is different than a chat box or social media. A post on the forum should contain at least most of what you want to say - except if you forget something or someone is responding back and forth with you.
Hitting the post button on only a sentence (or word) comes across as clutter, especially due to the fact forums have headers for each user and wide spaces for signature lines. I think at this point about 3-4 pages worth of this thread are taken up with your posts due to that quick-clicky-send button of yours.

The issue comes when we're trying to find the meaningful posts, and you have to wade through all of the spam.

 

[2 Acres]

The issue comes when we're trying to find the meaningful posts, and you have to wade through all of the spam.

Brisk wind outside 48F in the coop. The temp is falling