Maine

[Ashley & Donna Dame]

Here from parsonsfield,
Just winterized one of our two coops, straw and old blankets and 1/2 inch plywood, vented top section, no insulation on ceiling, seems to stay pretty warm the other morning was 28 degrees and interior of coop had to be near 60. Going to use r21 in the other and half inch ply. Want to see which worked better. We are also doing the deep litter method and so far so good.Anyone else local have any pointers?

 

[DwayneNLiz]

Here from parsonsfield,
Just winterized one of our two coops, straw and old blankets and 1/2 inch plywood, vented top section, no insulation on ceiling, seems to stay pretty warm the other morning was 28 degrees and interior of coop had to be near 60. Going to use r21 in the other and half inch ply. Want to see which worked better. We are also doing the deep litter method and so far so good.Anyone else local have any pointers?

The more ventilation the better is my only advice, trying to keep moisture out is key

 

[Jessica Thompson]

Anyone got polish in maine

 

[combatfuzzball]

Feeling really accomplished today. staying home babysitting my daughter and decided to scramble some fresh eggs. AudriAnna is almost 10 months old and pretty much decided she wanted to eat all my breakfast. LOL so funny with her holding her mouth open like a little bird and going Mmm at every bite. I can't believe how much she wanted those fresh eggs. Had to cut her off because I didn't want her little belly to burst.

 

[lazy gardener]

Here from parsonsfield,
Just winterized one of our two coops, straw and old blankets and 1/2 inch plywood, vented top section, no insulation on ceiling, seems to stay pretty warm the other morning was 28 degrees and interior of coop had to be near 60. Going to use r21 in the other and half inch ply. Want to see which worked better. We are also doing the deep litter method and so far so good.Anyone else local have any pointers?

Welcome to the Maine thread. If you've been here before, welcome again! Agreed with above: Ventilate, ventilate, ventilate. I keep 2 windows cracked open all winter long, only closing them if the weather is blowing in or we have sub zero temps. When it's real cold, I open windows in the morning, and may close them down in the evening. But, the coop is opened up well during the day. Make sure all of your ventilation is predator proof: 1/2" hdw cloth does nicely. I also have soffit vents, and gable end vents, plus a floor level vent that does get closed off in the winter. No insulation in my coop, but I do have lots of thermopane glass.

If you can cover part of your run with plastic to keep out the winds, that's a great help. Creates a nice micro-climate. I put a green house tarp roof over part of their winter run. With the extra plastic, it gets nice and toasty in there. At least 20* above ambient temps when ever the sun shines. The girls scratch and peck, and shuffle through the DL compost in the sun room all winter long.

Looks like a ground hog has dug a tunnel right in the middle of the garden. Any one know how soon they start hibernation? I would like to have an up close and personal face to face meeting with him before that happens.

 

[Ashley & Donna Dame]

Welcome to the Maine thread. If you've been here before, welcome again! Agreed with above: Ventilate, ventilate, ventilate. I keep 2 windows cracked open all winter long, only closing them if the weather is blowing in or we have sub zero temps. When it's real cold, I open windows in the morning, and may close them down in the evening. But, the coop is opened up well during the day. Make sure all of your ventilation is predator proof: 1/2" hdw cloth does nicely. I also have soffit vents, and gable end vents, plus a floor level vent that does get closed off in the winter. No insulation in my coop, but I do have lots of thermopane glass.

If you can cover part of your run with plastic to keep out the winds, that's a great help. Creates a nice micro-climate. I put a green house tarp roof over part of their winter run. With the extra plastic, it gets nice and toasty in there. At least 20* above ambient temps when ever the sun shines. The girls scratch and peck, and shuffle through the DL compost in the sun room all winter long.

Looks like a ground hog has dug a tunnel right in the middle of the garden. Any one know how soon they start hibernation? I would like to have an up close and personal face to face meeting with him before that happens.

We appreciate the advice. We are building a roof over our 10x14 run area in the next few weeks and do plan to put probably 6mil poly around it for winter. The roof will be made with 2x4 trusses, and polycarbonate clear sheets for roofing material. Want to keep as much natural light as possible for them. As far as ventilation we have 6 3 inch vents along the top right now. Seems to stay dry but thinking before snow flies will be adding gable end vents to be safe. Theyre definitely keeping it warm between body heat and the deep litter.

As a side note - we have 1 easter egger rooster about 8 mos old now that we had to seperate from the hens, he's too big for the ones we have and didn't want the girls getting injured and scared all the time as they were being from his frequent mating attempts. He is getting along well and has himself a large coop and a stuffed animal for a new mate. Anyone ever keep a roo alone indefinitely? If so how did it go? We give him a few treats in the evening when we return home from work along with his nightly snuggle and pet which he thoroughly enjoys. He knows his name and follows us like a dog would. Just don't want to make the poor guy slip into a depression or anything. He does still see the hens, and tries to call to them when given food and treats otherwise is doing fine with this.

 

[Hiltonizer]

How's everyone making out in the wake of the storm? We just got power back an hour or so ago, making for 3.5 days without... not too bad. Have a couple small generators for the small amenities, getting the well working again though is nice. Been flushing with buckets of pond water and filling up at the spring on Route 3 for potable. Pain in the arse.

We had 2 of our 6 poultry tractors get absolutely demolished... the rest needed/need repair. I can only assume they must have flown up in the air quite a ways and crashed back down. Underestimated this storm as we've never had wind so much as flip one.

Amazingly, no bird losses... though we did have to wrangle everyone in the thick of it Monday morning, it was quite the scene. We have 14 Thanksgiving Turkeys we shepherded down from the field to the barn, while we made repairs, fortunately they're very feed motivated and chase the ATV. Just got them back up today.



The hoop house needs some minor repairs also, have quite the patch job to do on the plastic as well as some re-fastening. Hopefully cold and snow hold off until after Thanksgiving so we can get things in order for winter.

If there's anyone who feeds Christmas Trees to their goats, we had a giant (30 foot or so?) balsam come down, you're free to come take what you want of it.

 

[Ashley & Donna Dame]

We are still without power here in Parsonsfield. So day five of this nonsense. Watching CMPs website and although they have made significant progress, Parsonsfield hasn't been one of the towns feeling that progress.

We didn't have any damage, luckily because we live on the river. It's high but didn't come out of the banks, thankfully.

Our coops are pretty solid buildings, so other than a bit of leaking in one our chickens faired well.

We will be glad to get the power back so we can have a shower rather than a sponge bath.

On a lighter note, we got our very first egg yesterday. So exciting for us. Now we will see if it has a baby inside. We are crossing our fingers.

 

[DwayneNLiz]

On a lighter note, we got our very first egg yesterday. So exciting for us. Now we will see if it has a baby inside. We are crossing our fingers.

congrats!!! i hope you get your power back soon!!!
they do know that you are out, right?? i was just talking to a neighbor of mine who was without power but they didnt know her road was out, nobody had reported it so they were marked as 'with' power

Good Luck!!!

 

[Ashley & Donna Dame]

Thanks!!!
Yes CMP has our road listed. It will probably be one of the last ones to get power where it's a mile long dirt road.
Oh well another project day at home is good.