Northerners - insulating coops?

[bugsaroo]

Wow, folks are all over the place with this one. Had I of just had girls, no large combs, would have probably been fine, but I had about 20 crossbred single comb roosters with enormous combs, lost three the first year from frostbite combs, no insulation in metal barn. Second year, insulated coop with dense foam and sealed well on inside and outside to prevent access from rodents. No frostbite combs. Guess it is a live and learn type of issue. We had about of week of zero or below this past year.

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
I do not know what size your metal barn was, but if we are talking "only big enough to contain the chickens", then you may very well have had high humidity due to the uninsulated metal that first year. Unless your coop is so tiny or so extremely-ventilated that it exactly tracks outdoor temperatures all the time (and very few coops do!), you end up with the warmer-thus-more-moisture-laden air condensing out on the bare metal walls/roof so that the moisture gets trapped there to continually "reinfest" the air and it becomes very difficult even with substantial ventilation to prevent the building from getting chronically-humid.

Of course your insulation probably also kept the coop warmer inside the second year, and you will probably never know how much the frostbite was caused by temperature per se versus humidity, but, a thought anyhow.

Pat

 

[otowner98]

Wow, lots of information. Question I have is if you do insulate, what methods of ventilation should you use? I'm planning on partitioning off the back 10' of a 10'x20' shed (cat gets to keep the front half), and if I were to insulate, I was planning to put fiberglass in the walls and roof trusses (or should it be the ceiling?), and then covering it with plywood. I should mention I'm near Chicago, and my cat has never had anything more than a heat pad to lay on, but usually doesn't even do that.

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
Same as you would use if you did not insulate. The two things are completely independant. See my ventilation page (link in sig below) for more on the subject.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[otowner98]

Finally got everything finished on the conversion over the past couple of weekends. Turned out great - I even had to thank my father for all those make work construction jobs he came up with for me and my buddies back in high school. Funny how old skills come back. I just finished the ventilation yesterday. I put in two louvered 6"x14" vents on opposite sides about 8" off of the ground level, and two 12" x 18" gable vents as high up as they would fit (almost at the peak) on the third exterior wall (same one where the door to the run will go). It has been well over 100 degree heat index here the last two days and so far things have been pretty good. I'm also able to open a large door to let more air in during the day.