post your chicken coop pictures here!

[perchie.girl]

Not finished yet...my first one

nice job.... And

from the San Diego High desert

 

[tumalochick]

I love the building  If it helps your "girlie" side any, architecturally speaking, board and batten siding has the narrow battens on the outside covering the gap between the wide boards. It would look weird if the battens were on the inside 

I ASSUME (and maybe you mentioned it) there will be a run attached to the coop in some fashion. Maybe on the end wall where the people door is? If you leave one or both of them open all day during the hot part of the year, I think the coop will stay cool. Especially if the gable ends up top stay open and air can still come in through the gaps you don't cover. If the coop is situated such that the high summer sun hits the gable end windows mid-day (I doubt it would on the long walls) you could make those windows operable with 1/2" hardware cloth covering the openings or rig an awning.

Regarding the birds getting too cold, they won't, not where you live. I seriously doubt you get to -20F in the high desert with any regularity. In fact I suspect it rarely even gets down to 0F. My girls see those temperatures through the winter. Days when it doesn't go above 0F. They won't see temps above freezing for weeks (though this winter was a lot warmer than normal. Last winter we froze our butts off for 3 months. It hit 32F exactly twice and -10F or lower 12 times in February. The only time in the winter it is warmer in the barn and coop than outside is at the beginning when the ground temp is still releasing stored up heat. All that stored heat disappears long before it gets really cold. Then it is about the same temp both inside and out. The birds just fluff up. 

We have a few days each winter that are super cold, but average winter lows are in the 20's, winter highs are 30's-40's. Last November we had a -33! Our well even froze. It stayed cold for about a week. I like the idea of hinging a couple of windows, but I think I'll see how it goes first. If it's getting too hot, that's an easy fix if needed. They'll free range a lot in the summer and they'll have the run too when not out. The run is 20' x 12' and will have a covered portion next to the coop for snow and sun protection. I removed a window to install a coop door that goes directly out to the run (I'll build them a gang plank) That way the people door is free to open and gather eggs and clean etc.
pic of my boy and chicks working on the run

Do you provide yours with a heat source with temps that low for so long? I will rig up a water pump and heater before next winter but I've read conflicting opinions on heat lamps.

 

[MeepBeep]

I've read conflicting opinions on heat lamps.

To be blunt, heat lamps are dangerous, and that danger can easily be exasperated if not mounted, wired and installed properly and if the coop is not kept immaculately clean aka no dust...

If you choose to heat please do it with much safer methods like low temp radiant heat panels (that don't get anywhere near ignition temps, and/or even burn temps) and properly wire your coop up to your local electrical codes... Extension cords, and hanging wires are a danger all to themselves...

Also remember if you do heat, you don't have to heat to extremes, you can fully avoid frostbite by just heating slightly above freezing 35°F like I do, this also allows them to still be 'cold hardened' and acclimated to the cold but it prevents frostbite and also prevents freezing water, frozen eggs and frozen poop...

 

[tumalochick]

To be blunt, heat lamps are dangerous, and that danger can easily be exasperated if not mounted, wired and installed properly and if the coop is not kept immaculately clean aka no dust...

If you choose to heat please do it with much safer methods like low temp radiant heat panels (that don't get anywhere near ignition temps, and/or even burn temps) and properly wire your coop up to your local electrical codes... Extension cords, and hanging wires are a danger all to themselves...

Also remember if you do heat, you don't have to heat to extremes, you can fully avoid frostbite by just heating slightly above freezing 35°F like I do, this also allows them to still be 'cold hardened' and acclimated to the cold but it prevents frostbite and also prevents freezing water, frozen eggs and frozen poop...

Thanks for the advice!

 

[lynnehd]

To be blunt, heat lamps are dangerous, and that danger can easily be exasperated if not mounted, wired and installed properly and if the coop is not kept immaculately clean aka no dust...

If you choose to heat please do it with much safer methods like low temp radiant heat panels (that don't get anywhere near ignition temps, and/or even burn temps) and properly wire your coop up to your local electrical codes... Extension cords, and hanging wires are a danger all to themselves...

Also remember if you do heat, you don't have to heat to extremes, you can fully avoid frostbite by just heating slightly above freezing 35°F like I do, this also allows them to still be 'cold hardened' and acclimated to the cold but it prevents frostbite and also prevents freezing water, frozen eggs and frozen poop...

Agree completely. Here is a link to the RHP's, I have one and love it, though we don't need it much in our area. I ended up with a used one, and it's fine.
http://www.amazon.com/Cozy-Products-CL-Radiant-Heater/dp/B00FRFFC4W

Definitely work on a method to keep water from freezing. Lots of threads about that on BYC

 

[bruceha2000]

We have a few days each winter that are super cold, but average winter lows are in the 20's, winter highs are 30's-40's. Last November we had a -33! Our well even froze. It stayed cold for about a week. I like the idea of hinging a couple of windows, but I think I'll see how it goes first. If it's getting too hot, that's an easy fix if needed. They'll free range a lot in the summer and they'll have the run too when not out. The run is 20' x 12' and will have a covered portion next to the coop for snow and sun protection. I removed a window to install a coop door that goes directly out to the run (I'll build them a gang plank) That way the people door is free to open and gather eggs and clean etc.
pic of my boy and chicks working on the run

Do you provide yours with a heat source with temps that low for so long? I will rig up a water pump and heater before next winter but I've read conflicting opinions on heat lamps.

I see you (or your son) have discovered how much longer tasks related to digging in dirt take when the chickens help.

No heat. My girls have a 3/4" pipe (with the pins of the saddle nipples just barely sticking out) built into the bottom of the open nest box. When it will be below freezing I have a puny reptile waterfall pump circulate the water. Down to about 15F a stock tank heater works to keep the nipples from freezing. Below that I use a submersible aquarium heater st to 75F.

For still unknown reasons 3 of the 5 nipples failed the day before Thanksgiving 2013. I noticed they were draining out the tank as I was putting the girls up before we went to my in-laws. Since I would have had to rip the nest box apart to fix it, I instead made a quickie 2 nipple water pipe on the outside of the coop. Because it wasn't insulated it was only good to just below freezing and I put the 1 gallon waterer in the next stall over (nothing in it) once the temps got cold. I put it in the corner with the plywood horse door (big enough gap for the chickens to get under easily) forming the third "wall". I had the red brooder heat lamp over it to keep the water from freezing. When it was below 0F (or maybe -10F I don't recall) it kept only the 1/4 of the ring closest to the lamp and the water inside the container (with an ice ring inside) liquid. That was the girls first adult moult year and my best layer (a Black Australorp) 'chose' not to moult until the end of January, the coldest part of the winter. Other than to drink not one of the girls, not even the half feathered BA, ever hung out near the heat lamp. To me that means they really don't have a problem with cold since they avoided the (relative) heat. In fact this past winter we had a warming spell and there was a little bit of open water at the edge of the pond behind the barn. The girls went down to drink. And they eat snow. Apparently given the option of warm water or nearly or already frozen water, the cold stuff is more desireable.

 

[tooktooktook]

Coops and run...

 

[tooktooktook]

 

[ShrekDawg]

Coops and run...

Wow I love it!!!

 

[TJordan]

Did you buy or build your coops??