Preparing Your Flock & Coop for WINTER


All I did with my tractor last year was cover it with some cheap shower curtains and put some straw bales around the bottom to block most of the wind from where it was open. Only problem I had with it was one spot in it were the girls were roosting up against the steel siding roof, getting some frostbite on their combs. a big hunk of cardboard took care of that issue.
 

All I did with my tractor last year was cover it with some cheap shower curtains and put some straw bales around the bottom to block most of the wind from where it was open. Only problem I had with it was one spot in it were the girls were roosting up against the steel siding roof, getting some frostbite on their combs. a big hunk of cardboard took care of that issue.
Looks like someone else liked your straw bales!
 
I still have two, sometimes three that have done the same thing since they were 4 weeks old, LG. Think those might be some of the ones my brother will be gifted with in a couple of weeks! He's chomping at the bit..I reminded him last night to get the separation pen set up before they get there. I don't think he's expecting the size of these Brahma pullets! :lau We are still waiting for the clear tarp we ordered to get here. Better hurry, winter's drawing nearer. But we did get the water set up done so that's one thing out of the way for winter. We also got the sidewall vent blocked for winter. That's the only ventilation opening I close during the winter because it's 8 inches wide and 26 inches high, it's on the north side of the coop, and blows directly onto one of the roosts. Not good. All the rest stay open. Well, we do close the windows on whichever side the wind is howling in from, but any on the lee side remain open.
Did you have to order plastic sheeting? I picked mine up at Home Depot in Billings. Comes in many sizes and lengths.
 
She's talking about a clear tarp, not plastic sheeting.  Tougher, thicker, grommets, sold by sizes, lasts for years. 
Aha!!! I was looking for that this fall and couldn't find it to order. So did my own thing with duck tape, a hole punch and zip ties. It works, but don't want to do it all over again next winter
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. Do you have a website I can go to?
 
Last year I got my clear plastic covering at Lowes as well, and I was very happy with it. It lasted us all winter long, through snow load, ice, and winds of 60mph+ without a single rip or tear. In fact when we took it off this spring we marked which sides of the plastic were fitted to which sides of the run, and were able to take it off in single sheet, fold it up, and put it away, planning to use it this year again. But in the meantime we expanded the run this summer, so it wouldn't fit anymore. All is not lost - it's still in such good shape that we are draping over an arched cattle panel we have in the garden and will be using that to shelter the ATV. That plastic was so effective we were perfectly comfortable brooding chicks out there when temps were in the teens and twenties, without a heat lamp. We just made a cave out of heating pad and straw and raised 3 very successful batches of chicks without a loss.

Bee has one of these clear reinforced tarps and has been very happy with it, so I ordered one for this year. I started out at Amazon and through them ended up here....tarp has arrived and it looks to be one of really good quality, exactly what I ordered, and sent in a relatively timely manner. Hope this helps.

https://www.tarpsnow.com/index.php
 
Mine was from another site but is basically the same thing and similar price...looks like this...is 14 mil, whereas the highest mil plastic sheeting I can find at a decent price was 4 mil.




Makes my coop all sunny inside in the winter time....







 

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