Question for the cold weather people

[All about the EGG]

I have the Lowes My Little Playhouse. I have a roost right on the ridgeline, and they all sleep up there. It has got to be breezy up there! I just got a heated dog bowl and hooked up a night lite to go on at 6am. No insulation, no heat. The coop can "breath" but protects from bad wind.

 

[luvmygirlsinAK]

Quote:
You can give your chickens a small amount of cayenne pepper which helps to warm their body. Don't worry, they love it, and there doesn't seem to be any difference in taste in the eggs.


For those of you who live in cold climates but don't insulate, I am very curious to see if you still get an egg a day from each of your chickens like I do (I heat my coop with an electric oil filled radiator style heater on a thermostat mounted to the outlet.) The reason we have our chickens is for eggs (although we enjoy them immensely) From everything I've read, if you expect them to give you eggs in the winter, they need to have enough heat and light to do that, and from what I've also heard is that if they are cold, they eat a whole lot more food trying to stay warm so it's a trade off, either few eggs and lots of food, or plenty of eggs and much less food consumption. Just very curious about this, anybody care to satisfy my curiosity?

My advice for anyone living in a cold climate building their coop for the first time, is to insulate, and not be sorry you didn't and have to redo everything again. Better to do it right the first time.

 

[sandyj]

to amyklebust,

My friend down the block has 6 chickens. She has a insulated coop, but no heat. She is only getting about 8 - 10 eggs per week. Maybe that is her problem. St. Paul, Minnesota.

Sandy J. - citychicker

 

[simba49450]

im with you on that, i only have 3 girls and with the insulated coop etc i get 3 eggs a day and this is thier first year. the light bulb works great i dont have a heated water dish but i thier food and water is buy the light and they roost on the opposite end nested down and they are warm and giving me my 3 eggs a day with no prob. i love my girls dearly since they are my pets and i make sure that my pets/kids are warm and cozy without the fear of freezing or fire. for the people who dont insulate or have a light to each thier own. for the ones that do all the extras i commend you. they maybe chickens but to me and to others like me they are more than chickens they are kids/pets.

 

[Mrs MIA]

I dunno... I'm still getting lots of eggs from my girls, and I don't heat. I do have a timer with a 40w bulb that goes on from 6am to about 9:30am, but I usually have 3 eggs by 7am, and they're just hopping around waiting for me to open the nest boxes.

If I'm not fast enough, they lay them in the shavings on the floor.

 

[pwand]

Winter time is a great time to give the chickens a break from laying. I get an egg every other day, and from some every day. I'm happy with that. My old hen who is almost 6 yrs old is laying every other day. My chickens are happy. They are able to with stand cold. A laying chicken is a happy chicken.

 

[jubylives]

I use one red heat lamp and I have 12 chickens. I average 8 eggs a day and it's been that way through last summer. Late spring seems to be my slow time for eggs production.


jeremy

 

[artisan1]

Hi,

I'm planning a coop for my roof-top chickens (see thread by that name) and even though I'm a professional carpenter, I'm having trouble understanding how to ventilate without causing drafts. While openings or penetrations through the shell of the building can be placed to maximize and minimize the amount of air flow from winds (e.g. something under the soffit will be less drafty than a wide open window facing the prevailing westerlies), it would seem like any ventilation opening could turn into a draft under some conditions, no? This is generally true on houses, in which we just separate the ventilated areas (like attics) from the heated spaces with wind and moisture barriers (except for windows, but I'm guessing that chickens can't operate them

Is it just a matter of degree or am I missing something?

Thanks!!!

Erik

 

[sandyj]

Erik,

I'm with you. Many of you have been trying to explain it, but I don't understand the whole ventilation thing. Somehow, at some point, you will have drafts. Right? If the carpenter doesn't quite get it, how can a regular, not even close to carpenter get it???

Sandy J. - citychicker

 

[SewingDiva]

Quote:
I just added some ventilation to our coop; we have a Dennis Playhouse Coop , and it looks like a big doll house. It's a box with a front facing gable basically. There is a ceiling under the gable with two ventilation holes (covered with hardware cloth) to vent their body heat and amonia fumes into the "attic".

I also put weather stripping around the nest box door, coop door and on the summer flip top opening to keep out drafts (I'll take that off in the spring because in really hot summer weather that will stay open at night)

It's worked pretty well so far, they stay toasty warm at night and nothing smells bad.

Phyllis