R-8 Insulation in coop? Weather-sealing?

[21hens-incharge]

I wish I could like that post more then once.

My big house took your advice. I incorporated open soffits and 11 large windows. My birds love it in the winter with the South windows open.

 

[awarmrainyday]

Thanks for the advice! I dream of upgrading to a larger coop but right now the humans coop is in the midst of some extensive exterior remodeling due to age and termites. Ironically we've always had a humidity problem inside our house too .

I really don't think I could stomach removing an entire wall from the coop. In the spring and summer I mostly leave the window and door open and unexpected rainstorms have soaked my flooring and bedding. I could only imagine snow blowing in. Last year we had a lot of freezing rain and wet, heavy snow. I have predator netting over my entire run and it was a fight keeping the netting up all winter long under all the weight of ice and snow that wanted to cling to it. I don't want to be shoveling now out of the coop (I did have to around the chicken door).

I can and will add more vents, maybe behind the roosts? I don't have a lot of space at the front gable but I saw that I can get 2 1/2" round vents on Amazon that I could add there.
Does anyone know where I could get inexpensive long, skinny gable vents for behind the roost?

I could always crack the window open too, I wonder if there was a way I could cover it so that it would allow ventilation without direct wind coming in. Like maybe if I slide a furnace filter between the glass and the screen? I do know that there will definitely not be any water in the coop this year. I think that will be a big improvement over last year. I also have three roosters I'd like to re-home.

I've also thought about adding a small coop next to the big one for extra space. I have a "quarantine" coop but it weighs about 500 pounds and doesn't fit through the run door. So I'm thinking like an Amazon cheapie that I can assemble in the run. I have an enormous cornish cross broiler rooster that wandered in from a farm down the road a few months ago. That guy is a livestock dealer and is cruel to his animals (Unimaginable things happen there). I took pity on the at-the-time little guy because he was so sweet and took him in. Dozer is still sweet but now he is enormous. Anyway he won't go up the ramp into the big coop- I'm not so sure he even fits through the chicken door- so the only way he roosts is if I carry his fat behind into the coop and put him on the roost every single night. So I thought maybe if I got him a low to the ground coop he could use that and it would provide an alternative coop. Dozer is the perfect example of how I ended up with so many chickens in an 8x8 coop.

Dozer is up for adoption too if anyone wants a jumbo cornish cross pet rooster (pet only- not for food!) he eats a ton, is totally useless with the hens, attempts to mate ducks...even male ducks, must have his feet cleaned and checked regularly for bumble foot and must be carried to the roost every night after dusk.

 

[junebuggena]

I'm also in agreement that you need a much larger coop. It's either that, or rehome at least half your flock. Insulation will just make things worse.

 

[BarredRockMom]

Let me just say for the record that I did not see the post with your coop dimensions or the number of birds in that sized space prior to posting my response or I would have echoed the thoughts of everyone who's told you that that's waaaaay too many birds for that small of a space, why, what's likely to happen & that expansion is the ticket (at this point), not insulation. Once expansion has happened, then some other modifications may be something to think about...

 

[21hens-incharge]

If your coop has an overhang at all.... Can you open them up???
The pic is the open soffit on the north side of my small coop. The south side is open too.


This is a plastic material from Home Depot I put in to block snow blowing in through the very large open soffit on my big coop.

Maybe these are things you can do to improve your set up.

Seriously though the shear number of birds in that space is dangerously crowded.

I know it is NOT what you wanted to hear but it is at least honest. I would hate to tell you everything is sunshine and roses only to have you end up with horribly sick birds.

At the very least you really really need to increase venting and decrease population.

 

[awarmrainyday]

I'm almost sorry I asked. I had two roosters get a little frostbite on the tips of their combs last year, no one got sick or died. Considering we had weeks of negative temperatures and warnings to not be outside for more than 5-10 minutes at a time due to wind chill I don't think we did too bad.

Indulging in my fantasies I have looked at other coops, and I've seen coops no bigger than mine being advertised for up to 50 birds...

In the past two years I've also rescued, rehabilitated and re-homed over 150 "stray" chickens and ducks thanks to the livestock dealer down the road. He doesn't believe in providing enough feed and fresh water to the animals and just literally throws them (the fortunate ones) over the fence when they get too weak or are injured and can't be resold. The really unfortunate ones would get stuck in the mud, die and get eaten by the other animals. I've seen too many chickens laying along the road with their legs twitching and their keel bones sticking out from malnutrition. I collected them all and spent thousands of dollars out of my pocket on feed, antibiotics and medical supplies. I have literally everything you can think of from supplies to cast broken legs, suture supplies, cases of needles and syringes, the gamut of antibiotics, gauze, wrapping, supplements, ointments- because I never knew what was coming next. What was I supposed to do, watch them lay there and suffer because the neighbor is a cruel @$$hole? Most of my flock are the worst of his throwaways.

And you can add in the fact that we discovered this summer (8 years after we purchased our home) that our home inspector and the seller disclosure both lied to us about previous termite treatment. I spent $10,000 and most of my summer jacking up my house in sections and replacing the entire bandboard, sill plate, floor trusses, some subfloor and wall studs, and the one entire end of my house thanks to termites that have gone unchecked for 8 years. And we're only half way done. I just finished picking my chimney up out of the driveway. No good deed goes unpunished.

So you'll have to excuse me for not running out and purchasing a bigger coop at the moment. My hands are a little full and wallet a little empty.

I don't have eaves on my coop.

 

[21hens-incharge]

I appreciate that you are under some extreme stresses. Believe me I really do understand that you have been pulling in someone else's rejects.

In your area do they have some sort of animal control? Code enforcement or department of agriculture? If the neighbor is so horrid then perhaps before you are completely over run legal action should be taken.

I am not sure if anyone has suggested it yet but..... Have you seen hoop coops? They are very inexpensive to make. Just something you may want to keep in mind.

 

[awarmrainyday]

It took two years but I did finally get the neighbor situation under control. I'm not sure if it was me constantly harassing animal control about him or the silent standoff between me and him. The township said if he cant control his animals they are strays and fair game. He confronted other neighbors about taking in his discards but I didnt hide the fact that I was reporting him and taking all his animals. Chickens even started showing up on my doorstep and I found out later my nice neighbors little girl was sneaking into his yard and stealing his sick chickens and putting them there so I'd help them. For awhile I thought I had a sign somewhere saying "help for chickens available here." Maybe he got tired of me and gave up. Either way he cleaned up his act.

I'll have to look into the hoop coop idea. There is plenty of room in their outdoor run to add a smaller coop. I have to keep it within the run because we have a lot of predators, along with my 200 pound dog who is not chicken friendly.

 

[21hens-incharge]

I have a couple big bird dogs myself. Yup not so easy on the birds if they get a chance.

I know you feel kinda jumped on. Please understand that everyone is just trying to help.

Another thought would be using part of another structure like a storage shed for some of the birds. It would of course take some sprucing up but thought I would toss that idea out to see if it sticks.

 

[awarmrainyday]

Thanks for the comforting words. It just stings a little because I worked side jobs and sold things like my jewelry and collectibles for months to save the money to build the coop I have. I would have loved to have had bigger but I didn't have anything else to sell and I needed to get something built. I had chickens when I was younger, where the coop came first and then a trip to the hatchery. This time around was back asswards with no chicks involved.

The only thing I have is a run in shed on the back of the house that is due to be torn down any day due to the termite damage. At that point I won't even have a shed for my lawn mower. Termites destroyed everything around here except the coop because that's the newest structure. I have tons of pallet wood, roll rubber roofing, and some fence wire. Maybe I can fashion a hoop coop with fencing on a pallet floor and put rubber roofing over it to protect three sides.