Should I insulate my coop?

[s6bee]

I am just getting ready to build our coop. It will be a chicken tractor so I need to keep it lightweight. My question is if I should insulate? I will have a 250 watt heat lamp, but our winters are cold here in Western, NY. We get a lot of wind too. What would you suggest?
Also, how much space can a heat lamp warm?

Thanks

 

[annrich]

Hi neighbor, Were in western ny??
I am in the process of insulating everything. This will be our first winter with these chickens. So I am. I do not have a tractor, my coops are stationary. I hope someone can help with how to insulate a tractor.
Our winters are very cold.

Good Luck

 

[hypnofrogstevie]

Make sure you have your coop vetilated. I am rebuilding coop and going to insulate everything. I thought of a very cool Idea. Make a box that is big enough to put one of those space heaters in. Put chicken wire in the front but build the top, bottom, back and sides with plywood. I was going to do tht when I rebuild a coop. I am going to make it 2 FT high. 2 FT wide and 3 ft long. Mke sure nothing is around to cath on fire

 

[s6bee]

I'm located just East of Rochester. My chicks arrived 2 days early and have begun the planning stages of the coop. We found an old wood table from our neighbor for free to use as the base. It's 3x5 but we'll add to the length since we got 5 chicks. I assume they will spend a good amount of time in the coop over the winter so I'd rather they had enough room to roam and not peck at each other. I may create a "second" level in the coop off thier roost to give them more space too. I just have to keep it as light weight as possible since it's a tractor. What type of insulation do you recommend?
I need to also be a bit frugal with the cost of this so I've been on Cragislist looking for stuff to build with.


Stephanie

 

[justusnak]

We are useing the styrofoam pannels for insulation...they are light and not too expencive. However, you MUST cover the insulation, they LOVE to eat it.

 

[schmoo]

Justusnak- thats what we used also, we covered it ofcourse. They DO love to eat it. Where we cut a hole out for a chicken door I didn't even think about the exposed insulation inbetween the door. The next day I came in there they were pecking like crazy at it! Thank goodness I caught them before they ate too much. It was weeks ago and all is fine.

I had to DIG the insulation out about 6 inches in around the door so they couldn't get to it. Goofy little buggers!

 

[foxtrapper]

Quote:
No. Nor should you use a heat lamp. People mean well, but do a lot of harm this way. The animals are quite cold tolerant naturally, and need nothing more than some wind and rain shelter.

When you create artificially warm coops the animals never aclimate to the weather conditions.

 

[Frozen Feathers]

I would, unless you don't like your roosters having combs...

 

[suburbanhomesteader]

The best light-weight insulation I've found is foil-bubble-bubble-foil from Tekfoil.

http://www.teksupply.com/farm/supplies/cat1a;ts1_tekfoil_reflective_foil_insulation.html

In Indiana, I lined all my cold-frames with this product, and never once had the interior go below freezing, even when the outside air temp was -13!

I put it on my western-facing garage door, and the temp of the garage fell by 10 degrees from one day to the next!!

It is awesome stuff!

I agree that you would have to protect it in some way, though.