Should I insulate the walls of my coop/minibarn?

[frostbite]

Keeps it cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter, but you have to fill the space with some kind of insulating material that the mice don't like to nest in to get the best effect. Depends how much work you want to do. My coop has to survive winters to 50 below, so it's insulated, with a couple of quadruple paned windows for light and vented eves and pop door. Works great, but it was a lot of work. I lined the walss with 2" thick foam panels, cut to size from 4x8' sheets, and plywood back over that.

Pity the poor mouse that tries to go into that coop! Hens will get it for sure.

 

[Birdinhand]

...

Pity the poor mouse that tries to go into that coop! Hens will get it for sure.

LOL, I agree, I think chickens might be better mousers than cats! mice don't come anywhere near our coop, and now I know why!

 

[RichM]

I'm dealing with that same question right now. The standard way of making walls with studs and sheathing just begs to have some insulation thrown in there. Also if I don't put sheathing on the inside, I'll have a few more nooks and crannys between the studs that need to be cleaned. Instead of 4 corners to dig out, I'll have 16, half of which I can't even see. I see myself with an extendible dentist mirror like device to see if I got all the gunk.

I don't keep food in my coop, so maybe I can get away with it?

 

[Folly's place]

I just pulled the walls and insulation out of my coop, after rats moved in, and killed three bantams, and ate many eggs, and disrupted my flock for weeks. Their egg production is starting to come back, and the coop repairs are close to finished. If we reinsulate, it will NOT be with fiberglass in cavities in the coop! Ms. Rat chewed 'hobbit doors' right through the interior thin wood paneling, and either came in through an actual door, or more likely, through the wall above the rat wall. More repairs! Anyone Know of insulation the rats leave alone? Mary

 

[Toddrick]

I'm not doing insulation.

 

[RichM]

I've never seen rats in my neighborhood, but we do have mice. If there is no feed in the coop, and all eggs are removed every day, is there any reason for a mouse/rat invasion? Do they like chicken poop?

 

[Folly's place]

There's no way to eliminate every bit of feed from the coop floor, and mice will be happy visitors if there's any place for them to hide during the day. Chickens will kill and eat mice, but your birds are totally inactive at night, and 'mice will play'! My barn cat loves mice, but the coop is locked down at night, so she can't lurk in there overnight. Traps will kill mice, and do help, as long as the chickens can't also get to them. We did have MANY mice in that fiberglass batting, all now gone. UGH! Also, after just a few minutes of handling that awful insulation, my asthma went berserk. Face mask all the time, every time! Mary

 

[RichM]

I actually feed and water my chickens in the large run. The coop is only for sleeping and eggs. Does anyone have an insulated coop and not have problems from it?

 

[21hens-incharge]

RichM,

I have gone out at night to do a mite check to find to my horror that the missing feathers were being chewed off my sleeping birds by mice.

I had removed the feeders at night over a month before this disgusting discovery. Apparently mice like chicken too.

 

[Birdinhand]

I actually feed and water my chickens in the large run. The coop is only for sleeping and eggs. Does anyone have an insulated coop and not have problems from it?

I have an insulated coop and do not have problems from it, but the entire frame is enveloped in hardware cloth, two feet into the ground, all sides and across the ceiling. I get egg production year round. all that said, the biggest jump in egg production came from installing double pane windows in the inner coop to keep them up longer at night and get them up earlier in the morning during the dark winter months. literally within a few days I went from 1-2 eggs a day to 3-5 a day from 6 hens.