The Old Folks Home

[drumstick diva]

OMG how can you live without closets ?

 

[tnspursfan09]

There is someone that uses the crawl space under the house to raise Juveniles in the winter.

I keep mine in the garage.

It sounds like your house has a lot of character!

No garage, either. I love my house, even with all of it's pitfalls. It has huge beams on the ceiling, all of the doors are original - which means that it is impossible to find gear that fits them (they are thinner than regular doors but made of solid pine), so we are unable to lock them. Once when digging the garden I found an old skeleton key that fit the back door. The back door used to be the front door. There used to be a road behind my house but now the road is on the other side and actually runs through a small wedge of my yard. I do have a basement and plan on using it eventually, but first it has to be sealed against the moisture and finished. It does have a drain, but I have no idea where it comes out. When we bought the house we had to remove about 12 layers of wallpaper upstairs...some were even fabric...and some were held on with what looked like roofing nails. No central air, either, we heat with a wood stove. It's a lot different than when we lived in the burbs in Houston.

 

[Pozees]

Yes, I used the crawl space under my house too, to raise chicks and juvies last year before I had my larger coop built, it is a 4' crawl space, so not great for the back but tolerable for a few months, and it stays nice and steady at 60 degrees down there. Biggest mistake we made when we put this house up was not going for the full basement. If I could afford it I'd jack it up and add 2 feet, but that is SO not in the budget LOL. It worked well for me, though, and in a pinch I can do it again if I have to.

I wonder if you could get a little lean-to put up against the house or something? Or even a covered walkway with a door to stabilize temps and block wind? Or a little hoop coop? Sounds like it really is time to get them out of the house. One lady gave her juvies a safe zone by zip tying together a couple of those wrought iron fence panels from Lowes/Home Depot and put food and water in there, so they would sleep in the coop with the big birds, then in the morning when they came out they could run in there and the bigger birds couldn't get to them. I thought it was genius.

 

[tnspursfan09]

OMG how can you live without closets ?

It's not easy...the clothes that have to be hung up are on these wheeled things like the racks at a thrift store. In the spare bedroom/laundry room/junk room. My bedroom used to be the diningroom. My DB and DD have the bedrooms upstairs. We moved our bedroom downstairs after I tor my knee up and was unable to make it up the stairs. Big pain in the hiney.

It doesn't help that DH and DD are hoarders and are constantly bringing home items that they plan on using for something or other and usually just end up in the junk room.

 

[tnspursfan09]

Yes, I used the crawl space under my house too, to raise chicks and juvies last year before I had my larger coop built, it is a 4' crawl space, so not great for the back but tolerable for a few months, and it stays nice and steady at 60 degrees down there. Biggest mistake we made when we put this house up was not going for the full basement. If I could afford it I'd jack it up and add 2 feet, but that is SO not in the budget LOL. It worked well for me, though, and in a pinch I can do it again if I have to.

I wonder if you could get a little lean-to put up against the house or something? Or even a covered walkway with a door to stabilize temps and block wind? Or a little hoop coop? Sounds like it really is time to get them out of the house. One lady gave her juvies a safe zone by zip tying together a couple of those wrought iron fence panels from Lowes/Home Depot and put food and water in there, so they would sleep in the coop with the big birds, then in the morning when they came out they could run in there and the bigger birds couldn't get to them. I thought it was genius.

My coop is actually a kinda carport that was built onto an existing shed. We used to keep our Valkyrie parked there. DH threw up some roosts and screwed plastic crates to the wall for nesting boxes. I plan on expanding it come spring and putting the roosts in a more practical configuration where I don't whack my head on them every time I go in to gather the eggs. The plastic milk crates do work well as nest boxes, but I need on or two more and I'd like to cover them so the hens mave more privacy. The run is big, but I want it bigger. I have the compost in one corner of it so the chickens can play in it and turn it for me. Keeps them from being bored when I'm late in letting them out.

 

[insanity]

With the current temps I'm getting I set up a second heat lamp and closed the chick door. The coop is holding at about 40 even at night. We got to -23 last night. The problem is now the humidity is at almost 75 percent. Any ideas how to bring it down without freezing the chickens out? If I open the vents the temp drops to 0 in about half an hour.

 

[ronott1]

Yes, I used the crawl space under my house too, to raise chicks and juvies last year before I had my larger coop built, it is a 4' crawl space, so not great for the back but tolerable for a few months, and it stays nice and steady at 60 degrees down there. Biggest mistake we made when we put this house up was not going for the full basement. If I could afford it I'd jack it up and add 2 feet, but that is SO not in the budget LOL. It worked well for me, though, and in a pinch I can do it again if I have to.

I wonder if you could get a little lean-to put up against the house or something? Or even a covered walkway with a door to stabilize temps and block wind? Or a little hoop coop? Sounds like it really is time to get them out of the house. One lady gave her juvies a safe zone by zip tying together a couple of those wrought iron fence panels from Lowes/Home Depot and put food and water in there, so they would sleep in the coop with the big birds, then in the morning when they came out they could run in there and the bigger birds couldn't get to them. I thought it was genius.

If I had a crawl space, it would be used for chicks...Cement slab here.

 

[ozexpat]

With the current temps I'm getting I set up a second heat lamp and closed the chick door. The coop is holding at about 40 even at night. We got to -23 last night. The problem is now the humidity is at almost 75 percent. Any ideas how to bring it down without freezing the chickens out? If I open the vents the temp drops to 0 in about half an hour.

Excuse my ignorance but why would you drop humidity?

My birds never experience much less than 75%.

 

[ronott1]

Excuse my ignorance but why would you drop humidity?

My birds never experience much less than 75%.

The combs will freeze it is too cold and too humid.

 

[insanity]

I'm afraid to ventilate at this point because of the frost bite.