Urgent - how much ventilation in sub-freezing temps

[Gypsi]

Well, I don't have as large a coop as I would need up north, I'm sure. Chicken keeping there sounds a lot harder.

And I don't have deep litter composting, I decided that a nice 45 mil liner, easy to clean off, with some straw would be adequate. The run roost they like to sleep on is in the run, easy to scoop out and shovel sand onto.

I do have 6 chickens, in 20 square feet (coop is 4 by 5.) I went out to change the water a bit ago, it's on the north wall next to the pop door, and the remaining dribble was frozen. So I refilled it, it does seem warmer in the upper part of the coop, I know they can handle outdoor temps of 17 because they've been doing it nightly since our cold fronts started.
It STINKS in that coop.
I made sure they had plenty of food, collected the eggs, and with some misgivings. I stapled the T-shirt over the pop door closed. It will allow some ventilation through the shirt, but will keep the worst of the cold wind out.

We're supposed to go down to 7 tonight, with a windchill of -4. The last time I remember single digits was about Feb. 1993. We all got the flu after I took the kids sledding at the school.

Guessing I'd better clean the coop or add more straw tomorrow? My mulch pile is snow and iced over, includes crickets and small snakes.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

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Yes, that's it, exactly. Before this front blew in yesterday, daytime temps had been in the mid 70's with nighttime lows in the upper 40's and 50's. So, yeah, this is a big shock to everybody. I've been living here in Dallas since 1984 and I can only remember one or two times that we've had weather in the single digits.

Oh my- I saw that the OP was in Forth Worth- and I thought to myself that there must be another NORTHERN Fort Worth up there somewhere in the northern part of the country where it gets to 9 degrees. Then I saw your "DFW."

TEXAS?

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

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Good job!

 

[Gypsi]

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Yes, that's it, exactly. Before this front blew in yesterday, daytime temps had been in the mid 70's with nighttime lows in the upper 40's and 50's. So, yeah, this is a big shock to everybody. I've been living here in Dallas since 1984 and I can only remember one or two times that we've had weather in the single digits.

Oh my- I saw that the OP was in Forth Worth- and I thought to myself that there must be another NORTHERN Fort Worth up there somewhere in the northern part of the country where it gets to 9 degrees. Then I saw your "DFW."

TEXAS?

North Texas. Where it's 110 in August, and at the moment, a brisk 17 with a wind chill of minus one... Climate change isn't all about warming. We got more snow last winter than we've had in the 30+ years I've lived in Texas. Well maybe except the year Mt St Helens blew and shifted the climate. And it was this cold in December 1983, and in Feb 1993. (per my unofficial memory)

 

[elmo]

I really feel badly for the local wildlife. This is a very sudden, drastic shift in temperature that I'm afraid some are not going to survive. One of the times I went outside today to check on our chickens I noticed four mourning doves trying to huddle on the driveway in the lee of our garage, all fluffed up. I've been refilling the wild bird feeders a couple times a day to try to give them a fighting chance, but they've had no time to acclimate to these temperatures and the way the wind is blowing here every which way, it's almost impossible for them to avoid the windchill.

After last winter's February snow storm, my daughter spotted a dead mourning dove next to our bamboo grove. Sad.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

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Oh my- I saw that the OP was in Forth Worth- and I thought to myself that there must be another NORTHERN Fort Worth up there somewhere in the northern part of the country where it gets to 9 degrees. Then I saw your "DFW."

TEXAS?

North Texas. Where it's 110 in August, and at the moment, a brisk 17 with a wind chill of minus one... Climate change isn't all about warming. We got more snow last winter than we've had in the 30+ years I've lived in Texas. Well maybe except the year Mt St Helens blew and shifted the climate. And it was this cold in December 1983, and in Feb 1993. (per my unofficial memory)

I hope your chickens do ok!!!!

 

[Gypsi]

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My doves seem to do ok, but I planted evergreen - live oak, and some evergreen shrubs. Feeder is filled in the morning (they didn't empty it today.)

 

[gsim]

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That is a problem with small coops. Hard to get into and a real PIA in bad weather. I have a walk-in coop and the only time it ever smells at all in there is first thing in AM when I let them out. I open everything and scrape the poop boards

and put the cover back on the plastic poop box (tote bin) and voila! All I smell then is grass clippings and hay. It stays that wayl all day up until dark. That is an advantage of a walk-in coop. Thing is if you have a stench, likely you have more humidity than should be too. With a taller roof, you can have all the full-time ventilation you need without having it be drafty at roost ht. Better for heat dissapation too. I think if I made a 20-40 sq ft coop, I would make it like an outhouse so that is was tall enough to walk into, and that would place the full time ventilation way up above roost ht so it would breathe effectively all year long. Of course, having proper size poop boards and cleaning them daily is a biggie to keeping a coop clean smelling. Another biggie is a covered outdoor roost so that the chooks have a place to roost on rainy days OUTSIDE of the coop.

Gerry

 

[Gypsi]

Well I've got the covered outdoor roost, in the run, and this is the first time they've slept in the coop since it went up.

My coop is fairly easy to clean, front wall opens out, pull up the rubber liner, shake on compost pile, replace, put new straw. I do have to move the feeder off of it, but I don't know that the ladies are going to let me clean it this morning, it's 11 degrees out, and we have rolling power outages. My heat is electric. So it may be a bit stinky and just get new straw. No do-overs on the coop until needed, I'm not getting more chickens, this year's project is going to be bees... i have to learn to build traps and hives.

 

[gsim]

Wow! Bees? I have wanted to do that for awhile now. We have 15 acres, so no problem locating them. I keep hearing about hive collapse and also bees just leaving in the springtime for other locations. Made me hesitant to get into it. A friend of mine had his bees all fly away. One day he went out there and they were gone. He never got into beekeeping again.

I suppose you just don't know until you try. I guess a lot of clover nearby, etc might encourage them to stay. Something that blooms all summer long would be an incentive for them to stay.

Regarding coop, I have a feed trough made from a scrap of pvc house gutter. It is around 30 inches long, mounted to wall around 8" above floor. It works well and no wild birds or squirrels are tempted to drop in for a snack. I only water the chooks outside. Don't want the hassle of having the water indoors. Works well for me this way, and only chooks get fed.

Gerry