When it's cold?

[rancher hicks]

When it's cold and freezing and you live in the north like NY how do you keep you flock warm? What type of walls do you have on you coop? Is your coop off the ground? Have you insulated your walls? What about ventilation?

 

[muell112]

I live in Maine - this is my first year with chickens - it was still in the 30s at night this year when we put the chicks outside - we insulated the walls and I've heard the "deep litter" method keeps them warm in winter too - basically just cover up old litter with new dry litter - it'll start composting itself and keep them warm. Just make sure there's always a dry layer on top. Right now I'm cleaning it out every other day since it's been so wet and sometimes kind of warm for the cornish crosses - would be interested to see if others in colder climates have tried/like this method.

 

[muell112]

And we put in a cement floor, which I'm hoping the deep litter method will keep warm.

 

[cluck canuck]

We get some very cold weather in the winter(Ontario Canada).We have just finished the coop.We used R2000 insulation in the walls to help keep the coop cool in summer and warm in winter.We also covered the insulation with a vapour barrier (clear plastic),then covered the entire inside with vinyl flooring walls/roof for easy cleaning.
The deep litter will be the method we will use,the only other thing to be concerned about is ventalation.
We have windows that we can open and I plan on adding some vent holes at the top of the roof line.
I am hoping with all this covered our girls will be warm and cozy this coming winter

Most of the info regarding coop design and ventalating was found here on BYC.

With