Winter Coop Advice (Insulation)

[SBmember]

Some background: we have an 8x8x8 coop made of plywood and 2x4's. Deep litter method with shavings and a deep top layer of hay. Food and water inside the coop since our chickens refuse to leave it (!). 10 chickens and 2 ducks. We have ventilation at the top in a corner. No drafts. (The coop was pretty rushed) We have a new one we can put together as soon as it warms up.

Saturday is supposed to get to a low of -25 so we put up foam board insulation inside on 3 walls, (not the wall with the door yet, we will tomorrow) 5 feet up and covered with empty feed bags.

Questions: Should we buy more insulation? Do the whole coop? Plastic the outside? I want to keep them from suffering without a heat lamp, I do not want fire and electricity isn't really an option, any advice is greatly appreciated.

 

[Pork Pie]

Hi and welcome to BYC - thanks for joining us. Sorry, where I live, we don't do winter, so i cannot help. These links may help -
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/winter-chicken-keeping

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/winter-coop-temperatures

The search function on BYC is also pretty good, so feel free to give that a go.

Best wishes
CT

 

[Teila]

G’Day from down under SBmember

Welcome!

CTKen has given you some good starting points. Like Ken, we do not participate in Winter either

The current Topic of the Week may interest you: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/1144804/topic-of-the-week-kitting-out-the-coop

I hope you enjoy BYC. There are lots of friendly and very helpful folks here so not only is it overflowing with useful information it is also a great place to make friends and have some fun. Unlike non chicken loving friends, family and colleagues, BYC’ers never tire of stories or pictures that feature our feathered and non feathered friends

 

[drumstick diva]

Welcome to the Backyard chickens flock. Chickens tolerate cold much better than heat. There are various threads in re: winterizing a coop. You can put that in the search box and it should pop up. Also you need a draft free coop with sufficient ventilation. Sounds like yours could use more vents. You may also want to check out the Coops section.

 

[N F C]

You could check in with other members that live in your area, just do a search by your state (or country) name and you should be able to find them. We get pretty cold temps here in Wyoming and from what they tell me, they don't insulate here...just make the coop draft-free and well ventilated.

 

[CuzChickens]

Hello there, and my warmest welcome to Backyard Chickens! I am so glad you decided to join the community and I do hope you will make yourself at home here!