Winterization of our Coop (Rainy Washington state)

[elmo]

Quote:
Two reasons, really: the risk of fire and the risk of a burn if one of the chickens jumps or flies up to perch on the lamp. I tried one of those red heat lamps when I was brooding chicks indoors two years ago and was really amazed at how hot the bulb and lamp got. I switched to a low wattage ceramic bulb (because that was really all I needed indoors anyway), but even then the bulb and lamp got hot enough to worry me. So I built a wire cage to go around it to make sure no chicks could injure themselves.

If the bulb breaks, you'd have broken glass to deal with, too.

If it was me, and I had only standard size chickens, and I wasn't dealing with below freezing weather, I wouldn't risk it. But that's just me...lovely looking coop and run you have there.

 

[patandchickens]

I too am concerned about the heatlamp thing -- it is needlessly risky, IMO -- but, not gonna go there today.

The whole thing looks very nice, but may I make two suggestions?

1) You may very well have humidity problems (from ground moisture) in there even with the door un-plasticked (and CERTAINLY will if you do cover the door mesh with plastic, as you have suggested you might). I would be quite surprised if the existing ventilation is sufficient, but, occasionally in life I *am* quite suprised <g>. You should at the very least keep a close eye on it and be ready to peel back some of that plastic/tarp. Furthermore the humidity will not STAY in the run, it will also invade the coop, and you are risking frostbite. Again, needlessly, because chickens do not need it THAT warm.

2) If you are in a very very sheltered, wind-less area, your tarp arrangements may be fine. If you get much of any wind, though, you are likely to find the tarps flapping and coming off (all tarps rigged that way will do that), or even pulling out their grommets (expensive tarps do not do this much, but cheap ones do; I don't know which you've got). A very easy way to minimize/prevent this is to take some long, outdoor-worthy rope (I use the baler twine off roundbales and big squares, tied together to make a really really long piece, but you could buy something cheap) and run it back and forth and back and forth across the length of the tarp (securing it to the run frame) so that you are holding the tarp tightly against the run fence over much of its surface. This GREATLY reduces flapping and the destruction or departure of your tarp.

Good luck, have fun, cute coop

,

Pat

 

[LynneP]

May I sit in there and chuckle at those cuties? Nice job. Just be sure everything is VERY secure in case of high winds. Are you sure you need a heat lamp?

 

[sheilawagner]

hi guys,


Thanks for all the tips and advice. I for one, am not so proud and self-righteous to refuse good advice, or take offense when someone truly means well. I appreciate your tact, forth-rightness, goodwill and support.

The coop and shelter is situated back somewhat in a corner. On two sides of it, it is heavily covered by huge shrubs and brush. We deliberately put it there so that those brush areas will act as windbreaks.

I have been reading many resources on BYC (member pages, advice about winterization etc) about the moisture factor, and why, having more air circulation is better than having less of it, and of course the heat lamp.

The plastic tarps may not stay on in high winds, unless we do more rope binding and tying up the enclosure like a huge burrito, or like a huge Christmas present, and we might have to resort to it. Thanks for the idea. At the moment, we have attached wood pieces across on the outside, and also tied the plastic wrap in such a way that it wraps around the front and back wood beams. We might have to rope it down further, but so far, the winds haven't been too bad, and all is well. But if it comes to it, we'll just have to tie it down further.

I was concerned about the moisture level, but I really have nothing to worry about even though almost all the sides are covered because the gaps are really huge, especially with the overhang design.

Here are a few more detailed pictures, showing the huge gap at the top, and the deliberate gaps at the corners.

The roof beam is 4 inches above the actual top beam of the wall frame. We deliberately leaned the roof ceiling beam on to have this large overhang so that there would be a huge gap, meant for allowing moisture out and some heat.

Viewed from the inside, from the top beam out to the overhang beam of the roof ceiling. There is a huge gap there, and a lot of air circulation is allowed to flow here.

This is another image from the inside, showing the huge space.

In addition, to at least 1 back corner, we left some vertical gaps between the plastic tarps for air circulation too.

The entire coop and run enclosure is situated back toward thick brush on 2 sides, and a tree and more brush on the 3rd side. The only open side is the front. I think hopefully the wind will not affect the plastic flaps too much, otherwise, we'll just tie it down to make it tighter. So far, so good.

Will update when we get wind and snow.

Sheila

 

[HorizonSon]

Absolutely beautiful!

Our chickens ran around all last Winter in the coastal rains here in the PNW. It's the really high gust winds that kinda ticked them off from time to time. But they'd just go into the underbrush out in the forest to forage when it got real bad... Then again; we don't have widdle biddy silkies like it looks like you have.

 

[sheilawagner]

Hi HorizonSon,


You're great at observation. You're absolutely right about those Silkies. They were the main reason why we added the extension to our enclosure. The Cochins and the polish can just shake off the rain from their feathers, and be relatively alright, as long as they hide under the chicken house (dry space), but the silkies are the ones that get soaked through, and they look miserable. They are now 3 months old, they are all feathered out, but their feather type does so badly when its wet. I'm so scared of them freezing and frosting over when we hit the low 30s. The added space is for all the birds now, and they all love it.


Sheila

 

[HorizonSon]

And truly legitimate concerns!... I've mauled over acquiring a Silkie for natural brooding via a possible local source. It's all this rain and moist sea air here right on the coast that concerns me.

Edited to add: we get really really high winds here. We're just north of Port Orford, the most western part of the continental US. Near triple digits! Though rarely gusts above 75~90mph

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
All's I'm saying is that demonstrably, in real-world experience, runs that are plastic-wrapped *that* thoroughly almost always have humidity problems. It is different than in a coop, because you have a dirt floor (so, a nearly-infinite reservoir of ground moisture) AND it will heat up considerably on sunny days which pulls more and more moisture out of the ground and into the air, to condense and create 100% humidity conditions every time the sun goes down. So while those gaps would be (minimally)-adequate for a COOP, they just do not in practice work well in a RUN. Really really.

Something to keep an eye on, anyhow.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat