Winterizing coop not working out

[aart]

Usually right under the eaves is the ideal place for vents. You can add them and cover them with hardware cloth and it should help quite a bit.

Yup, open soffits(high and low) would be good, they'd need to be baffled(cardboard on bottom of rafters from top of wall to about 2-3 feet up) due to location of roosts.

 

[Cryss]

Yikes. And that's for 33 chickens? I have a coop/run that just slightly bigger than yours. I have 4 chickens, and would be able to keep 6 to 8 chickens in my coop/run before overcrowding, dampness, and ammonia would begin to cause problems. I think you need to either pare down the amount of chickens you have, or expand their coop. When cooped up, adult chickens really need at least 10 sq. Feet of space per chicken (or 8 sq feet per adult chickens if you have bantams).

I like your thinking because bigger is ALWAYS better. I've always read and gone by the standard of 4sqft/bird inside the coop, 10sqft/bird outside in the run, 1sqft of ventilation per bird.
Even with this standard it will hold 29 chickens, so OP is 4 birds too many. Not great but not horrifying. If things can be adjusted to get through the winter there are things can be done come spring to make things really right. I'm so glad we got those dimensions! Thank you
@SilkieSisters !
Ok, in the picture your solid walls on 2 sides look about 4 feet high, yes? The left hand wall looks like it could be an outside wall to your house or a shed perhaps? The unseen wall you have described as solid wire. I'd love to see it. Is it also covered in plastic? Does it have a door?

Assuming my image of your coop walls is correct, or close, here's some ideas.

Cover the lower wire area (circled with green) with plywood or something that will not allow wind through. Remove the plastic only from the upper wire area above it. If you can do the same on the unseen wall all the better.

Considering you have a couple extra birds you want as much floor walkabout space as possible. The tubs catching poop is not a terrible idea, really. But it takes up floor space. A thin flat board hung about 8 inches below the roosts will catch the poop. I saw someone a sheet of cloth to catch poop. Not perfect but hey, we're improvising here! The idea is to clear the floor of "furniture". Floors are for walking on.
What is the item on the left side looks like a bookcase? Is that nest area? Hang milk crates or make a from that wall about 18 inches high for nests. Opening the floor up will reduce stress in the flock.

Lastly but possibly most important after ventilation is moving the food and water outside. I already mentioned why.

Here's one you won't like but trust me and a whole bunch of us northerners (New Jersey here, ice storm central). Remove any heat. It doesn't allow the birds to acclimate as nature intended. It causes condensation, is a fire hazard, and if your power goes out in a storm they aren't acclimated so they freeze to death.

All of this is just suggestions to help you come up with some winter solutions with whatever you have on hand. Use your imagination and fix these issues if only for winter. And keep us updated so we can help with snags along the way.


Good luck!

 

[Peepsi]

I like your thinking because bigger is ALWAYS better. I've always read and gone by the standard of 4sqft/bird inside the coop, 10sqft/bird outside in the run, 1sqft of ventilation per bird.
Even with this standard it will hold 29 chickens, so OP is 4 birds too many. Not great but not horrifying. If things can be adjusted to get through the winter there are things can be done come spring to make things really right. I'm so glad we got those dimensions!

Thank you! As for the OP, yes, her coop is the minimum size less 4 birds, but if the birds are all staying inside, and won't go outdoors, that's a too much poop for the coop to handle. I was amazed when I learned first-hand how much chickens POOP. My four chickens produce what seems like about 10 pounds of poop of week. If the OP has 33 chickens, that's 83 pounds of poop a week. All collecting in a tiny coop, when the chickens refuse to go outside. No wonder the coop is wet & smelly. A person couldn't clean up fast enough to prevent humidity from building up (sorry if I'm obsessing with poop, but it's a huge factor in coop conditions, and chickens are marathon poopers).

Here's one you won't like but trust me and a whole bunch of us northerners (New Jersey here, ice storm central). Remove any heat. It doesn't allow the birds to acclimate as nature intended. It causes condensation, is a fire hazard, and if your power goes out in a storm they aren't acclimated so they freeze to death.

YES YES YES. NO heat sources. I live in Utah, and my four chickens live in a semi-enclosed coop about the size of the OP's. They are not given any extra heat. They are, of course, built for the cold weather, so the four of them can easily sleep in a coop that's 15 degrees, and are just fine, no complaining from them at all. BTW, they HATE summer here.

With the OP having 33 chickens, that's enough body heat to keep even warm-weather breeds happy. And @Cryss is 100% correct... if the birds are acclimated to heat, and the power goes out and they lose their heat source... all (or most) of the chickens go into shock and die.

And yes, good luck, OP!

 

[Cryss]

I like your thinking because bigger is ALWAYS better. I've always read and gone by the standard of 4sqft/bird inside the coop, 10sqft/bird outside in the run, 1sqft of ventilation per bird.
Even with this standard it will hold 29 chickens, so OP is 4 birds too many. Not great but not horrifying. If things can be adjusted to get through the winter there are things can be done come spring to make things really right. I'm so glad we got those dimensions! Thank you
@SilkieSisters !
Ok, in the picture your solid walls on 2 sides look about 4 feet high, yes? The left hand wall looks like it could be an outside wall to your house or a shed perhaps? The unseen wall you have described as solid wire. I'd love to see it. Is it also covered in plastic? Does it have a door?

Assuming my image of your coop walls is correct, or close, here's some ideas.

Cover the lower wire area (circled with green) with plywood or something that will not allow wind through. Remove the plastic only from the upper wire area above it. If you can do the same on the unseen wall all the better.

Considering you have a couple extra birds you want as much floor walkabout space as possible. The tubs catching poop is not a terrible idea, really. But it takes up floor space. A thin flat board hung about 8 inches below the roosts will catch the poop. I saw someone a sheet of cloth to catch poop. Not perfect but hey, we're improvising here! The idea is to clear the floor of "furniture". Floors are for walking on.
What is the item on the left side looks like a bookcase? Is that nest area? Hang milk crates or make a from that wall about 18 inches high for nests. Opening the floor up will reduce stress in the flock.

Lastly but possibly most important after ventilation is moving the food and water outside. I already mentioned why.

Here's one you won't like but trust me and a whole bunch of us northerners (New Jersey here, ice storm central). Remove any heat. It doesn't allow the birds to acclimate as nature intended. It causes condensation, is a fire hazard, and if your power goes out in a storm they aren't acclimated so they freeze to death.

All of this is just suggestions to help you come up with some winter solutions with whatever you have on hand. Use your imagination and fix these issues if only for winter. And keep us updated so we can help with snags along the way.


Good luck!

Crap I forgot to include the picture I circled the wire on!

 

[aart]

With the OP having 33 chickens, that's enough body heat to keep even warm-weather breeds happy.

This is kind of misleading.
With adequate ventilation
(which is a good part of the OP's problem and essential to any coop),
what little of the birds body heat that escapes the feathers is not going to warm an enclosure.

 

[Cryss]

This is kind of misleading.
With adequate ventilation
(which is a good part of the OP's problem and essential to any coop),
what little of the birds body heat that escapes the feathers is not going to warm an enclosure.

 

[NHMountainMan]

From the picture the @Cryss posted - could you drop the roosting bars a foot or two, to get them out of the draft, and open as much as that area as possible to vent? That might be the easiest short term fix.
I'm a new chicken keeper - and a lot of the advice (no heat in coop, make them acclimate to outside) is counter-intuitive. As animal lovers, we want to take care of our "pets." But I resisted my instinct and followed the advice of more experienced keepers from tough winter climates, like Colorado, Montana etc. We've already had below zero weather and feet of snow, and my flock seems to be fine, even with a stead 30-40mph winds.
So - get them birds outside.

 

[Peepsi]

This is kind of misleading.
With adequate ventilation
(which is a good part of the OP's problem and essential to any coop),
what little of the birds body heat that escapes the feathers is not going to warm an enclosure.

That wasn't what I meant. My chickens all sleep together next to open hardware cloth, in freezing weather, but their bodies next to each other help keep them warm. Like when you snuggle with a person. I'm not talking about heating the whole enclosure.

 

[aart]

That wasn't what I meant. My chickens all sleep together next to open hardware cloth, in freezing weather, but their bodies next to each other help keep them warm. Like when you snuggle with a person. I'm not talking about heating the whole enclosure.

Sure sounded like it.
Chickens next to each other may block some cold air, but not quite like human skin touching for warmth.

Wonders what happened to the OP @SilkieSisters ?

 

[Peepsi]

Yup, open soffits(high and low) would be good, they'd need to be baffled(cardboard on bottom of rafters from top of wall to about 2-3 feet up) due to location of roosts.

Sure sounded like it.
Chickens next to each other may block some cold air, but not quite like human skin touching for warmth.

Wonders what happened to the OP @SilkieSisters ?

You read into something and interpreted it from your viewpoint. You could have simply asked me what I meant, if you did not know, rather than assuming.