Winterizing coop?

[Athiena14]

Its starting to get cooler in the morning here and soon fall will be here. My coop is an old barn and I know I have a few stuff I gotta do to get it decent again. What are some ways to get make it stay warmer during the winter without electricity.? The barn is too far away from an electric source and cant afford a generator atm

 

[Stepnout]

Hello Athiena14. Can you share what critters and how many you are trying to keep warm? I think size of the area would help as well.
thanks

 

[Athiena14]

Sorry. I have chickens. 2 barred rocks, 1 silver laced wingotte (think that's how spelled.), 1 Rhode island, 1 orpington and 1 easter egger mix. It's about 10ft long (remessured since posting before. By 5ft wide. 6 foot tall.

 

[Athiena14]

I know not needed but hoping to get eggs during the winter

 

[Stepnout]

Is this a space inside the barn or is it like a mini barn?

 

[Athiena14]

Is this a space inside the barn or is it like a mini barn?

About half the barn on the lower floor. It's a small barn

 

[Killer Tomato]

OMG, you're killing me! It's still 90 degrees outside, in Oregon. I would really welcome a blast of cool air that I didn't have to pay for right now.

If you could divide up the space, and give the chickens a smaller area for the cold months, that would help. Old plywood for walls and a lowered ceiling, or even recycled pallets. You can insulate that with used feed sacks, and a tarp or plastic around the outside of your *new* walls. Make sure you have good ventilation.

Be glad that you're not close to an electrical outlet -- the urge to use heat lamps is pretty high with new chicken owners, and they are very unsafe. Talk to some experienced chicken keepers in the cold climates. They have survived many winters with only good winterizing, and no external heating sources.

No need to start this now, of course, but you can begin gathering your materials. Good luck!

 

[Killer Tomato]

ps, didn't mean to imply you were *new*.... it just sounded like this was the first winter for your chickens.

 

[Stepnout]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/byc-coop-section-helpful-thread-index.206328/
Have you gone over to the coop forums? What comes to mind mostly would be to have double walls with insulation and vapor barrier under the inside sheathing. As we all know Chickens require good ventilation even in winter as the ammonia from droppings will not be healthy. If possible a south facing window should help. I was wondering about using a 12 volt battery with a solar trickle charger to burn a 25 watt 12volt light bulb on a timer. That could be on for a few hours a day. I am thinking of doing this, but I will have electricity close buy for my winter set up.
the only thing about supplying heat is if they loose the heat they will not be used to the cold causing stress.
Hopefully others will be around to give you better help.

 

[Athiena14]

OMG, you're killing me! It's still 90 degrees outside, in Oregon. I would really welcome a blast of cool air that I didn't have to pay for right now.

If you could divide up the space, and give the chickens a smaller area for the cold months, that would help. Old plywood for walls and a lowered ceiling, or even recycled pallets. You can insulate that with used feed sacks, and a tarp or plastic around the outside of your *new* walls. Make sure you have good ventilation.

Be glad that you're not close to an electrical outlet -- the urge to use heat lamps is pretty high with new chicken owners, and they are very unsafe. Talk to some experienced chicken keepers in the cold climates. They have survived many winters with only good winterizing, and no external heating sources.

No need to start this now, of course, but you can begin gathering your materials. Good luck!

It's been down in the 60s at night here. But in the 90s during the day. I can divide into half the space it already has a half wall up and would just need another door to put in. I'm newish lol. Had chickens a few years back, but used a space heater in a shed. (It kept shorting out though due to dust.) Had issues with eggs freezing when they laid them, course I had stupid chickens that would hide their eggs