Chicken Coops for Sale in Anniston, Alabama
Chicken Coops for Sale in Anniston, Alabama
Metal Siding on Chicken Coops
My chicken coops have always had metal roofs, and now I’m trying out metal siding, on the grounds that I want anything I build to last 20 years without maintenance, and the exterior plywood I’ve been using doesn’t deliver that.
[Update: Seven years after writing this blog post, the corrugated metal walls are holding up well. Seven years is long enough for plywood walls to start falling to pieces, but the metal walls are holding up well, with only a bit of rust here and there.]
One of my old pasture houses, with a 15-year-old metal roof and 7-year-old metal siding.
Does Metal Promote Condensation and Wetness?
People will tell you that metal siding sweats, because of condensation. This is true if the inside of the house is warmer than the outside, since moisture from the warm house will condense on the cold walls and ceiling. But it’s not about metal vs. wood, since condensation forms on any kind of roof or wall, no matter what it’s made of. In marginal cases, it’s more visible on metal because it’s 100% non-absorbent.
A Fresh-Air House is a Dry House
But you can dodge the problem with a fresh-air poultry house. If you add enough ventilation, the inside of the house is just as cold as the outside, and you get no condensation. My metal roofs don’t have condensation unless there’s snow on the roof and temperatures are above freezing. The rest of the time, my highly ventilated houses have dry ceilings and walls.
Fresh-Air Poultry Houses, by Prince T. Woods. Reprinted by me!
This is one of the main points of , the chicken-coop book I’ve republished (check out the if you haven’t already). It focuses on the advantage of well-ventilated houses, a concept that still needs to be repeated constantly today. You won’t read anything about metal walls or roofs in this book, since it predates their use, but it’s a treasure trove in other ways.
You can also prevent condensation with insulation, but I don’t do that.
Can you really prevent damp chicken houses through ventilation alone? Well, it works for me, and I live in Oregon, which has a famously wet climate!
Installing Corrugated Sheet Metal Walls
Back to the construction project. In keeping with my other rule of construction (never use a saw when you can buy stuff that’s already the right size), I ignored my existing stock of 10-foot metal roofing and obtained some cheap 8-foot corrugated roofing from Home Depot. My chicken houses are 8×8 feet.
Karen and I banged these sheets onto a couple of sides of a chicken house where the old OSB siding was falling to pieces. We used roofing screws. These are hex drive screws with neoprene washers. We used to use roofing nails, but they pull loose too easily and we hate having roofing panels flapping loose in the breeze! And using power tools instead of a hammer keeps my shoulders and back from seizing up. I bang the screw in a short way with a hammer, then drive it home with a cordless drill.
I’m told that roofing screws have three times the holding power of nails.
These panels went on very quickly, and if they ever rust through (which they will, at the bottom edges anyway, if I allow chicken manure to pile up against them), I can take the screws out and replace them just as easily.
So far, so good. The shiny metal really brightens up the interior of the chicken house, and because it’s non-porous, it provides no place for roost mites to accumulate.
Cheap Roofing is Good Enough
Plain old “ripple metal” (corrugated steel) is less rigid than V-channel roofing, but it’s proven to be stiff enough, even for a house that gets dragged around behind a tractor, which can put all sorts of stresses on it, especially if it gets hung up on holes and bumps along the way. So far, so good. That means that, so far, the cheapest possible corrugated metal has been perfectly adequate.
Watch out for translucent corrugated fiberglass. In my experience, it’s not very strong and becomes increasingly brittle over time. I’m sure it has its uses, but don’t think of it as being structural in the way that plywood and corrugated steel are.
You Don’t Have to Settle for Ugly
Of course, you can build a much prettier house with metal roofing with baked-enamel finishes in designer colors, and you should probably do this if you don’t want a silver house, since it’s hard to get paint to stick to galvanized steel. While I’m always looking for the cheapest, longest-lasting, easiest-to-build designs, there are plenty of other ways of approaching the problem of chicken-coop design.
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Chicken Coop For 10 Chickens in Anniston, Alabama
A good place to start any search is the internet. Simply plugging in the phrase "chicken coops for sale in Anniston Alabama" into any one of the numerous search engines and a wealth of information will pop up. This information will provide links to other websites that will be informative and will provide the right direction for finding Anniston Alabama chicken coops. What to look for when buying a chicken coop in Anniston, Alabama With the big boost in chicken keeping there has actually been an equally large rise in the array of fowl paraphernalia for sale. Poultry housing is a case in point. It's also a traditional instance of the excellent old bandwagon being got on as various prospective poultry housing experts market a selection of cottage asserting to be the ideal solution to your chicken housing needs. Typically the rate looks desirable, your house looks desirable, heck even the clean-cut household standing there feeding the chickens look eye-catching. Undoubtedly they know a high quality chicken house when they see one? There are several cheap as well as horrible cages flooding the market. I understand this as I've tested a number of them in the area, and also seen a ewe run directly with one when the feed bucket appeared. The outcome was only an expensive heap of fire wood and also a little flock of bemused and also currently homeless bantams.
Chicken Coop Near Me in Anniston, Alabama
Typically these standardized designs are created of rapid grown lumber - come the initial decline of rainfall they swell, leaving you either fortifying a door that won't close, or ripping the door furnishings off in a vain attempt to launch the squawking residents. The initial cozy day means the wood dries out as well as fractures, the really felt roofing system bubbles as well as boils, and come nightfall the hens choose not to enter. This is not due to their frustration at the decrease of their as soon as appealing apartment yet because the hovel is now a sanctuary for, and also probably crawling with, the poultry caretaker's nemesis, red mite. Add on that it stated on the blurb that it would certainly fit four large hens when that equipping density was based on the Circle Line at 5pm on a Friday, and exactly what are you left with? A number of joints as well as some kindling. A good coop for thee to four birds should cost you in the region of ₤ 300 though this could rely on whether you choose for a cost-free standing house or one with a run attached. Presuming you are varying your birds in a big area as well as the pop opening doorway is big sufficient for the breed you keep, then the main demands of housing boil down to 3 points which will define the number of birds your house will hold; perches, nest boxes and air flow. The majority of breeds of chicken will certainly perch when they visit roost at night, this perch should preferably be 5-8cm broad with smoothed off edges so the foot rests pleasantly on it. The perch needs to be higher than the nest box entry as chickens will certainly likewise naturally try to find the highest point to perch. A perch less than that will have the birds roosting in the nest box over night (which is incidentally when they create the most poo) leading to stained eggs the following day. They shouldn't however be so high off the flooring of the house that leg injuries might take place when the bird gets down in the early morning. Chickens require about 20cm of perch each (in tiny breeds this is obviously much less), plus if greater than one perch is installed in your home they must be greater than 30cm apart. They will hunker up with their neighbors yet are not that crazy about roosting with a beak in the bloomers of the bird in front. Ideally the house must have a the very least one nest box for each 3 birds and these ought to be off the ground and also in the darkest location of the house. Your home needs to have ample air flow: without it after that condensation will accumulate every evening, also in the chilliest of weather. Understand, ventilation deals with the concept of cozy air leaving through a high gap attracting cooler air in from a reduced void - it's not a collection of openings on contrary walls of your house and also at the exact same degree, this is what's called a draught. If you have a house with a run attached after that the points above are still real, however you ought to additionally think about the run dimension. The EU maximum legal equipping density for a totally free range bird is (as well as allow's face it, one of the inspirations for keeping some chickens at home is potentially boosted or better welfare) 2,500 birds per hectare, that's optimal one bird per 4m squared. Take a close look at some of the bargain houses - it could well be your home has the best perches, correct ventilation and also sufficient nest boxes for a practical number of birds, but will each of the chickens have anything greater than an A4 sized piece of ground to spend the day on? And so as the stating goes, "you get what you pay for". You may assume you've got a deal, yet you as well as your group might rue the day you did. Acquisition the right house and it will last for a couple of decades, if not longer given the correct therapy. In the long run your fowl as well as your poultry keeping encounter will certainly be considerably the much better for it.chickens coops
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