Chicken Coops for Sale in Kersey, Colorado
Chicken Coops for Sale in Kersey, Colorado
Preparing Your Coop/Flock For Winter – Part 1: Roof Structure
Last week I posted a list of items that you may want to consider doing to make sure you and your flock are ready for the colder winter months. I’m going to try address one or two of these topics every Wednesday so that if you are going to work on them over the weekend you have time to plan.
Again I know it’s hard to even think of winter when the temperatures are in the 90’s in many parts of the country, but the cold weather will be on us before you know. Its much easier to take the time now to button up any issues, then trying to do it in the dead of winter. Many of you will not deal with snow and ice (lucky you!) but many of these topics effect all of us backyard chicken keepers and have a detrimental effect on the overall health of your coop…As I always say if what I post pertains to you and helps, great, if not just forget about it and move on…
Coop Roof Structure:
The roof of your coop is the first line of defense against the elements. A sound roof will not only prevent water penetration but will help in keeping your coop warm during the winter. As we all know heat rises (check our second floor of the house out in the summer!) and a solid roof can help trap some of this heat keeping the inside of the coop warmer. The important thing to remember is that you do not want to trap all of the heat by cutting off ventilation. Heat develops moisture and condensation so it’s important to have a balance. Ventilation is an important aspect of the coop, without it moisture builds, ammonia fumes become overpowering and your birds health will suffer. There is a huge difference between ventilation and a draft, we will be discussing “drafts” in a later post.
Having controllable ventilation at the peak of the roof structure will help to maintain a healthy coop. This can easily be accomplished with some screen covered holes on the side walls of the peak and using a piece of plywood to control how much of an opening you want. There are some much more elaborate systems out there but they all accomplish the same thing, controllable ventilation. If you don’t have ventilation at the peak you may want to consider it. There is a reason why so many homes have ventilation at the eves and peaks, it helps to control moisture in the home during the winter as well keeping the home cooler in the summer months.
Ensuring that your roof is leak free is also very important. That little leak you have been dealing with all summer may become a big issue during the winter when you get the “freeze/thaw effects”. During the day as snow and ice melt, water can leak into the the roof structure. At night this water freezes and expands resulting in a larger and larger leak as the days go by. There are many products out there that can help seal up these leaks but be careful some have toxic fumes that could be harmful to your flock. Sometimes just using a new shingle on asphalt roofs does the trick. Metal roofs typically leak at the seams or nail heads, a good quality sealer should handle these areas. Just remember most of the time the leak you see dripping on the underside of the roof came from a hole or crack above where you see the dripping. When water leaks in, gravity causes the water to run to the lowest point. It may take some investigation to find where the leak is actually coming from but a good starting point is to start above the spot you see the leak dripping.
If the wood on your coop roof is rotted it should be replaced. Rotted wood normally contains a large amount of moisture. The moisture in this wood adds moisture to the coop (remember, it’s a bad thing). “Freeze/Thaw” effects can take place on this rotted wood causing it to deteriorate even quicker. Snow loads can add significant weight to the top of the coop and a unstable structure runs the risk of collapse. I can only imagine how difficult it would be dealing with a roof collapse in the dead of winter! If the snow and ice get to heavy for the roof on your coop, you should remove it. When removing it be careful not to damage the roof shingles or other covering! Stand on a steady surface with both feet firmly planted on the ground or step when attempting to remove snow and ice.
A roof leak also adds unwanted moisture to you coop by letting water in and keeping the litter wet. The interior of a coop has enough moisture from bird droppings and the moisture a chicken itself gives off by breathing, you don’t need or want the added moisture from a leak. If the litter in the coop becomes wet from any source during the winter you should remove it and replace it with fresh as quickly as possible. Placing a bucket under the leak to catch the drip is not a good fix. When water drips into the bucket it can splash a fine mist a considerable distance. This mist keeps the litter wet and the air inside the coop too moist.
A well ventilated, leak free, structurally sound roof on your coop is a extremely important part in maintaining the overall health of your coop. This is not an area that you want to just “make do” and cut corners. There are many materials that you can use for a roof. Some, like scrap metal roofing or end cut pieces of tar paper and shingles can be found at a local building site (ask first, you don’t want the end up in jail!) or a recycling center. I would avoid using a tarp, although these are good in an emergency should you find a leak. And never use pressure treated wood which can give off toxic fumes in a enclosed area like a coop. If your roof membrane is water tight there is no need for pressure treated plywood or lumber as a deck surface.
By addressing the coops roof now you can prevent dealing with the effects of a wet environment in the dead cold of the winter months…Hope this helps….
FrankThe Chicken Fountain™
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Chicken Coop Construction in Kersey, Colorado
A good place to start any search is the internet. Simply plugging in the phrase "chicken coops for sale in Kersey Colorado" 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 Kersey Colorado chicken coops. What to look for when buying a chicken coop in Kersey, Colorado With the significant boost in chicken keeping there has been a similarly big surge in the variety of fowl paraphernalia for sale. Fowl real estate is a proceedings in point. It's additionally a traditional instance of the great old bandwagon being got on as numerous potential poultry real estate specialists pitch a variety of holiday accommodation claiming to be the perfect remedy to your chicken housing demands. Often the price looks eye-catching, your house looks attractive, hell even the clean-cut family members standing there feeding the chickens look attractive. Certainly they understand a professional chicken house when they see one? There are numerous inexpensive and unpleasant cages flooding the marketplace. I understand this as I've examined a number of them in the field, as well as seen a ewe run straight through one when the feed container showed up. The outcome was just a pricey stack of fire wood and a small flock of bemused and now homeless bantams.
Baby Chick Incubator in Kersey, Colorado
Most of the time these standardized models are constructed of rapid grown wood - come the very first drop of rainfall they swell, leaving you either fortifying a door that will not shut, or tearing the doorway furniture off in a vain effort to launch the squawking residents. The initial cozy day suggests the timber dries as well as splits, the really felt roofing system bubbles as well as boils, and come nightfall the hens refuse to enter. This is not due to their dissatisfaction at the decline of their once attractive apartment yet because the hovel is currently a haven for, and possibly crawling with, the poultry caretaker's nemesis, red mite. Add the fact that it stated on the blurb that it would fit four big hens when that equipping density was based on the Circle Line at 5pm on a Friday, as well as what are you entrusted? A couple of joints and some kindling. A respectable coop for thee to four birds ought to cost you approximately ₤ 300 though this can depend upon whether you elect for a totally free standing house or one with a run attached. Assuming you are ranging your birds in a large area and the pop hole doorway allows sufficient for the breed you maintain, then the primary demands of real estate come down to 3 factors which will define the number of birds the house will certainly hold; perches, nest boxes as well as ventilation. Most breeds of chicken will certainly perch when they go to roost at night, this perch should preferably be 5-8cm vast with smoothed off sides so the foot rests pleasantly on it. The perch needs to be above the nest box entrance as chickens will certainly likewise naturally search for the highest point to perch. A perch less than that will certainly have the birds roosting in the nest box overnight (which is incidentally when they generate the most poo) leading to dirtied eggs the following day. They shouldn't nevertheless be so high off the floor of your house that leg injuries can take place when the bird comes down in the morning. Chickens require regarding 20cm of perch each (in small types this is certainly much less), plus if more than one perch is set up in the house they must be more than 30cm apart. They will hunker up with their next-door neighbors yet are not that crazy about roosting with a beak in the bloomers of the bird ahead. Ideally the house must have a the very least one nest box for each three birds and these need to be off the ground and in the darkest location of your home. Your house needs to have appropriate air flow: without it after that condensation will certainly develop every evening, even in the chilliest of weather condition. Understand, ventilation works on the principle of warm air leaving via a high gap attracting cooler air in from a reduced gap - it's not a collection of holes on opposite walls of your home and at the same degree, this is just what's called a draught. If you have a house with a run attached after that the points above are still real, yet you should also think about the run size. The EU maximum lawful equipping thickness for a totally free range bird is (and also let's face it, among the motivations for keeping some chickens in your home is possibly improved or much better welfare) 2,500 birds per hectare, that's maximum one bird per 4m settled. Take a close check out some of the deal homes - it could well be the house has the ideal perches, proper ventilation and adequate nest boxes for an affordable variety of birds, but will each of the chickens have anything more than an A4 sized item of ground to spend the day on? Therefore as the saying goes, "you get what you spend for". You could think you've grabbed a bargain, but you and your group could possibly rue the day you did. Purchase the best house as well as it will last for a few decades, otherwise longer offered the correct treatment. Ultimately your chicken as well as your fowl keeping encounter will certainly be much the far better for it.coops chickens
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