Chicken Coops for Sale in Byron, Illinois
Chicken Coops for Sale in Byron, Illinois
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 Plans Free in Byron, Illinois
A good place to start any search is the internet. Simply plugging in the phrase "chicken coops for sale in Byron Illinois" 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 Byron Illinois chicken coops. What to look for when buying a chicken coop in Byron, Illinois With the significant boost in poultry keeping there has been a similarly huge increase in the variety of poultry stuff on sale. Poultry housing is a situation in factor. It's likewise a timeless example of the good old bandwagon being got on as numerous prospective chicken real estate experts peddle an array of cottage asserting to be the perfect remedy to your chicken real estate needs. Frequently the cost looks appealing, the house looks appealing, heck also the clean-cut family 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 awful cages swamping the market. I know this as I've examined a variety of them in the area, and seen a ewe run straight via one when the feed bucket showed up. The outcome was only an expensive stack of fire wood as well as a little group of bemused and also now homeless bantams.
Chicken Coops For Sale in Byron, Illinois
Typically these mass produced designs are created of quick grown hardwood - come the first decline of rainfall they swell, leaving you either defending a door that won't close, or ripping the doorway furniture off in a vain effort to release the squawking inhabitants. The first warm and comfortable day means the wood dries and cracks, the felt roof bubbles and boils, and also come nightfall the hens refuse to enter. This is not due to their dissatisfaction at the decrease of their when eye-catching home but considering that the hovel is now a place for, and also possibly abounding, the poultry keeper's nemesis, red mite. Add that it claimed on the blurb that it would suit 4 large chickens when that equipping thickness was based on the Circle Line at 5pm on a Friday, as well as just what are you left with? A number of hinges as well as some kindling. A suitable coop for thee to four birds need to cost you in the region of ₤ 300 though this could depend upon whether you choose for a free standing house or one with a run attached. Assuming you are ranging your birds in a huge area as well as the pop hole doorway allows enough for the type you maintain, then the main demands of housing come down to three factors which will certainly specify the variety of birds your home will hold; perches, nest boxes and air flow. A lot of types of chicken will certainly perch when they visit roost in the evening, this perch ought to ideally be 5-8cm broad with smoothed off sides so the foot sits conveniently on it. The perch needs to be above the nest box entrance as chickens will also naturally try to find the highest point to perch. A perch less than that will certainly have the birds roosting in the nest box overnight (which is by the way when they generate the most poo) resulting in soiled eggs the list below day. They shouldn't nonetheless be so high off the flooring of your home that leg injuries might take place when the bird comes down in the early morning. Chickens need regarding 20cm of perch each (in small types this is undoubtedly less), plus if greater than one perch is set up in your home they should be more than 30cm apart. They will certainly hunker up with their neighbors but are not that crazy about roosting with a beak in the bloomers of the bird in front. Ideally your house ought to have a least one nest box for every single three birds and these ought to be off the ground as well as in the darkest area of your home. Your house must have sufficient ventilation: without it after that condensation will certainly develop every evening, also in the coldest of climate. Know, air flow works with the concept of warm and comfortable air leaving through a high void attracting cooler air in from a lower void - it's not a set of holes on other walls of your home and at the very same level, this is what's known as a draft. If you have a house with a run connected then the factors above are still true, but you should also think about the run size. The EU maximum legal stocking density for a free array bird is (and allow's encounter it, one of the motivations for maintaining some hens in your home is possibly boosted or better well-being) 2,500 birds per hectare, that's optimal one bird per 4m squared. Take a close look at a few of the bargain residences - it could well be your home has the ideal perches, proper air flow and also ample nest boxes for a practical number of birds, yet will each of the chickens have anything more than an A4 sized item of ground to invest the day on? And so as the claiming goes, "you get just what you spend for". You might think you've grabbed a bargain, but you and also your flock might rue the day you did. Acquisition the best house as well as it will certainly last for a few decades, otherwise longer provided the appropriate treatment. In the end your fowl as well as your poultry keeping encounter will be much the far better for it.diy for sale
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