Chicken Coops for Sale in Oconee, Illinois
Chicken Coops for Sale in Oconee, 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 You Can Walk In in Oconee, Illinois
A good place to start any search is the internet. Simply plugging in the phrase "chicken coops for sale in Oconee 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 Oconee Illinois chicken coops. What to look for when buying a chicken coop in Oconee, Illinois With the big increase in poultry keeping there has actually been a just as huge increase in the range of poultry stuff for sale. Fowl real estate is a situation in point. It's additionally a classic example of the good old bandwagon being jumped on as various prospective poultry housing specialists peddle a selection of holiday accommodation claiming to be the perfect solution to your chicken real estate demands. Commonly the rate looks desirable, the house looks desirable, heck even the clean-cut household standing there feeding the chickens look eye-catching. Definitely they understand a professional chicken house when they see one? There are many cheap and also nasty coops flooding the market. I recognize this as I've tested a variety of them in the area, as well as seen a ewe run straight through one when the feed bucket showed up. The result was nothing but an expensive pile of firewood and also a tiny flock of bemused and also currently homeless bantams.
Chicken Coop Plans For 20 Chickens in Oconee, Illinois
Usually these mass produced models are constructed of rapid grown up lumber - come the first drop of rainfall they swell, leaving you either defending a doorway that won't close, or ripping the door furniture off in a vain effort to release the squawking occupants. The first warm and comfortable day indicates the lumber dries and also splits, the felt roof bubbles and also boils, and come nightfall the chickens refuse to go in. This is not as a result of their disappointment at the decrease of their once attractive home yet considering that the hovel is now a haven for, and also most likely abounding, the poultry keeper's bane, red mite. Add that it stated on the blurb that it would certainly fit 4 big chickens when that equipping density was based upon the Circle Line at 5pm on a Friday, and exactly what are you left with? A few joints and also some kindling. A respectable coop for thee to four birds ought to cost you around ₤ 300 though this can depend upon whether you choose for a totally free standing house or one with a run affixed. Assuming you are varying your birds in a large room and also the pop opening door allows sufficient for the breed you keep, then the primary requirements of real estate come down to three points which will define the number of birds the house will certainly hold; perches, nest boxes and air flow. A lot of breeds of chicken will certainly perch when they visit roost in the evening, this perch should ideally be 5-8cm broad with smoothed off sides so the foot sits conveniently on it. The perch should be higher than the nest box access as chickens will certainly also normally search for the highest point to perch. A perch less than that will have the birds roosting in the nest box overnight (which is by the way when they create one of the most poo) causing dirtied eggs the list below day. They should not nevertheless be so high off the flooring of your home that leg injuries can take place when the bird gets down in the early morning. Chickens require concerning 20cm of perch each (in little types this is clearly much less), plus if greater than one perch is mounted in the house they need to be greater than 30cm apart. They will certainly hunker up with their neighbors but are not that keen on roosting with a beak in the bloomers of the bird in front. Ideally your house should have a the very least one nest box for each three birds as well as these ought to be off the ground and in the darkest area of your house. The house needs to have sufficient air flow: without it then condensation will certainly develop every night, also in the chilliest of climate. Understand, air flow works on the principle of warm air leaving through a high space attracting cooler air in from a reduced void - it's not a collection of openings on other wall surfaces of the house as well as at the same degree, this is exactly what's referred to as a draught. If you have a house with a run affixed then the points above are still real, yet you need to additionally think about the run dimension. The EU maximum lawful equipping density for a cost-free range bird is (as well as allow's face it, one of the inspirations for maintaining some chickens at home is possibly improved or much better welfare) 2,500 birds each hectare, that's maximum one bird each 4m made even. Take a close check out some of the bargain homes - it could well be the house has the ideal perches, correct air flow and enough nest boxes for a sensible variety of birds, yet will each of the chickens have anything more than an A4 sized piece of ground to spend the day on? And so as the claiming goes, "you obtain what you pay for". You might assume you've got a deal, yet you as well as your flock might rue the day you did. Purchase the best house and it will last for a couple of decades, otherwise longer provided the correct treatment. Ultimately your chicken as well as your chicken maintaining encounter will be considerably the better for it.coops plan
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