Chicken Coops for Sale in Westphalia, Kansas
Chicken Coops for Sale in Westphalia, Kansas
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 Reviews in Westphalia, Kansas
A good place to start any search is the internet. Simply plugging in the phrase "chicken coops for sale in Westphalia Kansas" 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 Westphalia Kansas chicken coops. What to look for when buying a chicken coop in Westphalia, Kansas With the massive boost in chicken keeping there has actually been a similarly huge surge in the range of fowl paraphernalia on sale. Chicken housing is a situation in point. It's likewise a traditional instance of the great old bandwagon being jumped on as various would-be fowl housing specialists market a variety of holiday accommodation asserting to be the ideal solution to your chicken real estate demands. Commonly the price looks appealing, your house looks eye-catching, heck even the clean-cut family standing there feeding the chickens look attractive. Surely they know a high quality chicken house when they see one? There are several cheap and also nasty cages flooding the marketplace. I recognize this as I've checked a number of them in the field, as well as seen a ewe run straight via one when the feed pail showed up. The result was only an expensive pile of firewood and a little group of bemused as well as now homeless bantams.
Baby Chick Enclosure in Westphalia, Kansas
Usually these standardized designs are built of fast grown up lumber - come the initial drop of rain they swell, leaving you either defending a door that will not shut, or ripping the door furnishings off in a vain effort to launch the squawking residents. The very first warm and comfortable day indicates the lumber dries out as well as fractures, the felt roof covering bubbles as well as boils, as well as come nightfall the chickens choose not to enter. This is not because of their dissatisfaction at the decrease of their as soon as appealing apartment yet because the hovel is now a sanctuary for, as well as possibly abounding, the chicken keeper's bane, red mite. Add that it stated on the blurb that it would certainly match four large hens when that equipping density was based on the Circle Line at 5pm on a Friday, and also just what are you left with? A few joints and also some kindling. A respectable coop for thee to four birds need to cost you approximately ₤ 300 though this can depend upon whether you elect for a cost-free standing house or one with a run affixed. Thinking you are varying your birds in a large area and the pop hole door allows sufficient for the type you keep, after that the main requirements of housing come down to three factors which will define the variety of birds your home will hold; perches, nest boxes and ventilation. Many breeds of chicken will certainly perch when they go to roost in the evening, this perch must preferably be 5-8cm wide with smoothed off edges so the foot sits pleasantly on it. The perch needs to be more than the nest box access as chickens will additionally naturally look for the acme to perch. A perch below that will certainly have the birds roosting in the nest box over night (which is by the way when they produce the most poo) leading to soiled eggs the list below day. They should not however be so high off the floor of your house that leg injuries could possibly take place when the bird gets down in the early morning. Chickens need regarding 20cm of perch each (in little types this is certainly much less), plus if more than one perch is installed in your home they need to be greater than 30cm apart. They will certainly hunker up with their next-door neighbors yet are not that keen on roosting with a beak in the bloomers of the bird in front. Ideally your home must have a least one nest box for every single 3 birds and these need to be off the ground and also in the darkest area of the house. Your home needs to have sufficient air flow: without it then condensation will build up every night, even in the chilliest of weather. Realize, air flow works with the principle of cozy air leaving through a high gap attracting cooler air in from a lower void - it's not a set of openings on opposite wall surfaces of your house as well as at the same level, this is exactly what's known as a draft. If you have a house with a run connected then the factors above are still true, however you must also take into consideration the run dimension. The EU maximum legal stocking thickness for a free range bird is (and also let's encounter it, among the motivations for maintaining some hens in your home is possibly boosted or far better well-being) 2,500 birds each hectare, that's maximum one bird each 4m made even. Take a close take a look at a few of the bargain residences - it could well be your home has the best perches, appropriate air flow and also ample nest boxes for a reasonable number of birds, however will each of the chickens have anything more than an A4 sized item of ground to invest the day on? And so as the saying goes, "you obtain exactly what you spend for". You may think you've grabbed a deal, however you and your flock can rue the day you did. Purchase the ideal house and it will certainly last for a few decades, if not longer offered the appropriate treatment. In the long run your chicken as well as your chicken maintaining experience will be much the much better for it.build plan
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