Chicken Coops for Sale in Ivan, Louisiana
Chicken Coops for Sale in Ivan, Louisiana
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 And Run Plans in Ivan, Louisiana
A good place to start any search is the internet. Simply plugging in the phrase "chicken coops for sale in Ivan Louisiana" 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 Ivan Louisiana chicken coops. What to look for when buying a chicken coop in Ivan, Louisiana With the significant rise in chicken maintaining there has been a similarly large rise in the variety of fowl paraphernalia for sale. Poultry real estate is a case in point. It's additionally a traditional example of the good old bandwagon being jumped on as various prospective poultry housing professionals pitch a variety of cottage claiming to be the ideal solution to your chicken housing requirements. Typically the cost looks eye-catching, your house looks attractive, hell also the clean-cut family members standing there feeding the chickens look eye-catching. Definitely they recognize a top quality chicken house when they see one? There are lots of low-cost and also nasty cages flooding the marketplace. I know this as I've checked a variety of them in the field, as well as seen a ewe run directly through one when the feed pail appeared. The outcome was just a pricey heap of fire wood and also a small flock of bemused and also now homeless bantams.
Chicken Coop Free Plans in Ivan, Louisiana
Typically these standardized versions are constructed of quick grown up hardwood - come the first drop of rainfall they swell, leaving you either defending a door that will not close, or tearing the doorway furniture off in a vain effort to launch the squawking inhabitants. The very first warm and comfortable day suggests the lumber dries out and also fractures, the really felt roofing system bubbles as well as boils, and also come nightfall the hens choose not to go in. This is not as a result of their disappointment at the decrease of their as soon as appealing property but since the hovel is now a sanctuary for, and also possibly abounding, the poultry keeper's bane, red mite. Add that it claimed on the blurb that it would match 4 large hens when that stocking density was based upon the Circle Line at 5pm on a Friday, and what are you left with? A few hinges and some kindling. A good coop for thee to 4 birds should cost you in the region of ₤ 300 though this can rely on whether you choose for a free standing house or one with a run attached. Thinking you are varying your birds in a large room and the pop hole door is big enough for the breed you keep, after that the main needs of housing boil down to three points which will define the variety of birds your home will certainly hold; perches, nest boxes and also air flow. A lot of types of chicken will certainly perch when they go to roost in the evening, this perch ought to preferably be 5-8cm wide with smoothed off sides so the foot rests pleasantly on it. The perch ought to be above the nest box entry as chickens will certainly likewise naturally try to find 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 create the most poo) causing stained eggs the list below day. They should not however be so high off the floor of your home that leg injuries can take place when the bird comes down in the early morning. Chickens need concerning 20cm of perch each (in small types this is obviously less), plus if greater than one perch is installed in your house they should be greater than 30cm apart. They will hunker up with their neighbors however are not that crazy about roosting with a beak in the bloomers of the bird in front. Ideally the house needs to have a the very least one nest box for each three birds as well as these ought to be off the ground and also in the darkest area of your home. Your house needs to have sufficient ventilation: without it after that condensation will accumulate every evening, even in the coldest of weather condition. Understand, ventilation works with the concept of warm air leaving via a high void drawing cooler air in from a reduced space - it's not a collection of holes on opposite wall surfaces of your home as well as at the same degree, this is exactly what's known as a draft. If you have a house with a run affixed then the points above are still true, yet you need to additionally think about the run dimension. The EU maximum lawful equipping thickness for a cost-free variety bird is (and allow's encounter it, among the inspirations for keeping some hens in the house is potentially improved or much better welfare) 2,500 birds each hectare, that's optimal one bird each 4m made even. Take a close check out a few of the bargain homes - it could well be your house has the appropriate perches, appropriate ventilation and adequate nest boxes for a sensible number of birds, yet will each of the chickens have anything greater than an A4 sized item of ground to spend the day on? And so as the saying goes, "you obtain exactly what you spend for". You may think you've got a bargain, however 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, otherwise longer given the right therapy. In the end your fowl and also your fowl maintaining experience will certainly be much the far better for it.chicken coops
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