Chicken Coops for Sale in East Brookfield, Massachusetts
Chicken Coops for Sale in East Brookfield, Massachusetts
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 Kits Cheap in East Brookfield, Massachusetts
A good place to start any search is the internet. Simply plugging in the phrase "chicken coops for sale in East Brookfield Massachusetts" 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 East Brookfield Massachusetts chicken coops. What to look for when buying a chicken coop in East Brookfield, Massachusetts With the huge rise in chicken maintaining there has been an equally large rise in the variety of fowl materiel for sale. Chicken housing is a proceedings in point. It's additionally a traditional example of the good old bandwagon being got on as different would-be fowl housing experts pitch an array of accommodation claiming to be the perfect option to your chicken housing demands. Typically the cost looks eye-catching, the house looks attractive, hell also the clean-cut household standing there feeding the chickens look eye-catching. Definitely they know a top quality chicken house when they see one? There are several cheap as well as nasty cages swamping the market. I recognize this as I've examined a number of them in the field, and seen a ewe run directly with one when the feed pail appeared. The result was nothing but an expensive heap of firewood and a small group of bemused and also now homeless bantams.
Baby Chick Hatching in East Brookfield, Massachusetts
More often than not these standardized models are constructed of fast grown lumber - come the very first drop of rainfall they swell, leaving you either fortifying a door that won't close, or ripping the doorway furniture off in a vain attempt to launch the squawking inhabitants. The very first cozy day indicates the timber dries out as well as fractures, the felt roof covering bubbles as well as boils, and come nightfall the hens refuse to go in. This is not due to their frustration at the decrease of their when desirable home yet because the hovel is currently a sanctuary for, and also probably crawling with, the fowl keeper's bane, red mite. Add on that it said on the blurb that it would certainly fit 4 big hens when that equipping thickness was based on the Circle Line at 5pm on a Friday, and also what are you left with? A number of hinges and some kindling. A decent coop for thee to four birds ought to cost you in the region of ₤ 300 though this could depend upon whether you choose for a complimentary standing house or one with a run attached. Presuming you are ranging your birds in a huge space and the pop opening door allows enough for the type you keep, then the primary requirements of real estate come down to three factors which will certainly define the number of birds the house will certainly hold; perches, nest boxes and ventilation. The majority of breeds of chicken will perch when they visit roost at night, this perch ought to ideally be 5-8cm large with smoothed off sides so the foot sits comfortably on it. The perch must be more than the nest box access as chickens will certainly also naturally seek the highest point to perch. A perch below that will have the birds roosting in the nest box overnight (which is incidentally when they create the most poo) resulting in soiled eggs the list below day. They shouldn't nevertheless be so high off the floor of the house that leg injuries could possibly happen when the bird gets down in the morning. Chickens require concerning 20cm of perch each (in tiny breeds this is obviously less), plus if more than one perch is installed in your house they need to be greater than 30cm apart. They will certainly hunker up with their neighbors yet are not that crazy about roosting with a beak in the bloomers of the bird in front. Preferably your house must have a the very least one nest box for every 3 birds as well as these need to be off the ground and in the darkest location of the house. Your house must have adequate air flow: without it after that condensation will certainly accumulate every evening, also in the coldest of climate. Understand, air flow works on the concept of warm air leaving via a high void drawing cooler air in from a reduced gap - it's not a collection of holes on opposite walls of your house and at the same level, this is just what's called a draught. If you have a house with a run attached then the points above are still true, but you must also think about the run dimension. The EU optimum lawful stocking density for a complimentary range bird is (and also let's face it, one of the inspirations for maintaining some chickens in your home is possibly enhanced or much better well-being) 2,500 birds per hectare, that's optimal one bird each 4m squared. Take a close consider a few of the bargain houses - it could well be the house has the right perches, correct air flow and enough nest boxes for an affordable variety 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 stating goes, "you get just what you spend for". You could believe you've got a deal, yet you and your flock could possibly rue the day you did. Purchase the appropriate house as well as it will last for a couple of years, if not longer provided the correct treatment. In the long run your fowl and also your poultry keeping encounter will be considerably the much better for it.build coop
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