Chicken Coops for Sale in Hungry Horse, Montana
Chicken Coops for Sale in Hungry Horse, Montana
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 Tips in Hungry Horse, Montana
A good place to start any search is the internet. Simply plugging in the phrase "chicken coops for sale in Hungry Horse Montana" 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 Hungry Horse Montana chicken coops. What to look for when buying a chicken coop in Hungry Horse, Montana With the huge boost in chicken keeping there has been a similarly big surge in the range of fowl paraphernalia for sale. Chicken housing is a situation in factor. It's additionally a classic example of the excellent old bandwagon being got on as numerous potential poultry housing experts pitch a range of lodging asserting to be the excellent remedy to your chicken housing needs. Usually the cost looks eye-catching, your diy-chicken-coop-planshome looks attractive, heck even the clean-cut family standing there feeding the chickens look attractive. Definitely they know a professional chicken house when they see one? There are lots of economical as well as unpleasant cages flooding the market. I know this as I've tested a number of them in the field, as well as seen a ewe run directly via one when the feed bucket showed up. The outcome was just an expensive heap of firewood and a tiny group of bemused and now homeless bantams.
Chicken Coop Easy To Clean in Hungry Horse, Montana
Most of the time these mass produced designs are created of fast grown up wood - come the very first drop of rain they swell, leaving you either blockading a doorway that will not shut, or tearing the doorway furniture off in a vain effort to launch the squawking residents. The initial cozy day suggests the timber dries out and also cracks, the felt roof covering bubbles and also boils, and come nightfall the hens refuse to enter. This is not as a result of their frustration at the decrease of their once eye-catching property yet considering that the hovel is currently a place for, and probably abounding, the fowl caretaker's bane, red mite. Add on the fact that it stated on the blurb that it would suit four large chickens when that equipping density was based on the Circle Line at 5pm on a Friday, and what are you left with? A number of hinges and also some kindling. A suitable coop for thee to four birds should cost you in the region of ₤ 300 though this could depend on whether you choose for a complimentary standing house or one with a run attached. Assuming you are ranging your birds in a big room as well as the pop opening door is big sufficient for the breed you keep, after that the major demands of real estate come down to three factors which will define the variety of birds the house will hold; perches, nest boxes as well as ventilation. A lot of types of chicken will perch when they visit roost in the evening, this perch ought to ideally be 5-8cm broad with smoothed off sides so the foot rests conveniently on it. The perch must be above the nest box access as chickens will certainly also normally look for the acme to perch. A perch less than that will certainly have the birds roosting in the nest box over night (which is by the way when they generate one of the most poo) causing soiled eggs the list below day. They shouldn't however be so high off the floor of your house that leg injuries could possibly happen when the bird comes down in the morning. Chickens require regarding 20cm of perch each (in little types this is obviously much less), plus if more than one perch is mounted in the house they ought to be more 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 home ought to have a the very least one nest box for each 3 birds and also these must be off the ground as well as in the darkest location of the house. Your home must have ample air flow: without it then condensation will accumulate every evening, also in the chilliest of weather. Realize, ventilation works with the concept of warm air leaving with a high gap drawing cooler air in from a reduced gap - it's not a collection of openings on other wall surfaces of your house and also at the exact same level, this is exactly what's called a draft. If you have a house with a run attached then the factors above are still real, however you need to also take into consideration the run size. The EU optimum lawful equipping density for a totally free variety bird is (and also let's face it, among the inspirations for maintaining some hens in the house is possibly enhanced or much better welfare) 2,500 birds per hectare, that's maximum one bird per 4m squared. Take a close look at some of the deal homes - it could well be your house has the ideal perches, correct ventilation and adequate nest boxes for a reasonable variety of birds, however will each of the chickens have anything more than an A4 sized piece of ground to spend the day on? Therefore as the saying goes, "you get what you pay for". You could believe you've got hold of a deal, yet you and your group can rue the day you did. Acquisition the best house and it will last for a couple of years, if not longer provided the appropriate therapy. Eventually your fowl and also your chicken keeping encounter will certainly be a lot the better for it.coop diy
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