Chicken Coops for Sale in Lonepine, Montana
Chicken Coops for Sale in Lonepine, Montana
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 With Run in Lonepine, Montana
A good place to start any search is the internet. Simply plugging in the phrase "chicken coops for sale in Lonepine 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 Lonepine Montana chicken coops. What to look for when buying a chicken coop in Lonepine, Montana With the huge boost in poultry keeping there has been an equally big rise in the variety of fowl materiel for sale. Fowl housing is a proceedings in point. It's additionally a classic instance of the great old bandwagon being jumped on as numerous potential fowl housing specialists peddle a selection of lodging declaring to be the suitable remedy to your chicken housing requirements. Often the price looks appealing, the house looks appealing, heck even the clean-cut family members standing there feeding the chickens look desirable. Certainly they understand a professional chicken house when they see one? There are lots of low-cost and also awful coops swamping the marketplace. I recognize this as I've checked a number of them in the area, as well as seen a ewe run straight with one when the feed bucket showed up. The result was just an expensive heap of fire wood and also a small flock of bemused and also currently homeless bantams.
Chicken Coop And Run For Sale in Lonepine, Montana
Generally these standardized designs are constructed of rapid grown up hardwood - come the initial decrease of rain they swell, leaving you either barricading a doorway that will not close, or ripping the doorway furnishings off in a vain attempt to launch the squawking citizens. The very first cozy day means the timber dries out as well as cracks, the felt roof bubbles as well as boils, and also come nightfall the chickens refuse to enter. This is not due to their frustration at the decrease of their when desirable commercial property but due to the fact that the hovel is currently a sanctuary for, and probably crawling with, the fowl caretaker's bane, red mite. Add on that it stated on the blurb that it would suit four big chickens when that equipping thickness was based upon the Circle Line at 5pm on a Friday, and also exactly what are you entrusted? A number of joints and some kindling. A respectable coop for thee to 4 birds need to cost you approximately ₤ 300 though this could depend on whether you elect for a free standing house or one with a run affixed. Presuming you are varying your birds in a large area and also the pop hole door allows enough for the type you maintain, then the major demands of real estate boil down to 3 factors which will specify the variety of birds the house will hold; perches, nest boxes as well as air flow. Most breeds of chicken will certainly perch when they go to roost during the night, this perch should preferably be 5-8cm large with smoothed off edges so the foot rests pleasantly on it. The perch needs to be more than the nest box entrance as chickens will certainly likewise naturally search for the acme to perch. A perch lower than that will certainly have the birds roosting in the nest box over night (which is incidentally when they generate the most poo) bring about dirtied eggs the following day. They should not however be so high off the flooring of your home that leg injuries can occur when the bird gets down in the early morning. Chickens need concerning 20cm of perch each (in small types this is clearly less), plus if greater than one perch is mounted in your home they must be more than 30cm apart. They will 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 needs to have a least one nest box for every 3 birds and these must be off the ground as well as in the darkest location of the house. The house should have adequate air flow: without it after that condensation will certainly build up every evening, also in the chilliest of weather condition. Understand, air flow deals with the concept of cozy air leaving through a high space drawing cooler air in from a lower gap - it's not a set of openings on other walls of your home and also at the very same degree, this is just what's referred to as a draught. If you have a house with a run attached then the factors above are still true, however you must also take into consideration the run size. The EU optimum lawful equipping density for a free range bird is (and let's encounter it, among the motivations for maintaining some hens in the house is potentially boosted or much better well-being) 2,500 birds per hectare, that's maximum one bird per 4m settled. Take a close consider a few of the bargain homes - it could well be your house has the right perches, correct ventilation and sufficient nest boxes for an affordable variety of birds, but will each of the chickens have anything greater than an A4 sized piece of ground to spend the day on? And so as the claiming goes, "you get what you pay for". You could assume you've got hold of a bargain, yet you and your group could rue the day you did. Acquisition the best house as well as it will last for a few years, otherwise longer offered the correct therapy. In the end your fowl and your chicken maintaining encounter will be much the better for it.chickens chickens
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