Chicken Coops for Sale in Raeford, North Carolina
Chicken Coops for Sale in Raeford, North Carolina
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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Baby Chick For Sale in Raeford, North Carolina
A good place to start any search is the internet. Simply plugging in the phrase "chicken coops for sale in Raeford North Carolina" 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 Raeford North Carolina chicken coops. What to look for when buying a chicken coop in Raeford, North Carolina With the huge increase in chicken keeping there has actually been a similarly large rise in the variety of poultry paraphernalia on sale. Chicken real estate is a proceedings in factor. It's additionally a traditional example of the excellent old bandwagon being got on as various potential poultry real estate specialists pitch an array of lodging asserting to be the suitable option to your chicken housing requirements. Usually the cost looks eye-catching, the house looks attractive, heck also the clean-cut family members standing there feeding the chickens look desirable. Certainly they know a quality chicken house when they see one? There are many low-cost and also unpleasant coops flooding the market. I recognize this as I've tested a number of them in the area, and also seen a ewe run directly via one when the feed bucket showed up. The outcome was nothing but an expensive heap of firewood and also a small flock of bemused and also now homeless bantams.
Chicken Coop Kits For 6-8 Chickens in Raeford, North Carolina
Generally these standardized designs are created of fast grown lumber - come the first drop of rain they swell, leaving you either fortifying a door that will not close, or tearing the doorway furnishings off in a vain effort to launch the squawking residents. The initial cozy day means the hardwood dries out as well as cracks, the really felt roof bubbles as well as boils, and come nightfall the chickens choose not to go in. This is not because of their frustration at the decline of their when appealing residential property but considering that the hovel is currently a haven for, and most likely abounding, the poultry keeper's nemesis, red mite. Add on that it claimed on the blurb that it would certainly fit four large chickens when that stocking thickness was based upon the Circle Line at 5pm on a Friday, and exactly what are you left with? A number of joints and some kindling. A respectable coop for thee to four birds must cost you approximately ₤ 300 though this can rely on whether you elect for a complimentary standing house or one with a run connected. Presuming you are ranging your birds in a huge room and also the pop hole doorway allows sufficient for the breed you keep, then the major demands of housing come down to 3 factors which will certainly specify the variety of birds your house will certainly hold; perches, nest boxes as well as air flow. Most types of chicken will certainly perch when they go to roost at night, this perch needs to ideally be 5-8cm broad with smoothed off edges so the foot sits conveniently on it. The perch needs to be higher than the nest box access as chickens will also naturally look for the acme to perch. A perch lower than that will certainly have the birds roosting in the nest box over night (which is by the way when they create one of the most poo) bring about soiled eggs the following day. They should not however be so high off the floor of your home that leg injuries might take place when the bird gets down in the early 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 your home they need to be more 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 ahead. Preferably the house should have a the very least one nest box for every three birds as well as these should be off the ground and also in the darkest area of the house. The house needs to have sufficient air flow: without it after that condensation will accumulate every night, also in the coldest of climate. Understand, air flow works on the concept of warm and comfortable air leaving via a high void drawing cooler air in from a lower gap - it's not a set of openings on opposite wall surfaces of your house as well as at the very same level, this is just what's known as a draft. If you have a house with a run connected after that the factors above are still real, but you must also take into consideration the run dimension. The EU maximum lawful stocking thickness for a complimentary variety bird is (as well as let's face it, one of the inspirations for keeping some chickens in your home is perhaps boosted or much better well-being) 2,500 birds each hectare, that's maximum one bird per 4m made even. Take a close check out a few of the deal houses - it could well be the house has the ideal perches, proper air flow and enough nest boxes for a practical variety of birds, yet will each of the chickens have anything greater than an A4 sized piece of ground to invest the day on? Therefore as the claiming goes, "you get exactly what you spend for". You might think you've got a bargain, yet you and also your flock could possibly rue the day you did. Acquisition the appropriate house and also it will last for a couple of years, if not longer offered the right treatment. In the long run your poultry and your fowl keeping encounter will certainly be considerably the far better for it.diy for sale
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