Chicken Coops for Sale in Temple, Oklahoma
Chicken Coops for Sale in Temple, Oklahoma
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 For Sale Near Me in Temple, Oklahoma
A good place to start any search is the internet. Simply plugging in the phrase "chicken coops for sale in Temple Oklahoma" 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 Temple Oklahoma chicken coops. What to look for when buying a chicken coop in Temple, Oklahoma With the huge boost in poultry keeping there has actually been a just as large rise in the range of chicken paraphernalia for sale. Fowl housing is an instance in point. It's likewise a timeless example of the good old bandwagon being jumped on as various potential chicken real estate specialists market a range of lodging asserting to be the suitable solution to your chicken housing needs. Commonly the cost looks attractive, your house looks appealing, hell also the clean-cut household standing there feeding the chickens look attractive. Surely they know a top quality chicken house when they see one? There are lots of affordable as well as unpleasant cages swamping the marketplace. I know this as I've tested a number of them in the field, as well as seen a ewe run straight via one when the feed pail appeared. The outcome was only a pricey heap of firewood as well as a small flock of bemused and also now homeless bantams.
Chicken Coop For 6 Chickens in Temple, Oklahoma
Generally these standardized designs are built of fast grown up wood - come the initial decrease of rain they swell, leaving you either defending a door that will not close, or ripping the door furniture off in a vain attempt to launch the squawking citizens. The initial warm and comfortable day implies the timber dries and also fractures, the felt roofing system bubbles and boils, and also come nightfall the chickens refuse to go in. This is not because of their disappointment at the decrease of their once eye-catching property however due to the fact that the hovel is currently a haven for, and probably crawling with, the fowl keeper's nemesis, red mite. Add the fact that it claimed on the blurb that it would certainly fit four large hens when that stocking density was based on the Circle Line at 5pm on a Friday, and also exactly what are you left with? A couple of joints as well as some kindling. A suitable coop for thee to 4 birds need to cost you around ₤ 300 though this could depend upon whether you choose for a totally free standing house or one with a run connected. Assuming you are ranging your birds in a huge area and the pop hole door is big sufficient for the breed you keep, then the main requirements of real estate boil down to three points which will specify the number of birds your house will hold; perches, nest boxes as well as ventilation. A lot of breeds of chicken will perch when they go to roost in the evening, this perch needs to preferably be 5-8cm large with smoothed off sides so the foot rests pleasantly on it. The perch should be above the nest box access as chickens will certainly also naturally try to find the acme to perch. A perch less than that will have the birds roosting in the nest box overnight (which is by the way when they produce one of the most poo) causing stained eggs the list below day. They should not however be so high off the flooring of the house that leg injuries could possibly take place when the bird comes down in the early morning. Chickens require regarding 20cm of perch each (in little types this is undoubtedly much less), plus if greater than one perch is set up in your home they need to be greater than 30cm apart. They will hunker up with their neighbors however are not that keen on roosting with a beak in the bloomers of the bird in front. Ideally the house ought to have a least one nest box for every three birds and also these ought to be off the ground and in the darkest location of the house. Your home must have adequate ventilation: without it after that condensation will certainly build up every evening, even in the coldest of climate. Realize, ventilation works with the principle of warm and comfortable air leaving through a high gap drawing cooler air in from a reduced void - it's not a collection of openings on contrary walls of the house as well as at the very same level, this is what's known as a draft. If you have a house with a run affixed then the factors above are still real, yet you need to also take into consideration the run dimension. The EU maximum legal stocking thickness for a free array bird is (and also let's face it, among the inspirations for keeping some chickens in the house is potentially improved or far 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 bargain residences - it could well be your house has the best perches, correct ventilation and ample nest boxes for a practical variety of birds, yet will each of the chickens have anything greater than an A4 sized item of ground to invest the day on? And so as the claiming goes, "you get what you spend for". You might think you've got hold of a deal, however you and also your group might rue the day you did. Acquisition the best house as well as it will last for a couple of decades, otherwise longer given the right therapy. In the long run your fowl and also your fowl keeping encounter will certainly be much the much better for it.chicken chickens
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