Chicken Coops for Sale in Mansfield, Washington
Chicken Coops for Sale in Mansfield, Washington
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 Door in Mansfield, Washington
A good place to start any search is the internet. Simply plugging in the phrase "chicken coops for sale in Mansfield Washington" 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 Mansfield Washington chicken coops. What to look for when buying a chicken coop in Mansfield, Washington With the significant increase in chicken keeping there has actually been a just as huge surge in the array of poultry materiel on sale. Fowl housing is a situation in factor. It's likewise a traditional instance of the great old bandwagon being got on as numerous potential fowl housing specialists market an array of accommodation asserting to be the excellent solution to your chicken real estate demands. Frequently the price looks desirable, your diy-chicken-coop-planshome looks appealing, hell even the clean-cut household standing there feeding the chickens look eye-catching. Surely they know a high quality chicken house when they see one? There are lots of inexpensive and also nasty coops swamping the marketplace. I know this as I've checked a variety of them in the field, as well as seen a ewe run straight with one when the feed bucket appeared. The result was just a pricey stack of fire wood and a small flock of bemused and currently homeless bantams.
Chicken Coop Supplies in Mansfield, Washington
Usually these standardized models are built of fast grown up lumber - come the very first drop of rainfall they swell, leaving you either fortifying a doorway that will not shut, or ripping the door furniture off in a vain effort to release the squawking residents. The very first cozy day means the wood dries and cracks, the felt roof bubbles and boils, as well as come nightfall the hens choose not to go in. This is not as a result of their disappointment at the decrease of their once appealing commercial property but because the hovel is now a place for, and also probably crawling with, the chicken keeper's nemesis, red mite. Add that it claimed on the blurb that it would suit 4 large hens when that equipping density was based upon the Circle Line at 5pm on a Friday, as well as exactly what are you left with? A couple of joints and also some kindling. A decent coop for thee to 4 birds must cost you in the region of ₤ 300 though this can depend on whether you elect for a totally free standing house or one with a run affixed. Presuming you are ranging your birds in a large room as well as the pop hole door is big enough for the type you keep, then the primary requirements of real estate boil down to 3 factors which will specify the number of birds your home will hold; perches, nest boxes and ventilation. Most breeds of chicken will perch when they visit roost during the night, this perch should ideally be 5-8cm large with smoothed off sides so the foot sits easily on it. The perch ought to be more than the nest box entrance as chickens will also normally seek the highest point to perch. A perch lower than that will certainly have the birds roosting in the nest box over night (which is incidentally when they produce one of the most poo) resulting in dirtied eggs the list below day. They shouldn't however be so high off the flooring of your home that leg injuries could possibly take place when the bird gets down in the early morning. Chickens need regarding 20cm of perch each (in tiny types this is certainly much less), plus if greater than one perch is set up in your home 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 the house needs to have a least one nest box for each 3 birds as well as these should be off the ground and also in the darkest location of your house. Your home ought to have sufficient ventilation: without it after that condensation will build up every night, even in the chilliest of weather. Realize, ventilation works on the principle of warm air leaving via a high space drawing cooler air in from a reduced gap - it's not a collection of holes on opposite walls of the house and at the very same degree, this is exactly what's called a draught. If you have a house with a run affixed after that the points above are still true, but you must likewise take into consideration the run dimension. The EU optimum legal stocking thickness for a complimentary array bird is (as well as let's encounter it, among the motivations for keeping some chickens at home is perhaps enhanced or much better well-being) 2,500 birds per hectare, that's maximum one bird each 4m made even. Take a close consider a few of the deal residences - it could well be your house has the ideal perches, appropriate air flow and enough nest boxes for an affordable number 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 obtain exactly what you pay for". You might assume you've got hold of a deal, yet you and also your group could rue the day you did. Purchase the appropriate house and also it will certainly last for a couple of years, if not longer offered the appropriate therapy. In the end your poultry as well as your chicken keeping encounter will be much the far better for it.chick coop
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