Chicken Coops for Sale in Waiteville, West Virginia
Chicken Coops for Sale in Waiteville, West Virginia
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 Setup in Waiteville, West Virginia
A good place to start any search is the internet. Simply plugging in the phrase "chicken coops for sale in Waiteville West Virginia" 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 Waiteville West Virginia chicken coops. What to look for when buying a chicken coop in Waiteville, West Virginia With the big increase in poultry keeping there has actually been a just as big rise in the range of chicken paraphernalia for sale. Chicken housing is a case in point. It's additionally a traditional instance of the great old bandwagon being got on as different prospective poultry housing experts peddle a range of holiday accommodation asserting to be the ideal option to your chicken real estate needs. Commonly the price looks attractive, your diy-chicken-coop-planshome looks appealing, hell even the clean-cut family standing there feeding the chickens look desirable. Definitely they understand a top quality chicken house when they see one? There are several affordable and also unpleasant coops flooding the market. I understand this as I've examined a number of them in the area, and seen a ewe run straight with one when the feed container showed up. The outcome was just an expensive heap of fire wood and also a tiny group of bemused as well as now homeless bantams.
Chicken Coop With Run in Waiteville, West Virginia
More often than not these standardized models are constructed of rapid grown up timber - come the first decline of rain they swell, leaving you either blockading a door that won't shut, or ripping the doorway furnishings off in a vain attempt to release the squawking residents. The first cozy day suggests the lumber dries and also fractures, the really felt roofing system bubbles and also boils, and come nightfall the hens choose not to enter. This is not because of their dissatisfaction at the decline of their when appealing apartment yet due to the fact that the hovel is now a place for, and also possibly crawling with, the fowl keeper's nemesis, red mite. Add that it said on the blurb that it would fit four large hens when that equipping thickness was based upon the Circle Line at 5pm on a Friday, and also exactly what are you left with? A few joints and some kindling. A respectable coop for thee to 4 birds need to cost you approximately ₤ 300 though this could depend upon whether you elect for a free standing house or one with a run attached. Assuming you are varying your birds in a large space as well as the pop hole door allows enough for the breed you maintain, then the primary needs of real estate boil down to 3 factors which will specify the number of birds the house will hold; perches, nest boxes and ventilation. Most breeds of chicken will perch when they go to roost during the night, this perch should ideally be 5-8cm large with smoothed off edges so the foot rests pleasantly on it. The perch needs to be higher than the nest box entry as chickens will also normally try to find 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 shouldn't however be so high off the floor of your home that leg injuries can happen when the bird gets down in the early morning. Chickens require regarding 20cm of perch each (in small breeds this is clearly much less), plus if greater than one perch is installed in the house they need to be more than 30cm apart. They will certainly hunker up with their next-door neighbors however are not that crazy about roosting with a beak in the bloomers of the bird ahead. Ideally your house must have a the very least one nest box for every 3 birds and these ought to be off the ground and in the darkest location of your house. Your home must have sufficient air flow: without it then condensation will certainly accumulate every night, even in the chilliest of weather. Understand, ventilation works with the principle of cozy air leaving through a high gap attracting cooler air in from a lower space - it's not a set of openings on contrary wall surfaces of your house and at the exact same level, this is just what's called a draft. If you have a house with a run attached then the factors above are still true, however you should likewise consider the run size. The EU maximum lawful equipping thickness for a totally free array bird is (and allow's encounter it, one of the motivations for maintaining some hens in the house is potentially enhanced or far better welfare) 2,500 birds each hectare, that's maximum one bird each 4m settled. Take a close look at several of the deal homes - it could well be your house has the right perches, appropriate ventilation and also ample nest boxes for a practical number of birds, however will each of the chickens have anything more than an A4 sized piece of ground to spend the day on? And so as the stating goes, "you obtain what you pay for". You may believe you've grabbed a deal, yet you and your flock could rue the day you did. Purchase the best house and also it will certainly last for a few decades, otherwise longer given the appropriate therapy. Eventually your fowl as well as your poultry maintaining encounter will certainly be a lot the better for it.plan coop
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