I’ve had a lot of people ask me how the chickens will fare once winter really arrives. Well that’s one answer – in the Pacific Northwest, winter never really arrives, at least not the sort of winter that people think of when they think “winter.”
Temperatures here rarely fall below freezing, and then only just. When the overnight lows are forecast to be in the teens, the local news stations work themselves up into quite a tizzy. Once a year it will snow, maybe three or four inches, but it melts within a few days.
The second answer is, chickens are pretty sturdy. I chose heavy breeds for this reason, breeds developed for climates like mine (England) or worse (Rhode Island). They have wonderful thick soft down jackets and pants. People raise these breeds in climates a lot worse than mine. Maine for pity’s sake. Minnesota! Vermont! Places that do get a real winter.
The real problem is keeping them dry. Chicken poop plus wet chicken litter equals GROSS and also BACTERIA and also DANK. Unfortunately, this is a battle I have been fighting for the last six weeks, and I’m still losing it, and I don’t know why.
Rainwater is defying gravity to seep upwards from the floor right below that window. In fact you can see the black patches – that’s mildew, from the constant damp. The problem is that the floor is untreated plywood, and it’s not holding up well.
This, even though whenever I find the bedding has gotten wet, I change it. Which is to say, about every other day since the first week of October.
I’ve gone through two of those huge bales of compressed shavings. Not the ones you buy at the pet store – the ones you buy at the feed store, bigger than a bale of straw, and a whole lot heavier. The kind for horses.
I know what you’re thinking: well, put a tarp over it! Allow me to pan back.
Yeah, I’m stumped, too.
Chicken pants?!! I’m cracking up! (I know you mean the feathers on their legs but still…I’m cracking up!)
Scrubbing with vinegar to eliminate the mildew, at least for now? I doubt it would hurt the chickens.
I don’t know, making the damp go away is something I’m not very good at. I live in a climate that is not rainy, but is sufficiently humid that I’ve had bread mold in 2 days.
you need those corrugated poly panels like you can make a green house out of …
Condensation.
Little heat boxes with feathers and poop, plus little chicken breaths.
Gathers everywhere, methinks.
What about the pink board insulation underneath the plywood (and you may need to change out the plywood since the mold-stuffs got into it. Would be nice if you could treat it with something not harmful, like sap. Man these are pricey cluckers.)
Perhaps four or six of those cement rectangles that are about 6″ by 12″ to put in each corner and about the middle of the long sides. They are only about an inch high so the girls can’t squeeze under. (Love the word squeeze–it is so itself.) Love chicken pants…
You might try a sheet of linoleaum (spelled wrong) from a local flooring store. Tacked onto the bottom of the floor would be washable and moisture would be contained on the top, with the bricks underneath for air flow? The other thing I have heard of is a light bulb (low wattage) if it gets bitter cold.
Well, or two bicycle wheels mounted about halfway up the back with the axle going across the back. The axle should be mounted high enough so that the tractor would sit up off the ground an inch or so. Then it would be easier to move, too. I think you talked about that at one time. Wheels could be easy to scrounge. I’m thinking that the tarp is draining the water directly under the coop…maybe a pvc pipe frame to hold the tarp away a bit and still be light…?
It’s kind of hard to tell from the pictures, but the coop part doesn’t rest on the ground. It’s suspended halfway up, two feet off the ground. So the problem isn’t moisture seeping up from the soil, at least!
For money, the person who commented about the moisture from chicken breath and chicken poop and chicken sweat (do they sweat?) hit the nail on the head. Human houses have a moisture barrier in the walls right under the sheetrock, to keep the insulation and studs dry. Maybe you need to do that, too.
Do they make coop-sized dehumidifiers?
CHICKEN PANTS!
Ugh, good luck with the mildew. Poor chickens!
[...] solved the problem with the leaky chicken coop several weeks ago, but I wanted to be sure before I blogged about it. We have had plenty of rain in [...]