The method of warming the chicken coop for the winter
Chickens are a good way to always have meat and eggs at home, in addition, chickens are great for earning money through breeding poultry. If this is a large poultry farm, then the chicken coops are often large and specially equipped for winter frosts. However, if you are a beginner poultry farmer and are just going to start chickens, you should think in advance about how to insulate the chicken coop for the winter. You can create coziness and warmth with your own hands in a built poultry house. The main thing is that the purchase of feed and young animals is not in vain, and the layers are comfortable.
How to insulate a chicken coop for the winter with your own hands
The conditions for keeping poultry must be of a high standard. Warming a chicken coop for the winter is no more difficult than treating a sick bird from infections. It is important that the temperature in the hen house in winter does not reach below 0 ° C. Chickens will gain weight well and produce offspring and eggs. It is not necessary to use expensive material for this. Chickens are unpretentious in landscaping, but barn or the room in which they usually live should be warm, well-lit and comfortable.
Materials and choice of place for building a chicken coop
If you have a spacious room inside a barn, then you can allocate a place in it for a corral of chickens. It should be made of natural materials, usually boards, wood is the most affordable thing in the village or outside the city. It is important to understand how many chickens are at your disposal, whether you will breed them, what the area of the building should be. To insulate the chicken coop for the winter, cement mortar under the foundation, insulation on the roof, and polystyrene foam will also help.
The place for the chicken coop should be chosen dry, on a small hill. If the climate in your area is prone to constant rains, then this factor should not be overlooked. It will not be enough just to insulate a home chicken coop for the winter. It is important to protect it from moisture. A good foundation, on a hill has a better chance of standing in the rainy season. Birds will walk in warm weather and, accordingly, you need to fence off the area near the chicken coop with a net. All this can be easily done by hand.
Building a chicken coop
It is difficult, but possible, to build a barn for chickens alone, as well as to insulate a home chicken coop with high quality for the winter.
However, the question immediately arises: "how to insulate a home chicken coop for the winter with your own hands?" To cope with such a case, you will definitely need help. It is better if it is a person with experience who has his own chicken shed or is a builder.
Warming must be thought of immediately, during the construction of the chicken coop. It is better to strengthen the floor and walls with boards, they must be laid tightly and close to each other. It is better to treat with a solution of lime in 2-3 layers. A flaw and omission of elementary rules during construction will allow the multiplication of infection inside the barn, which is fraught with diseases in chickens.
Ventilation - an important factor.
You need to think it over right away. The physical condition of the chickens depends on this. Stagnant indoor air is unpleasant not only for people, but also for birds. One window will be enough in the chicken coop.You don't need it anymore: these are extra chores and costs for insulation with your own hands in the winter, and in the spring - getting rid of the insulation. One window is enough to replace it with a mosquito net for the summer, use it as ventilation, dry and ventilate the room. Lighting also important for the development of chickens, it contributes to the health of birds and good egg production.
It is important to consider the number of flocks that will live in the hen house. Perches for one chicken, the pole should be at least 20 cm. To save space, the distance between them should be more than half a meter. The outermost perch from the floor should be at least 80 cm apart. However, weak birds will sit below, and strong birds will climb up.
Floor
Materials used to insulate the floor:
- A deep layer of litter (done in at least 2 layers).
- Shallow litter (in one layer).
Choose natural and organic materials for bedding. It is not worth using chemicals, linoleums, tiles and the like that are laid at home on the floor. The birds will not like this, and it is a very expensive pleasure to put parquet in the chicken coop.
Insulate the floor natural materials that are easy to find at home or in a store at a low price:
- sawdust or shavings from wooden boards;
- straw or hay;
- moss peat.
Chickens will like such materials, and do-it-yourself insulation and folk methods are much more effective and practical. This is an environmentally friendly material that does not require any particular processing, it can be replaced at any time. It muffles an unpleasant odor, moss has the ability to absorb droppings, and since it is not difficult to find it in plantings or forests, if there is one nearby, it is a good alternative to all sorts of flavors and other chemicals.
During construction, you can think about such a thing as a vestibule at the entrance. Small separation between main door and chicken coop entrance. Farmers often neglect such a room, and this is another effective way to keep the frost in winter.
It is preferable to lay the litter on the floor in a deep layer so that the temperature remains there at 26-27 ° C. If there is a ready-made room for chickens and the floor consists of old rotten boards, but there is no time, the cold is just around the corner, the floor is covered with sawdust, the best option would be shavings from coniferous trees, it has disinfecting qualities. Straw and moss are poured on top. This litter will not cake and will last for a very long time. An important point: in a chicken coop with such a bedding and where there is no feeder, you should not run chickens. First, they equip a place for a feeder, fill it with feed and only then let the bird in. They can just eat their floor.
Walls
Often the walls are overlooked and they forget about their insulation. When building walls, consider the climate in which you live. If you have more severe winters, then use coniferous trees for the foundation of the walls, if it is softer, ordinary boards will do. It is best to fill up the cracks with moss or peat bog. To prevent chickens from eating it, the room is sheathed with wooden planks. It is better to insulate the outer part of the chicken coop correctly by attaching polystyrene and sheathing it with slate.
The second option for wall insulation is two rows of boards with thermal insulation between them. For such a solution, you will need insulation (sawdust, needles from coniferous trees or dry leaves) and lime with a ratio of 25: 1 relative. Everything is carefully tamped after the first row of boards, dries up and the second row is laid. On the inside, it is plastered with clay and sawdust, the mixture must be applied in a thickness of at least 3 cm. After drying, the cracks are covered with a solution of clay and fine sand (1: 2). The walls must be completely dry. In case the chickens do not peck the plaster because of the lack of calcium in the body, the walls need to be treated with an inexpensive material (fiberglass).
For cold regions, a good solution would be to use, albeit for a very cheap, but high-quality material - infrared film. The temperature will remain stable and comfortable for the birds. It can be used as additional heating on the ceiling. Infrared light will help not only to keep the heat in the hen house, but also to avoid fights and fights among the young, the birds will not be stressed, because such lighting is the most favorable for them.
Roof
The roof is insulated with the same material that was used for the walls. If the construction is only in the plans, one should not forget about the beams, it is enough to simply simplify the task of insulation. The presence of an attic is optional, but roll materials should be used to insulate it. You do not need to make any additional fasteners. If financial possibilities do not allow, then it is quite easy to do it yourself: you just need to spread sawdust, earth, straw, sand and similar bulk organic materials in the attic.
Also, the roof can be sheathed with polystyrene or mineral wool, insulated with already familiar materials and sealed with plastic or other material. The inner part of the roof can be insulated with felt: it will help to retain and retain heat.
Windows and doors
In a chicken coop, birds should feel comfortable and protected. To do this, their house needs to be insulated and comfortable living conditions created:
- as mentioned above, if possible, you need to make a vestibule at the entrance to the chicken coop. So it will be possible to save on insulation, because frost simply will not enter the room.
- Doors should close tightly, not create drafts, and there should be no cracks in them.
- The room should have separate ventilation, but one window will be more than enough. It is needed as a source of sunlight and to save electricity. Chickens need at least 11 hours of lighting per day.
- The door for walking birds should not be tightly sheathed for the winter, especially if the cold season is mild and without heavy rainfall. On warm days, you can release chickens into the fresh air in order to get your dose of vitamin D.
When building and insulating a chicken coop for the winter, one should not forget about windows and doors. Often the owners overlook this factor and the birds simply freeze. For the normal and correct keeping of chickens, for good egg production and lighting, it is enough not to neglect such simple rules.
The windows have only one function - the flow of daylight into the room, there is no need to put large plastic windows there. Once they wear themselves out and will give cracks and drafts. They combine lighting in the daytime and in the evening, and in the summer they remove the windows, put a mosquito net as a ventilation aid in airing the chicken coop.
Conclusion
Many beginners and not only wonder how to insulate a chicken coop for the winter with their own hands. The answer is quite simple: the main thing is desire. If you want your bird to live for a long time, bring tasty and fresh food, be healthy and not under stress, then it is better to insulate the chicken coop immediately during construction in order to avoid shortcomings and then not remodel when there is very little time left before the cold weather.
How to insulate the chicken coop for the winter? Materials must be natural, organic. Wood can be easily found in your garden, shed or forest. To create comfortable conditions, birds need to insulate the floor, walls and roof, install a window and doors that close tightly, monitor the lighting and temperature in the chicken coop. By applying these simple rules, it is easy to ensure that the chickens will delight with fresh and large eggs not only in summer, but also in winter, all year round, do not get sick with infections and calmly rush. To look clearly and better calculate some of the nuances of construction, it is easy to find training videos on the Internet.