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I live out in the sticks, and my family has kept a few chickens as a hobby for about 15 years. We get eggs out of them and they are a form of mild entertainment. Until recently we kept the chickens in a stall in a pole barn. We had to keep a heat lamp on them to keep them alive through the winter and they never, ever laid eggs in the cold months (Minnesota). Two summers ago we decided to build a free-standing coop nearer to our house and get one of the most ridiculous looking breeds of chicken, the Polish Crested.  This is the coop we built. It is more than large enough for 10 chickens, and the windows combined with the roof overhang control the temperature of the coop. On hot days in the summer it is cooler in there than it is outside and in the winter it is warmer inside. I was in architecture school when I built the thing, so it was a fun exercise in passive solar design, and it works. The chickens that live in it lay eggs all through the winter, though about 1/4 as many as in the warmer months.  This is the run off to the side, with welded wire buried 2 feet into the ground to thwart predators. The chickens used to run free around the yard but they are now confined to the coop/run unless we are outside with them. They put themselves away at sundown like clockwork but it is nearly impossible to round them up back into the run before then.  Pinkerton posted:1. I live in New England and, while our winters are not as bad as say Fargo, temperatures can get fairly cold. From the reading I've done online, it seems that the use of heat lamps is pretty controversial. Some say they're necessary to prevent the chickens from getting frostbite while others say that chickens are fine without them even in cold climates. What are your thoughts? Most breeds of chicken are capable of acclimating to the cold. The hens that we kept in the windowless barn stall would occasionally end up with frostbite even with a heat lamp. The ones that live in the coop have made it through two winters without any heat source, including the ridiculously cold one we just had. You want to seal up the coop as best you can, but leave a small vent opening at the top. This is to vent excess humidity, as that is pretty much the cause of frostbite on the chickens' combs. The other trick is to position the plank they roost on as far away from the vent opening as possible, and use a 2x4 laying flat. The wider roosting plank is so that their feathers are able to completely cover up their feet. On a narrower plank their feet are left exposed, and they get frostbite. Alterian posted:Our chickens are in our fenced in backyard and at least one of our dogs is out in the yard 95% of the time. They keep a good eye on them. I would be very cautious about this. We have a Border Collie that is absolutely fascinated with the chickens, and spends hours every day staring at them. He was fine for over a year, just watching them roam around the yard, and one day he decided to attack one and it died a few hours later. After this happened we rarely let them out of the run. It sucks, because the chickens loved roaming free and the dog even scared off foxes a few times. Some say that no dog can be trusted around chickens. Jork Juggler fucked around with this message at 10:27 on Jun 10, 2011 |
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Jun 10, 2011 10:23
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| # ¿ May 5, 2024 04:21 |
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