1. Roosts- naturally chickens roost with their feathers fluffed at night, this is a means they use to keep warm. When they roost next to each other they share their body heat thus keeping warm. During the winter you should encourage roosting by adding the roosting space up to eight inches per chicken. Make the roosts more comfortable and if possible, increase the number of roosts in the chicken coop.
2. Light- daylight controls the pineal gland which in turn influences chicken’s laying. To ensure maximum production, they require up to 16 hours of light daily during the summer there is more than enough light from the sun. This is absent during the winter, due to short day-light. To ensure continued eggs production, strategically add one or two 60 watts incandescent-light bulbs in the chicken coop. set the light on timer to reduce the hassle of switching it on/off.
3. Heated Water- during the winter it gets very cold especially during the night which might lead to the chicken’s drinking water freezing, thus depriving the chickens their water supply. To prevent this from happening purchase heater bases from local chicken feeds stores. Fit the heater bases below the galvanized-metal chicken waterers, this will keep the water warm and not frozen.
4. Insulation- add some insulation on the ceiling and the walls to conserve heat and keep cold away.
5. Ventilation- If you had installed a cooler for the summer, to keep away the heat, during the winter do not take it off because it will do the same during the winter. The winter is characterized by brittle and dry air; the cooler will remove stale air from the coop keep the air fresh and ventilate the winter chicken coop.
6. Deep litter- another low maintenance means of keeping the chicken warm, is by using deep liters. This ensures the chickens will be warm all through the winter, since when the manure and litter compost slowly they release heat back into the chicken coop. Begin with a coop with approximately four inches litter consisting mainly wood shavings or/and hay, during the early falls or summer. Then add enough litter to ensure that the chicken coop is clean and dry all through the summer. When winter comes, the litter will have grown up to 10 inches deeper. This litter will have compost well and will release heat. Scratching of the litter, by the chickens, will keep the litter turned and aerated, so throw grains on the litter for them to eat. Once in a while you can turn them using a pitch fork.

Article: Geoffrey Migiro

Please visit our Sponsor wwww.BioMat.com

1. Find the plans. If you’re interested in other woodworking projects in addition to a chicken coop, Ted’s Woodworking offers 16,000 projects for $67. You’ll get well-drawn diagrams and material lists that will help you with many different building projects, coops included. If you just want a cheap, easy coop, you can try
   Building A Chicken Coop by Bill Keene for $30, Dan Kennedy’s Make Your Own Coop or check out the
   FREE designs at BackyardChickens.com!

1. 2. Get the materials. Your plan should have a materials list, but you’ll need to buy: Chicken Wire, Chemical-Free & Treated Wood, Insulation, Windows, Cinder Blocks and Shingles. You’ll need a: Tape Measure, Circular Saw, Hammer, Drill, Level, Speed Square, Tin Snips and Screws.

1. 3. Start building! Small coops can be put together in just one afternoon, whereas more elaborate coops may take a few days. If you need help seeing how it should all come together, you might want to check out a few YouTube videos that show you how it’s done.

Also, don’t forget to call over a few friends! You’d be surprised how much work people are willing to put in for a few beers, some barbecue and good company.

Article: Jennn Fusion Twitter: @jennnfusion

If you have a few sheep along with your chicken hobby then you will most likely have some spare wool hanging around. Not all wool is created equally and some is valuable and some is worthless.

At our small farm (Wooly Acres) we divide our wool carefully after shearing time in the spring. The fleece is unfurled onto a large table where we carefully skirt it, removing less desireable parts, especially the wool from the neck, head and legs.

The best wool is bagged and made ready for show and sale. The middlin’ stuff is still saleable but instead of going through the hassle of that we donate it to the local 4-H spinning and weaving club. The poopy wool loaded with manure tags (we call them dingleberries) goes straight to the compost pile. But that still leaves a category of Unclaimed Wool.

This last category is not worth spinning for handspinners and probably has hay bits terminally embedded deep within. But it is dingleberry-free. Previously I have taken this wool to the local wool pool where I invariably do not earn enough to pay for the gas to drive there in the first place. I was to the point of deciding to compost it too.

Then someone gave me the idea of bedding the chickens nesting box with wool. The Unclaimed Wool would be PERFECT for this task. What could be better than providing my broody hens with a warm, soft nest, that applied a little natural lanolin to their nether parts as a bonus. It’s practically like a day at the spa!

In true scientific fashion I filled half the nesting boxes with wool and the other half with traditional straw. Then I waited for them to “flock” to the luxurious option I had provided. Well, to be honest, they avoided the wooly boxes at first. Actually, some avoided the straw ones, too, by kicking it all out of the box and laying the egg on a pure wooden board—Puritan style.

A month has now passed with my experiment and the results are mixed. Though not an overwhelming success, it appears that some hens personally prefer the wool and some prefer the straw (and one likes the plain, unforgiving wood). I am hoping that as temperatures continue to plummet for winter that they will see the benefit of a wooly nest. But if they don’t, I am content at this point to offer them choices– a true luxury in the coop!

The chickens should also have a place to roost off the ground. The roost should only be made of wood, not metal or plastic, so their feet can stay warm while roosting. And they should be provided with unfrozen water at all times, preferably with a heater in the water or under the waterer to keep the temperature just above freezing. A good commercial layer feed should provide them with the energy they need to maintain their body temperatures.  Some people increase the content of fat in the feed during the winter.  A handful or two of black-oil sunflower seeds would serve this purpose.

sponsors

Lodge Logic Skillet $59.99 The Lodge 10 1/4-inch Skillet was rated as one of the two dozen essential tools in the home and kitchen (Martha Stewart Living February 2008). We have a size and shape to meet any of your cooking needs, with assist handles for ease of movement on the stove top, in the oven or on the campfire. There are more expensive skillets on the market, but none can match the versatility, durability, and value...

Cuisinart GR-4N 5-in-1 Griddler $185.00 The Cuisinart(tm) Griddler makes "multifunctional" an understatement! Make perfect panini... plus! With four separate cooking options, it can handle everything from pancakes to sausages to grilled cheese to steaks, hamburgers and panini. It helps you prepare more servings of more kinds of food in less time, so you can cook for a crowd -- no one has to wait!Simply change the cooking plates and adju...

Thermos Foogo Leak-Proof Stainless Steel 10-Ounce Food Jar, Pink $9.75 Foogo vacuum insulated food jar thermax double wall vacuum insulation for maximum temperature retention unbreakable stainless steel interior and exterior wide mouth is easy to fill, eat from, and clean ergonomically designed lid with rubber grip dishwasher safe non-slip, scratch resistant base, cool to the touch with hot foods light, compact and portable......

In the coldest of weather they will huddle together, fluff out their feathers, tuck their heads under their wings, and this is sufficient, even when it is below freezing in the coop. The only one who may suffer is the rooster if he has a large comb. A comb is subject to frostbite. He may lose his comb but this does not usually cause a future problem; it is just unsightly as there will be a partial comb remaining, outlined in black. The best way to avoid this is to only keep roosters from breeds that have combs flat to the head if you live in a very cold climate.

Don’t put your chickens in a heated room. This can actually be very dangerous for them as there is a bigger contrast between inside and outside temperatures. Also, bacteria that normally would be kept down by the cold can flourish in the moist heat possibly leading to lung problems. If there is to be a really unusual cold snap, a heat lamp can be put in the coop to keep the ambient temperature closer to freezing, but do not warm up the coop.

Most hens naturally decrease or stop egg production all together in the winter, but a few breeds have been bred for winter laying. If the weather is cold you will need to pick eggs more frequently, maybe two or three times a day. In a real cold snap, the eggs may still freeze and break if you don’t retrieve them immediately after being laid.

An exception to all of this is if you are brooding chicks. They must be kept completely protected from all drafts with a solid barrier surrounding them, and protected from the cold, usually by way of a heat lamp directly over them. They will tell you if they are too warm or too cold by their behavior: too warm and they stay away from the lamp, too cold and they huddle together under it, just right and they are randomly placed around the brooder. If you don’t have air-tight facilities to maintain heat for baby chicks then it is just better to avoid raising them during the winter.

For more information on care, breeds and diseases of chickens please check out my Chicken Coop zone.

Sponsors

Julie Helms

Article: Julie Helmshttp://www.helium.com Twitter: @julie_helms E-mail Her

The old dog house with the sides and back cut out.

I decided to take my dogs old dog house that she never uses and convert it to a chicken coop. I cut the sides and back out.

Back of the old dog house

Obviously the dog house by itself would be a little small for the six baby chicks so I made nesting boxes for the sides and back. Essentially double the square footage in the coop.

Back of the old dog house

I made the nesting boxes with a hinged roof so I can gather eggs and clean the coop.

I used plywood that I sealed to protect it from moisture.

I reinforced the lid with a board that I screwed through to attach the hinges.

Another shot of the side nesting box. I used the same design for the back nesting box.

On the inside I’m using a old closet rod for a perch in the new coop.

This is the mount for the old closet rod that I'm using for a perch.

I then attached the sides and back.

This is the dog house with the side boxes attached. I also cut a door for the front.

This is the back.

After all this I painted it red.

This is the final coop. I added 3 tab shingles to the sides and back.

I still need to finalize the foundation.

Left side

This is the back.

So this is it. Please leave a comment and let me know what you think. Do you have a cleaver chicken coop design. Let us know.

Last year I decided to build a chicken coop with my wife. Her and I used to be obese and we decided to evaluate the foods we were eating. We decided that part of us getting even healthier was growing more of our own food and eating organic to avoid the chemicals that build up in our bodies. As part of this we wanted to raise chickens for the healthy eggs. After a little bit more trouble than we had asked for we finally did build a chicken coop. I wish that someone would have told me a long ago what mistakes to avoid.
ERROR #1: Not Planning Before You Build.

When you are ready to build a chicken coop you must plan every aspect of the coop before you even pick up a hammer.

To build a chicken coop draw out a plan. Collect all of the materials. Select materials that will be easy to attain, easy to work with and easy to clean up. Plan the functionality of your coop. The doors need to open inwards, not outwards. If you build it the other way with the door opening outwards you chickens will begin roosting on your windows. Your chickens will spend a lot of time in the coop so they need fresh air, designing a coop with sliding windows is a great way to keep them cool in the summer and warm in the summer.

When you build a chicken coop you must consider how will you keep the floors clean in your coop. First you will need to cover them with a good material for the chickens to dig and scratch as they naturally do. Hay is, unfortunately, not ideal for this. Second, you should build the coop with the floors slightly sloping towards the door. This way you can spray the hose in the coop and the dirt on the floor easily slides out to the ground below. You will have a clean coop and no puddles of water in the coop.
ERROR #2: Not Giving Your Chickens Proper Ventilation.

Building a chicken coop is to protect your flock. The purpose of your coop is to protect your chickens from the element and outside predators, but you also need to give them proper ventilation. Free movement of air inside the coop is very important, but you do not want to freeze your chickens with a draft. Chickens, are like humans, they can only perform at their optimum levels if all of their basic needs are met first, in this case protection and oxygen. A Chicken coop without free air movement and therefore more oxygen will have high carbon monoxide levels and humidity levels. This is not good because uncomfortable chickens do not produce as many eggs. It is also very dangerous because it makes mold growth within the walls very easy.
ERROR #3: Not Insulating the Walls.

To build a chicken coop properly insulating the walls is very important. The walls of the chicken coop need to have good insulation installed. This will help keep the chickens warm in the winter and cool in the summer. The insulation will also help to keep the coop at optimum humidity levels. When the chickens are kept at the optimum humidity levels they produce more eggs. Insulating the walls will also help to keep the chickens dry. In colder climates when your chickens are dry they can withstand the cold well. Insulating the walls will not only keep your chickens producing eggs but it will prevent your chickens from getting sick.
ERROR #4. Not Putting the Water and the Feeders in the correct place.

If you build a chicken coop, obviously the water and the chicken feeders need to be in a place where your chickens can easily access them. It is important to be very careful in selecting a place to put the water and the feeders. Chickens can make a big mess of things because of their natural instinct to scratch and dig. It is very frustrating to see water and the chicken feed you just put out all over the floor. To prevent this place the feeder and the water at the height of a chicken back. Ideally the chickens will have to stretch their necks up to the food a little bit to eat and drink but they will not be able to place their feet in their food or water. Be sure to replace the water and the chicken feed daily.
ERROR #5 – Not Having a Good Light Source.

Build your chicken coop facing the south so that the coop will receive sunlight throughout the day. For the winter months when the days are shorter and there is less sunlight, it is important to install a light in the coop. This is not difficult. They have lights that you can just stick to the walls at any local hardware store, you do not have to be an electrician, it is as easy as putting a sticker on a paper.Installing this light will be well worth the few dollars you spend to do it. It will keep your chickens warm and happy and keep your egg production up in the winter, when most chicken farmers experience a fall off of production because the chickens get less light and warmth.
Error #6: Not Protecting Your Chickens from the Elements.

Your coop is a haven for your chickens, much like your house is for you. A well constructed chicken coop will protect your chickens from hazardous elements such as bad weather.

Here are the basics for weather proofing your coop:

1. Make sure the doors and the windows are sealed properly so that they do not let a draft in.
2. Build the chicken coop on an elevated area where it can be drained easily and the least amount of dampness of the coop.
3. Build your chicken coop facing the fun sun. This will keep the coop dry after it rains and warm when it is cold out.

ERROR #7: Not Protecting Your Chickens from Predators.

Build a chicken coop not only to protect your flock from the elements and to protect them from predators.

Here are the basics to protect your chickens from predators:

1. Do not build the coop near brush where other animals may live.
2. Bury your outside chicken runs with chicken wire. You can lay the wire on the ground and then cover it. This will keep predators such as raccoons, cats and even dogs from digging underneath the run.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Pasha_Sari