Great question, thanks for asking. Recently we had some very chilly nights, but all of our research said to stay away from heat lamps to decrease dependency of the hens on that added heat. As you may remember, the hens spent the summer in the pen shown below. We had an electronet fence around this rolling coop all summer to keep them from roaming. A few clipped wings and getting into the habit of letting the hens out about 60-90 minutes before dusk to roam and forage helped them stay put throughout the day as well.
However, this was not going to be the winter option and as the shed was being built, it was necessary to come up with a winter coop solution. I wanted to build one out of pallets, but other building projects took time away from that option. So we decided to go with a carport from Harbor Freight.
We staked it down really well with additional stakes so that it could handle a bit more wind. It is of note, that the carport was not recommended for high winds and snow. So we did our best and hoped for the best. It was placed in front of the new shed to help block the direct north wind. We put a fifty foot roll of six-foot fence from the middle of the front to the back left corner to provide a run. After this, we dumped all of our garden waste in there for them to pick through until freeze. Now, the stainless steel feed cans are near the front middle of the door blocking that area so the hens cannot get out. The right zipper is how we get in and the left zipper is the entrance into the run. We keep that open during the day and clamp it on the fence. In the upper middle of the carport is what looks like a port hole on a boat.
Chickens need ventilation in their coop so we cut a hole in the tarp and placed a piece of old screen there. The rim is a bucket top with the center cut out. There is another inside and we screwed those together to sandwich the screen in place. We only did one and it was pretty good. We are ready to add another if the ventilation is not good enough, which would be apparent by the fumes in the coop, condensation on the inside of the tarp and/or or frost.
This is the inside looking toward the back. Since the carport is not snow rated, we have a handy broom in there, but also built some braces just in case. These doubled as a place to put extra roosts. These are the primary roosts and have about 16-17 of the hens and Charlie the rooster on them each night. The back is a steel frame that my dad gave us and is used to hold some 2x4s for back roosts. We have a healthy amount of straw as a base and keep adding more straw or pine shavings to it every week or so. The black tarp on the sides, and white tarp on the back is discarded lumber tarp I salvaged from the dumpster at a lumber yard. This is relatively windproof and was used to block drafts from under the carport. The netting on the back is actually poly-fence and is just there to stop chickens from falling behind and getting trapped between the two levels.
This is the back looking forward. These were our bucket nesting boxes, which they don't use. They did initially, but they found a better place and so we let them lay there instead. Occasionally, there is an egg in these. We think it is when "Mama" the black sex-link hen is sitting on eggs and won't let anyone else in the nesting spot. We aren't letting her go broody just yet, but we will let her in the spring if she is still interested. That could be really cool. There are straw bales in front of the door for draft protection too. We covered them in lumber tarps to stop the chickens from tearing them apart.
Overall, we are very happy with our winter coop solution. It gets cold in there, but we haven't lost any hens yet and have not added any additional heating. It warms up during the day (earlier today it was at 43 degrees) and then cools off at night. They don't go in the run much anymore so we have moved their food and water into the coop. There is generally no odor, and if there is, we add more litter and it improves right away. The extra carbon from the wood shavings and straw help to mediate the odor. We lose a few eggs to freezing, but "Mama" is our savior there as she is often keeping them warm for us until we collect them. We can't complain, as we are getting 10-15 eggs a day still from 26 hens in the middle of winter--with no supplemental heat or lighting. Not too shabby!.
If you are interested in eggs, just give us a call or contact us via email. We sell our "beyond-organic" eggs for $4 a dozen and if you prebuy five dozen ($20) we'll throw in an extra half dozen or so. If you do this, just let us know when you want some and we'll get them ready for you.
Overall, we are very happy with our winter coop solution. It gets cold in there, but we haven't lost any hens yet and have not added any additional heating. It warms up during the day (earlier today it was at 43 degrees) and then cools off at night. They don't go in the run much anymore so we have moved their food and water into the coop. There is generally no odor, and if there is, we add more litter and it improves right away. The extra carbon from the wood shavings and straw help to mediate the odor. We lose a few eggs to freezing, but "Mama" is our savior there as she is often keeping them warm for us until we collect them. We can't complain, as we are getting 10-15 eggs a day still from 26 hens in the middle of winter--with no supplemental heat or lighting. Not too shabby!.
If you are interested in eggs, just give us a call or contact us via email. We sell our "beyond-organic" eggs for $4 a dozen and if you prebuy five dozen ($20) we'll throw in an extra half dozen or so. If you do this, just let us know when you want some and we'll get them ready for you.
Look forward to a future post in which I demonstrate how our hens are getting fresh green sprouts in the dead of winter. Let's say that it instantly made a huge difference in the egg quality.
Trevor
Trevor