We built a self heating chicken coop | Keep your chickens warm all winter… 

Lol nope Autumn had the idea. But only because we had a bunch laying around

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Thank you.

@@9252LIFE You are living your dream and teaching your children life leasons. As an animal and nature lover, I miss my chickens and my son is raising them now. So I thank you young man for all you are doing for your family:-)

Thank you Tommie!

Will do. Yesterday morning all the buckets of water outside was frozen solid. The two buckets of water inside the coop was completely water and no ice. That’s a big bonus!

@@9252LIFE - I'd also like to see the chickens all on those high roosting bars. I wondered how they'd get up so high without a ladder, but I did see just one up there. I keep my nesting boxes (covered cat litter boxes) on the ground since it doesn't seem natural for a chicken to go up to lay her eggs. Nice coop. I recently bought a couple of those trailer wheels to put on my small coop at some point. : )

@@annwithaplan9766 those chickens pack right up there like sardines! 😆 I do find it quite miraculous how they manage to get up there. Be sure to put good supports on those wheel jacks. And only Jack it up just high enough to move the coop. I think jacking it up too high puts lots of leverage type strain on them and it could potentially break off especially on a larger size coop.

Thank you Carolyn. Have a great Thanksgiving weekend!

Lower roosts flip boards. Going to ask my dad what this mean i have to know.

Looks like too hot for summer chickens. You will need two chicken coops. Winter and summer.

@@wheelie642 - What's wrong with that? :)

Glad you mentioned that because I've heard they lock their feet around a pole type perch, but the flat perch sounds like better for winter protection. This was a hard weekend for chickens in Maine. Temps dipped way below zero + windchill were bad. I heard there were alot of poor hens that didn't make it due to hypothermia. Sad. Heat lamps are a dangerous way to deal with cold coops also. Fire hazard from lamps is more common+you can lose your whole farm if just a little dust or chicken feathers ignite. Not worth the risk.

@@carolsanborn5332 I use cozy coop panels at -12 here the coop stayed 14 degrees. No fire hazard just have a backup small Jacory generator Incase you lose power

Thank you Jim! The weather has been just beautiful and we’ll take any day the good Lord gives us. Have a great Thanksgiving weekend as well!

Absolutely agree with you 👏👏👏

If you’re chickens are like mine? You’re going to find the chicken all won’t cuddle side by side regardless how cold it gets? I may have 6-8 chickens cuddle then a 2-4 foot space with no chickens on the roost. If chickens try to use the open space the other chickens peak at the other chickens till they get off the roost. My coop a 12 X 12 X 6 foot high ceiling. I have a 8 foot long roost in the center of the coop on the back wall that’s on hinges so the roost folds up against the ceiling and locks in place to keep the roost out of the way completely when cleaning the co-op floor. I also learned roosts need to be least 18” from the walls, otherwise the chickens will crap on your walls too. Recommend making sure your roosts are least 2 ft down from the roof line to keep the chickens from hitting their head’s getting up on the roosts too! I did use a metal roof corrugated metal painted white from the factory to reflect the heat of the sun. My temp may not get as cold as where you’re at? But from my experiences chickens handle cold much better then hot temperatures! Hopefully it won’t get too warm inside the coop in the summer or winter for that matter? If too warm in winter the chickens won’t get use to the colder outside temperatures and the changes in temperature not healthy for your chickens I’ve been told anyway! I know my chickens don’t handle hot temperatures at all! I have misters around the coop on the outside to spray on the roof when it’s hot. Coop stays fairly cool even in 100 degree weather. I also make sure my chickens have all the ice water they can drink in the summer months too! Want to avoid chickens getting heat stroke if you’re temps get up much above 80 degrees or especially hotter! I‘be only been raising chickens for little over 3 years now and boy have I learned a lot in that time! But for my first coop it turned out fairly well. If I did it over again though, I wouldn’t of put a wooden floor in the coop. It is on wheels though and the coop off the ground 3 ft so the chickens can use underneath the coop as part of their chicken run to get out of the weather whether it’s raining, snowing, or just the sun beating down on them! Chickens do spend a lot of time under the coop so seems like it was a good idea anyway! It’s all on wheels too, so it’s not too hard to move. I used wheels for a dolly that mounts every few inches on each side of the coop to handle the weight of the coop since it’s fairly heavy! But it’s built like a tank! Especially with wanting to be able to move it around I wanted it as sturdy as it could be! Framing all glued with exterior glue and screwed together with stainless steel screws and T 1-11 siding around the coop on the outside walls. Waterproof plywood with laminate flooring that least makes the coop flooring fairly easy to clean. But like I said, if I did it again I wouldn’t have a floor and would just move the coop rather than having to clean the floor area! Still, the floor I built not horrible to clean. Takes about 20 minutes at the most. I got 2 tools that helps a lot you may want to check into also? I got a floor scraper that’s for removing old flooring materials off the floors for remodeling. It has a 12” x 6” sheet of metal that connects to a metal handle the length of a regular broom and you can resharpen the metal edge if you need to easily! Other tool that really speeds up time is a good snow shovel to pick up larger quantities of waste off the floor and I have a larger hand cart on bike wheels to toss the waste in and take it to the compost pile by the garden. It not too bad of a job. Still wish I not gone with the floor in the coop though! I have made another smaller coop that doesn’t have a floor and it’s on wheels easily moved too. I use it when baby chicks are old enough to be outside but not where the older chickens can peak at the baby chicks. There’s hardware cloth around the sides and top so the adult chickens and baby chicks can see and get use to one another. Makes it easier to put them all together in the same coop once baby chicks get close to the size of the adult chickens! Otherwise they tend to fight more! Looks like you’re coop large enough for quite a lot of chickens? I have 44 chickens myself and it’s growing every year! If you got rooster and let your chickens free range? Those hens will find hiding places to sit on their eggs till they hatch. One day you’ll find a hen with 3-13 baby chicks following behind the hen! Happened 3 times last summer here!😂 If you’re new at raising chickens? Be sure to make a good diet bath for your chickens and the chickens will tear up a place to dirt bath if they don’t have a good place to go! Remember calcium for your chickens too! You can use egg shells crumbled up and baked in a oven first to kill bacteria so it won’t hurt the chickens to eat the egg shells. But I also give mine oysters shells as well and don’t forget grit especially even with the baby chicks they still need a small grit to grind up what they eat. I get a granite pebbles for mine. Like I said, I learned a lot the hard way! Many things I just never knew chickens needed! Good luck with your coop and chickens and any babies your hens may have if you got a rooster? Only time till those cute little chicks will be running around! I gather the baby chicks up and put them in a cattle trough to and put a little bedding, food and water inside it. Also got a chick warmer the chicks can get under to stay warm. If it gets too cold I’ll add a heat lamp too and with a board over the top of the water trough the baby chicks stay plenty warm in the garage out of the weather even when it’s in the 20’s outside! Chicks don’t live long if they get too cold! I won’t let them outside till they have all their feathers and even then I wait till it’s least in the 70’s outside first! Nothing upsets me more then loosing my chicks! Of course predators are a pain too, especially if you’re free ranging your chickens? Everything wants a chicken dinner including hawks and owls too! But a good reason to have other animals to protect your chickens besides just roosters! Seems the more chickens and roosters I have the less trouble I have with predators though? Best wishes to you!

@@ghostridergale absolutely agree. I have a heat light in the coop and they prefer to roost outside, but they will go in the coop to ley their eggs 😄

Thank you! You and your family have a Thanksgiving as well!

Hi Rosa! How have you been?

@@9252LIFE I am still fighting with Cemo treatments but I am staying strong

Thank you! Have a great day!

The cat is waiting for an opportunity to tease to death one of the chickens. That's what cats do. I can already hear you saying, "my cat never bothered one of my chickens before". Seriously!!! Have ANY of you ever had animals before???

@@ShellyDankert excuse me, are you talking to me? If so, what the hell are you talking about? I'm 38 and have grown up since childbirth with all animals intermingling on multiple farms, homes and now a property with 4 dogs, 2 cats, ducks, chickens, sheep, fish in the pond, budgies etc. Cats live with both the chickens and the budgies, the budgies have a full room in the house as free range and they go to sleep in their cage at night. Cats sleep in their room during the day whilst budgies are chilling or flying about. The cats hang with my chickens. Incase you have the nutcase thought of my dogs mauling my sheep I'll let you know now that they all hang together. Every single animal. All my life of many different animals. I'm not even going to bother telling you about the multiple different animals I had growing up in Zimbabwe and South Africa, all, every single one intermingling with each other with not a problem in the world. Oh, and my previous career, before Conservation & Ecosystem Management, I specialised in Captive & Companion Animal Husbandry. Safe to say I've been surrounded by animals and have owned a multitude of them my entire life. You have absolutely no idea what you are talking about.

My, my my...methinks thou dost protest too much. Cats are opportunists. Period. I've worked with animals since you were 9 years old. No one who owns a chimp and then is attacked by it ever saw it coming. No one who owns a dog that will bite will ever admit it will maul/kill one of their grandkids...until it happens. Grow up.

@@ShellyDankert 🤣 stop pretending. I've seen your "rescued" cat video. You clearly have no clue how to read a distressed cats' mannerisms and tells. If you did indeed know anything about them you'd known to have taken that extremely malnourished and ill cat to the vet or a rescue centre as soon as possible, especially knowing it hadn't been able to go to the loo for more than 48hrs and who knows how long without food. You'd known not to give it dog food or hard biscuits as there was a huge possibility it couldn't chew as it's too weak and most likely had abscesses in it's mouth or on teeth. You'd known not to let it clamp down on the shoe string because of those likely possilities, nor would you have tried to get it to "play" at that stage of it's weak being. So much more that I observed but it'll most likely fall on deaf ears. One absolutely appalling observation is you stating "gotta work on getting those claws removed", wtf?! How would you cope getting your natural anatomy that you rely on for so many purposes, ripped off your fingers? What is wrong with you. It's a wonderful thing that you rescued a creature, but please don't pretend that you know anything about them. Particularly that you know anything about well trained, well fed and looked after home pets such as 925's cat and any pet cat for that matter. They are not wild, desperate for food opportunists. Until you yourself can understand that many multiple species of property and pet animals do indeed live in absolute harmony together, just like 925's animals, my exampled experiences and the other millions around the world, don't pretend you know what you're on about in regards to their behaviours and their content living situations without in fact knowing that most animals, especially cats and dogs, can and do indeed co-inhabit beautifully together. It is how they are raised, trained, treated and looked after. You obviously haven't had that particular experience of multiple species co-inhabitation, hence your lack of knowledge on it. Which is absolutely fine, but don't advertise a false rhetoric here. It is clearly, obviously proven to be untrue...you're literally watching a video proving that. There are billions more around for you to see. Also working in an *inhumane cattle feed lot does not qualify you as someone who has studied, trained and professionally worked within the care, health and well-being of companion and captive animals and the community in which they co-inhabit. Have a good day.

Thank you Kevin!

Thank you! Have a great Thanksgiving

@@9252LIFE Happy Thanksgivings

Literally

Hello Christian

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Yes that board gets annoying 😆

Just know that the bubble foil worked awesome but the chickens will peck at it like others had said in the comments. So be sure to put some paneling or something over the bubble foil.

@@9252LIFE I had figured about the pecking. lol Going with burlap feed bags anywhere they can reach the insulation. Love the videos - thanks for them!

Thank you Tim!

Thank you Terry

Thank you Paula! Have a great Thanksgiving weekend!

Thank you Paul!

Yes the clear side is south facing. Hope you had a great Thanksgiving. Take care Wayne

Thank you Bill!

Thank you David

Thank you Raymond

It would definitely be nice to of had a clamp on hand at that time. Not only for safety but for the stability of it. I’ve been using hand tools for many years and I’m pretty good with hand eye coordination.

@@9252LIFE ahh, I knew you were experienced, I was wondering why you didn't have one. Personally I have to have a clamp. I am too clumsy.

Thank you Dave! Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving

Thank you Bernadette! Hope you had a great Thanksgiving

Thank you! Happy Thanksgiving to you too!

Thank you David. Have a great Thanksgiving!

Have a great Thanksgiving Mike!

We put boards on top of them and they work great

Thank you Scott

Thank you Margaret!

Thank you

Yep

Thank you! Glad you enjoyed the video. Have a great day!

Lol We get real winter up here.

Great idea Tina. Thank you! Have a great Thanksgiving weekend!

Thank you Amy

Probably! They’re all stuck on themselves 😆

It’s vented very well and it’s completely predator proof. We also have a livestock guardian dog who has watched all 110 + birds free range last summer. Have never lost a bird or any livestock to a predator.

@@9252LIFE Glad to hear that. You must have more experience than I thought. Not trying to be a know it all; just trying to pass on advice I have picked up about venting coops higher than the roosts , so the moisture can evaporate up higher than the birds perch. I'm also cautious when it comes to preditors because I've seen the awful destruction to birds when weasels or coons can access a coop at any point.I only mention it because I'd want someone to tell me if they saw a potential problem with my set up. Hope you don't take any offense, because none was intended. I'd like to think we are a friendly community just trying to help achieve other achieve the very best results possible. God bless + happy chicken farming to all.

@@carolsanborn5332 we always appreciate the advise from our viewers. It’s save us many times and we always get great ideas from everyone. And we don’t take offense to most comments as we do have a very good community surrounding this channel. The entire ridge is vented and the eves and half of the lower section of the entire coop. Hope you’re having a great weekend so far. Take care Carol.

They are doing great! Lots of eggs! And looking great!

Great idea

Thank you! Hope you had a great Thanksgiving!

Yes they have great ventilation

When winter hits with more snowfall the sides will be completely covered. We are going to test out different options throughout the winter and see how we can get the best performance out of the coop

Someone else said that they may peck at it also. So far we haven’t seen any signs of that. We have over 40 birds in there. We’ll definitely be keeping an eye on it. We may do an update video later.

Thank you

Thank you Diane

Thank you.

Yes. During the winter months they just get a thick bedding. The old bedding underneath will begin to compost and help heat the coop. Then come spring the coop will be moved every day 16’.

Thank you Michael! You have a great Thanksgiving as well! Take care!

😆

Thank you Shelley for the tips. Have a great day!

Thank you Joanna! You have a wonderful Thanksgiving as well! And yeah it’s been quite the clean up and organize stuff going on around here lately!

Thank you. You may not of had the same bubble foil insulation as us. This is a very thick plastic covered bubble foil and the chickens has not pecked any of it.

Thank you

Thank you Ron!

Thanks man!

@@9252LIFE I might have to steal your design, a mobile chicken coop is the way to go, trying to keep them in one place is for the birds... 😉🤣

@@barrnoneunleashed you don’t have to steel it. You can have the design. 😆

Happy Thanksgiving to you as well!

We could put some there but not necessary as it’s been in the teens lately and the water inside the coop has not froze.

Frozen eggs 🥚 are always a problem in small scale ⚖ farming.. makes you collect twice/three times a day or suffer losses. Commercial hen houses (old school non automated egg collection) the birds generate so much heat that frozen birds or eggs 🥚 are never a big issue unless you get extreme weather events.

Thank you Ron! Hope you’re doing well!

A local Amish friend has a metal roofing business and has a bunch of different coils that he stamps out.

Thank you Darren

Thank you Luana!

Probably

Thank you DJ!

Hi Lisa! Where have you been? 😆

@@9252LIFE Right here at home where I usually am.😄