In an ideal world we would have moved the hens to their winter quarters about a week ago, maybe two. In the warm weather they prowl the pasture, breaking up poop paddies, patrolling for bugs and eating grass as well as the all important job of egg laying. That silver spaceship that Holly is kneeling by is their coop. She is looking in the egg collection doors which allow us to easily access the three laying shelves. The coop is made of a rectangle of 2×4’s on the ground with four arched pieces of light weight rebar to form hoops. Over that we put wire and then TekFoil (Foil-Bubble-Bubble-Foil insulation) which keeps them cool in the summer and warm in the winter. Generally there is a drape of fabric, curtain material picked up at a yard sale, on the top to keep the hens from poking holes in the foil with their talons. This article has some photos and description of the construction of the hoop house.
The hillside shown above is a nice place for the hens in the summer, but come winter the winds get fierce and very cold so we move the coop closer to the house. This is not just for their sake – it is a lot more pleasant to take care of the hens and collect eggs when they are close by. For the winter we put the hoop house in a location where we have poor soil and want to add a lot of organic matter. It is much easier to just have the hens deposit it there than to have to move it later. We start with building a foundation of hay bales the size of the hoop house.
The center area of the bales is left open because over the course of the winter the hens will poop and we’ll add hay bedding and they’ll poop and we’ll add more bedding until spring. The addition of the hay, which is high in carbon, absorbs the nitrogen from their poop so that it is captured for the future garden rather than out-gassing. Thus the smell is also controlled and it stays pleasant inside the coop. The deep pack bed of compost also decomposes during the winter, warming the hoop house and giving the hens the fabled radiant heated “Warm Toes” floors from Vermont. They think it is great.
In moving the hoop house between summer and winter quarters we also clean it out and remove all the wooden roost sticks so that any pests are left behind. This is an important part of our natural organic method of managing the birds. As a result we have had no disease, mites, ticks or other problems. Ideally I want to eventually have completely separate winter and summer housing to give the coops time to air. But that is still on the to-do list and you know what those are like.
Here we have my beautiful wife Holly holding the door while Kita and Kia have been rounding up hens. Sort of. Many of the hens decided the space between the coop and the wall was a nifty place to perch. In the end all of the hens went in for the night. We leave the coop door open except in the most extreme wind and low temps (-45째F). By having an open door the birds get plenty of ventilation which is important to prevent respiratory disease in both the birds and their keepers. The ventilation also keeps the humidity a little lower thus reducing condensation on the inside of the coop. Yet it still stays quite balmy inside the coop.
Just inside the door is a hanging five gallon bucket I made into a feeder and there is a waterer as well. All the comforts of home. One big advantage of using their same coop for the winter is that they don’t get so upset when we move them so egg production does not drop off.
Also see: Chicken Sunroom
“If Hell is over heated then Heaven is in Vermont.”
10째F/29째F, 1/2″ Snow, Sunny
Tags: chickens hens coop winter
Walter Jeffries: Tinker, Tailor... A bit eclectic & a tad eccentric: A Quantum Farmer. Also lucky in cards.
Holly: I always wanted to be a farm mom! Multi-generational farming with our kids. 
great idea
You really do need professional chicken coop plans to build a coop that can protect your chickens through cold and warm weather. A co-op not only keeps predators out, but it also protects your poultry from harsh weather.
Really? I wonder if the message above is a new form of spam. It came with a link which I deleted.
A friend just alerted me to this wonderful site as she knew we were thinking about more space for our chickens. I'm in the process of building a wood framed hoop house, 16' long x12' wide and high enough to stand up in. This is for the chickens to use as a sun room in the winter, but come spring we will use it for growing crops that need that little extra warmth here in southern NH. To keep the cost down (to zero) I'm reusing the material from a large deck that I removed (we prefer to have more garden space), plastic sheeting was donated from an old project, screws came from that local resource, the dump/recycling center, as did the aluminum screen door. Now I need to explore the rest of Walter's, and wife's site. Thanks Walter
Hey you two,
We built ever so modified versions of your huts this year for our central Wisconsin winters and I have to say: THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!
Building the huts was one kookie but fun day and then watching them really function for our birds was a winter's delight.
Our modification included an extended back-end that allowed us to both shelter and then get into the back doors for eggs, and a completely clear (heavy-duty shower curtain) cover flap for the front (south facing) door. The inside temps stayed warm enough to keep all the chickens very healthy all winter. Even during the worst days of our Wisconsin winter here on our ridge top farm – many negative 20 nights and a long winter with daytime temps that rarely rose above 15 as well- the inside water froze only partially. Obviously the hens were able to get water if they needed it during the night, with it finally beginning to freeze over during the last pre-dawn hours.
We never used any electricity in the coops (couldn't actually as it was too far from our placement)and never needed it.
Great, wonderful, outstanding. …any other accolades you need for this plan? We have begun gathering materials for the next three sets for the incoming breeds. We are trying to find axles and wheels to help us turn each coop into easier coops than I was using last year, but are really happy to have the plan to work with our larger goal of one coop for each breed we work with here.
Good job and thank you again.
thanks for the post
I like the low-end construction requirements, and the ways you’ve found to cope with all the challenges.
What do you think of tying thatch to the wire mesh instead of wrapping in bubble-foil insulation? I’ve heard that thatch, when properly done, is waterproof and has a great R value. It’s also 100% natural, which to us is a great big plus.
Actually we have done that. But it doesn’t last more than half a year, maybe a year, in our climate. I wonder about using goldenrod canes rather than grasses as they are tougher. Even tougher is the stalks of sunflowers. Those can last several years. The issue is the very high humidity and warmth inside the coop and the high humidity at the thatch-to-snow interface. It is an idea that might work with some further exploration of thatch materials.
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Wow, what a great winter coop. YOur chickens look like they are ready to go for winter lol. Do you give them little sweaters too? lol
They’re pretty warm in their fluffy feathers. But it’s an idea, we could sell sweaters knitted by chickens.
Good morning Walter,
I have been thinking about building a coop along the lines of yours but as of this morning the link to the article about the construction details is not working.
Thanks,
Orrin
Aye, that is a victim of the server move due to the host crashing and burning. As soon as I can I’ll resurrect that article. … Fixed.
Lots of good info. I just got my first batch of chicks three weeks ago and soon they will be heading into a Canadian winter. They are still using a heat lamp at night but are outside all day long,. wonderful! They love grasshoppers and will certainly miss them when the frost take them away. I am busy trying to sucure decent winter accomodation for them. Really enjoying them.
I have 6 blue laced Wyandotte chicks about 4 months old. I had two large dog crates so I wired them tog back to back with no back walls I can access one end to hang food and water and the other end will be the egg door. There are perches to roost on and so far I slide the trays out to clean it every day. I live in town and raccoons will be a problem! the chicks free range during the day and I close the pen door after they roost. The whole thing is covered with a tarp for summer. I think I’ll put hay bales around it or under it for the winter and add bubble insulation to the tarp. If it gets too cold, I think a heat lamp will be good enough for Jan Feb and March in Indiana. Whadyathink?
Sounds like a plan. Don’t close them in too much – they need ventilation. Pick a location out of the wind. Getting buried in a snow drift is good – like an igloo – as long as they have breathing space.
I could also move the whole shebang into the garage.
Hi Walt new to all this. Did you put a wire flooring in for predator protection. I don’t have dogs so I’m wondering about predators and snakes…so basically how would I keep predictors from digging underneath it.
Without dogs I think I would put electric right around the hoop house and a floor that would not allow predators in.