In this post, I will introduce you to methods that will allow you to create a much warmer chicken house plan. This specific article will be devoted to insulation, what it is, how it affects temperature of your coop and when you should use it.
Are you sure your chicken house plan requires more warmth?
Before you begin to modify plan of your chicken house, let’s discuss some important figures. The most important question you should ask yourself before you start to increase the indoor temperature of your chicken house is, What climate do you live in? Is it cold frequently? Do the weather conditions change often? What are the maximal and minimal temperatures you experience throughout the year?
If you are living in a climate that is moderately cold or warm all yearlong, you probably don’t have to worry about temperatures. The thing that many people do not realize is the fact that chickens themselves produce about 10 watts of heat each. Therefore, if you own 10 hens, it’s like having a 100W light bulb on at all times. What does it mean? It means that, unless you experience really low temperatures, your chickens will be able to heat their chicken house all by themselves.
How is your chicken house losing heat?
There are two ways your chicken house plan may be losing heat. First one is by air exchange. It is obvious that if the air inside your coop is warmer than the air outside, the exchange of the two will cause the temperature inside your chicken house to drop. The thing you should look out for are drafts. If outdoor temperature is 32 degrees Fahrenheit(thermometer unaffected by winds), but the thermometer that is exposed to winds shows 14 degrees Fahrenheit, inside of your coop shouldn’t be lower than 32 F. Why? Because if there are no drafts inside your chicken house, it should have a temperature of still air.
The second way your chicken house can be losing temperature is, radiant heat loss. That is the kind of loss that insulation is supposed to prevent. It is easiest to explain using the example of a cup filled with hot tea. At first your tea is hot, then left for a while, the cup becomes hot but, the tea is getting colder. Leave them for even more time, and you will notice that the surface the cup stands on is, hotter than it used to be and the tea is colder than in the beginning. In short tea(your chicken house) looses its’ temperature in favor of objects in its’ environment.
The physics of chicken house insulation
In the following paragraphs, I will try to explain to you the importance of proper insulation. Many people have false assumptions about how the insulations works. Despite what you may think, insulating your coop doesn’t make it warmer or colder. I understand it may sound weird but, let me elaborate on this issue.
The main purpose of insulation is to protect whatever space is insulated from the outside temperature. In short, if your coop is warm and the outside temperature is cold, insulation protects your chicken house from losing its heat. It doesn’t as many people think, heat it up by itself. That is why, well insulated chicken house plan remains warm in the winter and cold in the summer. If you don’t believe me, grab some ice cream put them on the table and count time required for them to melt. Later grab the same portion of the same ice cream but cover them with a blanket and measure the time again. You will see that ice creams covered with a blanket “survived” longer than the ones’ left in the open.
The only issue with too much insulation is, that if in summer, your chickens will produce a lot of heat, it won’t dissipate as fast as it would without insulation. So in the end the inside of your chicken house will be warmer than it should. That is why installing an insulation should be done only if you are living in really extreme climate.
This is all the information you should know about insulating your chicken house plan to make it warm and pleasurable for your chickens. If you still don’t get some parts of this concept, read this post again, and you should understand it. See you in the next post about how to further preserve the temperature of your chicken house plan.
