As in October, the air vent temperatures are following the general trend of the outdoor air, but with a welcome improvement. It is encouraging to find that the biomeiler continues to raise the temperature of the incoming air by approximately 50 F degrees even as the outdoor air temperatures continue to fall.
The coop temperature has also followed the general trend of the outdoor air, but with an offset of approximately 40 F degrees. That offset is not entirely due to the heat from the biomeiler. During the month, we were using a heater in the brooder room for the benefit of the chicks. Some of that supplemental heat warmed the coop, and acted as a confounding variable in the experiment. As the chicks developed their feather cover we reduced the supplemental heat and the coop temperature was less affected. However, there is no way to evaluate the daily impact it had.
At the end of the month, we felt the chicks were sufficiently feathered to be able to live in the coop. On December 1, I moved them into the layer side of the coop and the supplemental heating was discontinued.
For the next few weeks the chicks will live in the cages formerly occupied by the quail. At their current rate of growth they will soon be too large for those pens. When it becomes time to move them, I will probably set up a partition wall to allow them to live on the coop floor, but avoid premature contact with the adult hens and the rooster.
The weather forecast calls for temperatures to drop to the -20s F in the next few days. Soon we will face this winter’s first true test of the biomeiler’s ability to maintain the temperature of the air vent.
Will the new partition wall be only a few feet high? I am wondering how the heat will be affected by a wall structure obstructing the air flow.
The partition wall I have used in the past was made of mesh, stood ~3′ tall,
and sectioned off a strip of the floor ~3’x10′.
It would have no consequence for the air flow.