keep my chickens happy and warm in winter

aart said:

But many chickens prefer to stand out in the rain....even when they have shelter available...good bug hunting.
I know several of mine do...and appear bedraggled at roost time, but I once stuck my hand under those wet outer feathers, and the skin was warm and dry. I don't worry about it, they can do what they want as far s the rain goes.

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sylviecolin said:

we keep them in when the weather is bad, but we have huge worms here and some really love hunting them. i didnt know it was a problem. and we dont always have to put the lights on. we just check on them often to make sure they are ok. i posted up pictures of our coop and how we winterized it if you'd like to check.

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I'm glad I stuck a "just-in-case" apology in my other post! I have a few chickens here who don't mind the rain or the snow one little bit, so they come in wet at times too. I just misread your post completely, @sylviecolin It sounded like yours were getting wet and you weren't happy about it! I thought they were getting wet within your set up somehow but after seeing your coop that's probably not very likely.

So I'll just go slink back under the chair and pretend I didn't stick my foot in my mouth - again.

seriously dont worry about it. we had a friend come over the other day and saw our chickens and laughed at us for giving them a sand box. teasing us for spoiling them, and it wasnt until i explained to them that is it more of a bathing box for them insted of the sand castle kind they were thinking.
i posted the pictures up so that if someone with more experience saw something we missed or if someone else tried something that worked better. more for advice. so even bad criticism is welcomed.

nchls school said:

61 years old. I've seen tornado, ice storms, hail, etc, Our home is all electric and the power has never gone off for more than six hours; if it should we and our animals will weather it together. The heat will stay on in my coop. To each his/her own.

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Dang, can you ship your electric company down here.

I've been through tornadoes, ice storms, 90 mph straight line winds and hail as well and don't have service like that.

Had a F3 tornado go through the neighborhood April 22 2011 and was without power for 5 days. I would have been happy if it was on in a week. The neighborhood was a tangled mess of downed trees, power lines, mangled sheds and chicken coops ;-), street signs, parts of roofs, garage doors you name it thrown all over the place.

scooter147 said:

Dang, can you ship your electric company down here.

I've been through tornadoes, ice storms, 90 mph straight line winds and hail as well and don't have service like that.

Had a F3 tornado go through the neighborhood April 22 2011 and was without power for 5 days. I would have been happy if it was on in a week. The neighborhood was a tangled mess of downed trees, power lines, mangled sheds and chicken coops ;-), street signs, parts of roofs, garage doors you name it thrown all over the place.

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As I mentioned in another post. Living near hospitals and nursing/retirement homes has its benefits. Besides, my froo-froo chickens (seramas) can not take the cold. My silkies could, but… Naw, I'd heat the coop even if I had Barred rocks and Rhode Island reds.

the weather sure is changing alot now all over the world. we all have to do things a little different but it definitely doesnt mean it is wrong. when i use to live in town i never lost my power. all our families came to our place. we were on the same line as the fire station and hospital. but now in the country when we loose power it could be days before we get it back. so we have to be quick on our toes sometimes... and have a plan "B".
I do have a question for ; I have a few hens that will lay on a pile of eggs most of the morning but it is outside in the tire but in the winter is it ok that they lay outside still? i am not going to heat it. i do go in about 4 to 5 times a day to check for eggs, food, clean poop and just spend time with them. they do have 4 boxes to lay inside.

this is the tire nesting box. they love it.




this is 2 of the 4 nesting boxes inside.

my question is just so we dont have frozen eggs. I figured it was ok for them to use the outside tire nest since we are in there often.