So fall is here and I've read a lot about winter with chickens, but everybody talks about big coops and mine is small (plenty of space for my 4 banties, well 3 as of today). This is my first year (I got my small flock in August).
The coop is made from pretty thin cedar wood, I painted it, so it serves a bit longer, but I'm really concerned about how cold it gets during the night. I plan to put heavy plastic around the run, so it doesn't get too wet in the run when it rains.
But I don't know if I should install the heating pad inside on one of the walls.
I've read that in case of power outage the chickens will die because of sudden temperature change.
I live in Idaho and we get some snow, but nothing brutal.
The thing is my youngest chicken (6mo) died the night before during the first low temperature. I think she got wet during the day and got really cold at night, I found her in the morning...
My chickens have an area to range on and they go out even if it rains, so they do get wet.
Any advise how to prepare coop for the winter? Should I use heating pad? I don't want to use a lamp, because coop is tiny.
Attaching some photos of the coop.
Any advice is really appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
The coop is made from pretty thin cedar wood, I painted it, so it serves a bit longer, but I'm really concerned about how cold it gets during the night. I plan to put heavy plastic around the run, so it doesn't get too wet in the run when it rains.
But I don't know if I should install the heating pad inside on one of the walls.
I've read that in case of power outage the chickens will die because of sudden temperature change.
I live in Idaho and we get some snow, but nothing brutal.
The thing is my youngest chicken (6mo) died the night before during the first low temperature. I think she got wet during the day and got really cold at night, I found her in the morning...
My chickens have an area to range on and they go out even if it rains, so they do get wet.
Any advise how to prepare coop for the winter? Should I use heating pad? I don't want to use a lamp, because coop is tiny.
Attaching some photos of the coop.
Any advice is really appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
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