Preparing Your Flock & Coop for WINTER

Spartan22 said:

Make sense, I'd been using sand and pine shavings in the run for almost 3 years and few weeks ago we'd been having so much winter rain so I picked up a couple of bale of straw and threw them in the run, seems that it remains soggy and muddy underneath the layers of straws.

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It does. Anywhere that the animals have scattered hay or straw here I've had to rake up, as it keeps the ground underneath more soggy and soft. Shavings or wood chips will sink into the mud and firm it up more. I've got wood chips in all the pathways here for that very purpose...they are simply the best for firming up and preventing mud.

Straw and hay are about the same price here, but prices vary on both, straw used to be much cheaper a few years ago.
Straw is a thinner and more fragile plant structure than wood shavings, so, yes it will compress more when soaked, it will also rot way faster than wood shavings.

I got some alfalfa hay for my girls and they seemed to dislike it completely. They won't scratch in it or anything, I had to remove it and replace with straw. They got right to work on the straw.

I want to give a big shout out to everyone who contributed to this thread. All your time and input was very much appreciated by me this past winter here in Vermont. We started our flock of layers last spring (March) and were receiving an awesome bounty of eggs by July and August. In Sep/Oct I came and read this whole thread (the knowledge here is just awesome) in preparation for a real winter. The previous winter we'd had no chickens and although it got cold it didn't snow all that much (was an economic disaster year for the ski areas). Well this year was a whole different story and we got tons of snow where I am. I'm in Mid/South vermont and by the 3rd week in feb the average base was 42 inches (and around my house more than that). The suggestions I got here were all implemented (water, proper ventilation, a rough cover for a snow free area, putting straw down to coax them out etc etc). It all worked wonders as our ladies only slowed down production toward the end of Feb. We got an egg per day out of everyone until about Mid Feb! I was extremely pleased with that and our dog walking customers loved being able to buy fresh organic eggs to fuel their skiing and riding! That first pic is Jan 10th and it was stupid cold that day, single digits with a brisk wind. The next shows the run with cover and the coop base which is up on 2 cinder blocks but by now one is gone under the tundra. We let the snow accumulate around 3 sides and the drifted walls formed an ad hoc shelter for the ladies underneath when it got to nasty to perch under the open cover area. The last pic is a garage down the rd which is about 9-10' tall heh. Nothing like the Sierras, but we got some snow this year!

Anyway I just wanted to express my gratitude for all who share their experience, strength and hope when it comes to chickens. We just ordered our meat birds today! Time to grow some more!

Oh what a great set up and your birds look and sound happy and healthy. Now you are a seasoned chicken keeper and can contribute your own experiences on getting through winter. You sure did get a lot of snow, we were lucky this year for once. Chicken keeping is a wonderful hobby.

oldhenlikesdogs said:

Oh what a great set up and your birds look and sound happy and healthy. Now you are a seasoned chicken keeper and can contribute your own experiences on getting through winter. You sure did get a lot of snow, we were lucky this year for once. Chicken keeping is a wonderful hobby.

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Yes, yes, yes! This!! ^---------