Wendy Bee
Songster
Really nice coop! I see your in NY. What do you do to prepare for winter?
It's been a learning curve for winterizing. This is our third winter . . .
The first winter we used 6 mil clear plastic attached with furring strips. It looked great, but by the end of the second winter, the plastic had mostly given out - I patched several cracks with clear packing tape and the plastic didn't really clean well after the first winter, so wasn't so clear anymore.
I really wanted to do Marine Vinyl, but whew! It was pricey and then I'd have to either install grommets or do furring strips again, which I really didn't want to do. I hated drilling holes into the structure those first two winters! Also, I wanted something that I could do myself (I'm short and not so young anymore, lol), would be durable/reusable for several years, and was adjustable for those transitions from Fall to Winter and Winter to Spring. I looked at doing shower curtains, but we have quite a bit of square footage to cover, and they only have grommets on one side (back to furring strips or grommet installs) and durability for multiple years . . . and I just wanted something more stout.
This past summer I found 30 mil Marine Vinyl clear tarps =). In sizes I could use =). I posted about them HERE.
I love them! They're super thick, clear, and I can install and remove them by myself as needed. I can also lower them by one or two grommets for extra ventilation when the weather is warm/cold/warm/cold. I posted about that HERE.
This shows the general idea. I still need to cover the under-the-coop portion - need to get last winter's furring strips off and put new plastic up (I did order some 30 mil rolled Marine Vinyl for that little bit and for the door area). Also, there are some gaps between grommets on these tarps which I will be tacking down this year, and adding grommets next year to keep those winter winds out. I used cable staples and reusable zip ties to attach the tarps to the structure (detailed and links provided HERE).
It never ceases to amaze me how much more comfortable it is in the run once the wind breaks are up! It can be stupid cold outside in the wind, but once inside, I can work comfortably for a good stretch of time, and the chickens seem content. I've not felt a need to put any supplemental heat in the coop/run, and we do get occasional sub-zero temps.
The only other thing we do for winter is put bird bath deicers in the water buckets. I got two translucent 3.5 gallon buckets and poultry nipples, and have a deicer in each one. They're only 60 watts, so don't draw a lot of power, and they work to sub-zero temps. There have been a few times on VERY cold days where I've had to knock ice off the nipples, but the water itself was fine, just the drips on the outside had frozen. I actually unplug the heaters if it's over 35F because the water gets warm, which leads to slimy buckets (yuk). I take them inside and give them a good soap and hot water wash about once a month in the winter. I just take gallon jugs of water out to the run to refill as needed the rest of the time. I do use 1 TBS of Apple Cider Vinegar and one drop of Oregano Essential Oil per gallon of water as an additive. I also put a cotton round with a slit cut in it around the cord and over the hole in the bucket lid where the cord goes through to keep dirt out of the water.
. Good luck this 3rd winter of chicken keeping! May all your fluffy friends keep their feathers unruffled!! 
