Official BYC Poll: With Winter Upon Us, What Preparations Have You Made For Your Chickens?

With Winter Upon Us, What Preparations Have You Made For Your Chickens?

  • I got my heated waterers/heated bases out and ready

    Votes: 79 51.3%
  • I replaced old shavings with new

    Votes: 83 53.9%
  • I sanitized the coop before the temperature dropped

    Votes: 30 19.5%
  • I put a cover on the run to keep the snow out

    Votes: 52 33.8%
  • I added toys to combat boredom

    Votes: 33 21.4%
  • I made or bought anti-pick spray

    Votes: 2 1.3%
  • I stocked up on supplements to enhance their diets since foraging won't be possible

    Votes: 50 32.5%
  • Other (elaborate in a reply below)

    Votes: 53 34.4%

  • Total voters
    154
I was hoping to get a real roof on the run this summer/fall, but came back from Thanksgiving trip to find snow on the ground and that it's suddenly winter here in Vermont. Right now it's about half covered with plywood scraps. Just put up a mirror for the girls, am going to pot up a big stalk of kale from my garden, let it freeze in place, and bring it in.
Haha don't miss Western MA or VT winters. One....little....bit...! I raised chickens and turkeys in Western MA from '88-'08. Moved to non freezing NorCal in '08 and the rest is history. No more frozen eggs, frozen water, frozen combs or anything! Good luck and Happy Holidays.
 
Built a 9'X13' enclosure around the coop covered in 6 mil plastic. Heated waterer. Extra treats and toys.
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We moved our coop into an empty barn stall today. Realized after our first big snow that having it in the main yard wasn’t going to work, what with snow falling off all the eaves and trees. Also, they will be protected from the wind in there.
Do you give them the possibility to range in the barn too? And did you add bedding on the barn floor?

IMO: If you keep chickens inside it will be good for their health to lighten the barn (or coop) during the day with a grow bulb (spectrum with daylight lengths) . It’s also easy to lengten the day upto 12 -14 hours for egg production that way.
 
I covered up some of the windows in the barn , put tarp around the walls of the run which I can move up and down daily if it’s nice out. I saw a video that said to feed the chickens oatmeal and more carbohydrates in the winter so I will be doing this and I’m going to make a treat block for them . Hopefully this is good enough for the weather in Montpelier Virginia.
 
I was hoping to get a real roof on the run this summer/fall, but came back from Thanksgiving trip to find snow on the ground and that it's suddenly winter here in Vermont. Right now it's about half covered with plywood scraps. Just put up a mirror for the girls, am going to pot up a big stalk of kale from my garden, let it freeze in place, and bring it in.
We learned here in our town if we roofed our run it would be taxed as another building. So we tarped it last Fall, 8x16. You have to push up the tarp and remove the puddles or snow and we went thru Winter just fine! Best of luck!
 

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