Preparing Your Flock & Coop for WINTER

[Forrestzoo]

That is an awesome photo of your chickens making the trek outdoors in the snow and you are an awesome chickenierre for providing the trail for them.

 

[dheltzel]

I have some lightweight breeds (bantams and Cream Legbars) and would like to ensure that they have enough calories to keep up their body weight. Last winter I sometimes fed cracked corn in the evenings. Should I try to use a higher protein feed (game bird breeder 22%, or calf manna 40%), or would I be better served with the high fat/starch content of the corn? Or both?

 

[lazy gardener]

I'm a "they"?

I didn't think about the rooster thing, I guess because I don't have any. But I can see where that could be an issue, especially if you live in town.

Oh, Blooie... I guess it does make you a "they". But... you're not an opinionated sort of a "they". You don't supplement with light, anyways, do you? Forget about living in town. Jack is about 60' from my bedroom window.

I can only free range when I am out with them along with my 2 dogs who patrol the perimeter of woods.

What I would do differently:
1) Replace the permanent roof panels on the south/west side with sun-blocking panels. In spite of the open concept, they are very hot under the clear panels during July-August. (I plan to do this next May.)
2) I would've placed my man-doors inside the runs. I clean the coops every day and when we have so much snow, it takes forever to shovel from the house to each run-door and then around to the back side to both man-doors. Last year was brutal.
3) If I hadn't had property boundary restrictions, I would've separated the structures more. The amt of snow I shovel off the roofs completely fills up the area between them and then there's that much more shoveling to do. Again, last year was brutal.

Spring and winter photos below:

Maine Chicklet. I love your set up. Love your avatar also. Kayak is one of my favorite places to be. I just got done building a permanent run (due to hawk predation). I chose to build the run so that the man door is outside the run. That way, I can access the coop without having to walk through the run! I do have a clean out door on the back side of the coop which is inside the run, though. That way, the litter comes from coop to run to become part of the deep litter in the run. They'll finish it off well before I move it to the garden. Did you have to shovel coop AND run roofs last winter? My coop has a very steep pitch with a metal roof. If I'd planned it right, I'd have had the pitch going in the opposite direction, b/c it sheds snow into the run, so the flock won't be able to use the run during the winter months. Oh well... live and learn! I'll have to give them a little alley leading from their pop door to the run door, and then, they can access the snow blown path from run door to green house door.

Wait so are the lights necessary? Because I keep hearing the hours thing but then it seems others let the birds rest in winter and/or just don't have lights at all? So confused haha we only want a few eggs for us so not too concerned with them cranking all the time

Lights are a matter of personal preference. Often, pullets will lay through the winter without extra light. But, don't bank on that! My first winter, without lights, I got 3 eggs/week from one of my 5 gals. The other 4 took a break that lasted from mid Oct. to mid Feb. Since then, I've given them extra light, the recommendation being 14 hours total/day. You'll hear folks saying that it's hard for chickens to lay year round. Then, you'll hear others say that it doesn't make a difference. So... choose your path, don't look back, and don't feel guilty for what ever path you choose. However, if you do choose to add light, you can't just toss a light bulb in the coop and turn it on for 14 hours the first day. They have to have the light increased gradually. Some folks supplement year round, and then turn the light off for 2 weeks in Sept to induce a molt.

OMG! When you said you shovel everyday I was thinking "sheeshers why not just walk on the snow" until I saw this! If I lived there (and I wouldn't, because of the snow) I would have thought about a covered walkway from the house to the runs! If the roofs didn't collapse it would be the "chicken snow caves" all winter long.

Sonya, welcome to Maine... Vacationland... the way life should be... where all the men are good looking, all the women are strong, and all the children are above average. It's not for the faint of heart!!! In many of our yards, the idea of a covered walk way would be cost prohibitive.

 

[ShrekDawg]

Thanks for the advice!! So it seems like in the summer they get enough light?

 

[21hens-incharge]

I do nothing special. I close the windows on cold days which here is most of the winter. I have lots of ventilation up high so it works for me. I use small water dishes so taking hot water out to thaw them in the morning and again in the afternoon works as well. I had the heated water dishes and they failed miserably as well as being expensive. I am thinking about a tank heater for mine this winter since my numbers are up by a lot.

I shovel my run out if we get a heavy snow. The run is to large for me to reasonably put a roof on it.

 

[NTBugtraq]

Really interesting. I'm new to this site, so not great with it yet. But per above comment would love a little more detail about how you made it work!

@kristalb , I had horrible luck last winter with water in my coop. I did manage to make it work, but I'm sure I spent more on electricity than I should of and it didn't prevent frostbite from getting a few combs and at least 1 toe. So, I totally remade my solution over the summer. I have already had a few nights where water has frozen outside, but the water in my runs has not. Its going to get a lot colder and it remains to be seen if my new solution will work completely. Anyway, here is what I have done.

My runs/coop are attached to the side of my house (42' x 10', split into 2 runs, plus an 8' x 10' nesting room). The runs are on the south side of my house, and I am surrounded by very tall trees in a forest. So, I don't get direct winds into the runs. The south wall of the runs are wire mesh, and both ends are plywood.

In the wall that separates my runs, I used 2 pieces of eaves trough. They are attached to the house wall at one end, and a box has been built under them to support them. The box goes to the ground and is open below (meaning no floor). I've used no insulation around the troughs, although they do have a hood over them to stop stuff from getting into the troughs.

So, inside the house in my basement (I have a raised bungalow) is the water line to the troughs. There is a bucket, and a toilet float valve (the kind without the arm and ball). Water flows into the bucket, and the valve's height was determined by figuring out when the troughs were full. In this way, the valve mechanism is in my unheated basement (which never gets any colder than 55F). I put a piece of 3" dia. ABS through the wall into the box under the troughs. The water line goes through this and into the troughs (from below). So, as the water level drops in the troughs so does the level in the indoor bucket, so the valve opens and more water is allowed into the troughs.

So here's the heating...I put a bathroom fan in a box attached to the piece of 3" ABS tubing. Its plug is put through the pipe into the run, and then plugged into an outdoor Thermocube which turns on at 35F and off at 45F. So when it gets cold, basement air is blown into the box under the troughs, thereby heating them. Each trough is ~5' long, so I am blowing into an area of ~3 cubic ft. Not a lot.

I'm pretty confident this will work, but of course its only useful if you have your coop/run attached to your house. Heat loss via a 3" pipe laid to a remote building would probably prevent it from working that way, and any other solution would require some other heat source. Mind you, you could probably build a safe box for an IR lamp that is activated by Thermocube to replicate the basement warm air, but you'd need to do something to prevent the water from freezing in the pipe from your water source.

Anyway, hope that helps.

 

[redrstr29]

Im in CT winters In CT have been BRUTAL...today torrential downpours... I had to grab half the girls and coop them my self which didnt make me a happy camper, they started roosting in my garden , and since it was dark the couldn't see well, I looked like I was in the "dirty mudder" race lol... But its supposed to rain for the next 3 days, when it gets back up to the 60s next week i'm on a winterizing mission!!!

Aldo

 

[NTBugtraq]

I do nothing special. I close the windows on cold days which here is most of the winter. I have lots of ventilation up high so it works for me. I use small water dishes so taking hot water out to thaw them in the morning and again in the afternoon works as well. I had the heated water dishes and they failed miserably as well as being expensive. I am thinking about a tank heater for mine this winter since my numbers are up by a lot.

I shovel my run out if we get a heavy snow. The run is to large for me to reasonably put a roof on it.

Looks like I quoted the wrong post, sorry.

You should be fine. Chickens will happily walk on snow, but they won't be happy if there's no place outside for them to peck...they'll simply get bored and stay indoors. So, I would suggest you do what you can to put some portion of roof that will keep snow off the ground...doesn't need to be the whole thing. If you notice, many coop designs leave a space under the nesting box, and uses the nesting box as a roof...voila. If that's not possible, then can you put a piece of plywood on a steep angle next too the coop? Like you, my run is merely covered in mesh, but I have 42' of roofed runs as well as the outdoor fenced area.

 

[henless]

Thank you for starting this post. I have been wondering what to do for the winter. We live in NE Texas (between Royse City and Greenville). I have 8 buff orpingtons. I purchased sleeping bags at a thrift store to staple to the inside of the coop along the walls for insulation. I hope this works. We normally don't get to cold here, but there are times we do have a few days of really cold weather. I also plan to put pine needles into the run to help with keeping there little feet out of the dirt.

Anybody else live out this way? Your ideas more welcome as I am new to this and have only had my girls since March of this year.

Thank you,

I have an open air coop. For winter weather, I put tarps up on the North side & clear, plastic shower curtains along the West side. I leave the South & East open which gives me plenty of ventilation. This worked great last year. It blocks the wind, but still lets in plenty of light.

I really don't think you need to put up the sleeping bags. Make sure they have a draft free roost and they will be fine.

 

[NTBugtraq]

I have an open air coop. For winter weather, I put tarps up on the North side & clear, plastic shower curtains along the West side. I leave the South & East open which gives me plenty of ventilation. This worked great last year. It blocks the wind, but still lets in plenty of light.

I really don't think you need to put up the sleeping bags. Make sure they have a draft free roost and they will be fine.

A couple of other ideas I have gleaned.

Fermented feed helps a lot. If you feed dry food, the chicken has to use energy to break it down...they use a lot less to break down food that has been soaked in water (24 hour soaking, but any soaking is better than dry). As such, they get more energy from soaked food and have more available to heat themselves.

In my thinking, a draft is not an issue, wind is. Chickens are very able to puff their feathers out and face the right way to avoid losing heat to a draft...a wind is harder. They'll lower themselves onto their feet to cover them, and tuck their heads under a wing...all of that works fine for a draft, but make that a sustained wind and they end up losing.

Make sure their food and water is in a dry spot. Since moisture can lead to frostbite, and food and water leads to heat, make sure those things don't end up in the same place.