Winter is Coming! Checklists, tips, advice for a newbie

[JackE]

I have an unheated, and uninsulated open-air coop. My coop has one whole wall open, covered only with hardware cloth. The winter interior temp in the coop is usually 10-15 F higher, than the outside. That's with a whole wall open. So you don't need insulation to raise the inside temp of your coop.
A coop is not like your house. In the winter, your house will be all shut up, with a furnace of some kind, generating heat inside. Your house is insulated, to help hold that heat in. A coop, with proper ventilation, will be OPEN to the outside, whatever the temp is. You close your coop up, like your house, and your chickens will have much, much more to worry about, than being chilly.
A chicken, with an average body temp of around 106 or so, covered with one of natures best insulators, does not need any help from us to keep warm. Insulating a coop, with cold weather in mind, is probably one of the biggest wastes of time and $$$s a chicken keeper can do.

 

[Bogtown Chick]

There are some differences in where people live and their winters and what coop set up works best. JackE's length of cold spells and relative humidity are different than mine. My winters are different than Blooies. Blooie's winter is different than a pacific north westerner. Etc etc.You will need to find someone living in your region with your coop type and build-roof slant, size, number of birds and take their advice.
Personally for me it's about finding the right comb type in your birds for winter in your area.
Ventilation is important but 2-3 months of waking up to -25 F ...with the best ventilation ever will take it's toll. Cold is cold IMHO.
Bottom line: pick the right breed, watch your birds' activity in cold temps, do what you gotta do but don't over do. Their welfare is entrusted to you.

There's tons of good info in this thread from previous winters. I encourage all to read through it from the beginning.

 

[jimbob86]

This a great thread!

I've learned quite a bit reading it.

I have two points:
1) I'm on my local Volunteer Fire Dept. IIRC, we have averaged 1 chicken coop fire a year in our little rural district for several years ..... all likely due to heat lamps and associated wiring. I'll not be putting any electricity into my chicken tractor.

2) I thought of a way to keep my chickens a bit warmer (the opposite of the way I keep them cooler in summer): paint the roof flat black (it's white for summer right now) ..... that will raise the temp inside during the day ....... conserving the birds energy for nighttime.......

 

[Alaskan]

There is a lady up here in Alaska, further north than I am, that uses a version of the open air coop that JackE has.

Her temps are often -25 down to -40 and colder. She says that the open air coop works wonderfully. She does have a piece of plywood with which she makes the front opening a little smaller if the temps stay below -20 for extended periods... But she never closes it completely.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

South facing windows will be a great addition to any coop, my chickens fight over the sun like dogs

 

[jimbob86]

re: south facing windows-

I'm toying with the idea of replacing either the door or end panel of my tractor with plexiglass ...... and face that side south for the winter ..... kind of a chicken green-house. .......

 

[Alaskan]

Totally depends on your climate and the size of your coop.

Even though my summers are 50s at night and 60s during the day, my greenhouse gets super hot in the day time. However, in the winter, the chickens get the greenhouse and love it, but if some freak weather happens and the greenhouse gets super hot, they can always go back into the cooler chicken shed.

So I guess I am saying, South facing windows are always stellar, especially if you have LOTS of venting (doesn't matter where you are, even people in Fairbanks with -60 for weeks on end need lots of venting), but if you are going to make anything greenhouse like I would make it as an added on part, so the chickens can move back and forth between hotter or colder areas, and you don't have to worry about them over heating on a freakishly warm day while you are at work.

And anyway, more space is always better.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Mine are kept in a 40x40 pole shed, not insulated, the chickens choose where to go and roost, certainly not totally enclosed, here in Wisconsin we get pretty cold, they go out in the sun on some hay on the east and south side, and as I said they fight over the window sun, provide adequate ventilation, roosts, food, warm water a couple of times a day, they do just fine, combs shrink, though some roosters get frostbitten points, but next year they don't have that problem. Oh and don't crowd, some may have to find something to entertain their birds, I put out slabs of hay, they pick and scratch.

 

[jimbob86]

Totally depends on your climate and the size of your coop.

Even though my summers are 50s at night and 60s during the day, my greenhouse gets super hot in the day time. However, in the winter, the chickens get the greenhouse and love it, but if some freak weather happens and the greenhouse gets super hot, they can always go back into the cooler chicken shed.

So I guess I am saying, South facing windows are always stellar, especially if you have LOTS of venting (doesn't matter where you are, even people in Fairbanks with -60 for weeks on end need lots of venting), but if you are going to make anything greenhouse like I would make it as an added on part, so the chickens can move back and forth between hotter or colder areas, and you don't have to worry about them over heating on a freakishly warm day while you are at work.

And anyway, more space is always better.

During the day, they could alway go downstairs to the run ..... I have a chicken tractor with the second floor under a solid roof, and the first floor with poultry netting for walls- am planning on using straw bales on the north and west sides to insulate and block wind from the first floor
.......

 

[Alaskan]

that could work