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

[QuietPony]

QuietPony, we are in WI too. Hubby solved my popsicle water problem with a nut tin with a light bulb inside. I can keep my plaster water fountain on top with no problem at all, and it's out in the run. Food and water are always outside, which forces the girls to actually go outside. We're putting a dog kennel cover over the run this year, and plastic around it. Last year we didn't do that, and we had to shovel for them. ugh. We don't heat the coop. Just make sure to check for eggs often so they don't freeze.

The kennel cover is on my wish list for next year. As is an automatic door opener. One thing at a time though. These are proving to be the greatest, most expensive eggs I have ever had! lol

 

[mrchicks]

The kennel cover is on my wish list for next year. As is an automatic door opener. One thing at a time though. These are proving to be the greatest, most expensive eggs I have ever had! lol

Menards has the best price on the covers, for when you are ready.

 

[jimmywalt]

Where water is concerned, I have decided to keep that in the run instead of in the coop, to encourage them to go outside. I have already woken to our first water freeze here in WI. I decided then (while trying to thaw the ice enough to twist the hanging water unit open so I could refill it with warmer water..lol) that I had to come up with another plan and quick. As it is now, we plan on bringing the water unit inside each night and taking it back out each morning. We are going back out that way anyhow to open the coop, and figure this mundane task of lugging the water will save us money and water. We plan on doing this until the novelty wears off, or until the big arctic deep freeze comes. At which point, we will have most likely invested in another hanging water unit so we can just have water ready to go when it eventually freezes in the run midday in February. haha

If you need another winter water idea, here is mine. I've been perfecting it since March of this year....

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...ated-waterer-for-under-20-bucks#post_12211685

 

[LittleBits]

Quote: Good luck!

I agree with the dog crate idea. . . . It is not good to have just one of any kind unless you have just one of another kind they can bond to. So yes, I agree with LadyCluck77. If need be get a docile Bantam to keep with her. Hope something here helps you. You can see the dog crate in the picture below. Henny and Penny are standing on top of it above Dagny. Don't ask me how Dagny got out of that crate. She has to be magical.

Just now getting caught up on this thread and read your response to my problem - thank you! I've tried and tried to integrate Greenie but it's just not working. Her area is cordoned off by just chicken wire and she watches the rest of them, paces the fence; and they sometimes do the same. I even throw some of her feed and their feed on each side of the fence so they can choose to eat together; but once they are not separated, the trouble begins! So, we've made accomadations for her to be separate for as long as they live. She'll have her own space, own run, just separated by the wire. See my "future" (hopefully before winter sets in) plans for our new run here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/832761/new-run-to-be-constructed-soon#post_12202367

Greenie is only one of her kind this flock. I think she's an EE and there's 3 Golden Comets and 7 white hens. I never thought about that before and maybe that's why they all chased her away all the time, etc.; the (3) GC seem to kind of stick together, so now my eyes are open to another possibility. Maybe we can get one more chicken. Should she be close in age to Greenie or would it matter?

I love your set up! It looks quite efficient. How many chickens live here? What did you use for wire around the run? And do you have any wire going into the ground or out from the sides for predator-proofing? Oh! I just noticed it's a tractor! Wow! I'm doubly impressed now as this is a BIG tractor! How do you move it or does it go pretty easy?! Great idea! Guess you wouldn't have the ground wire then...

 

[LittleBits]

Quote: Thanks for responding! I will be looking up that pattern today - we've had "frost-on-the-pumpkins" several mornings this past week in our area - lowest was 24°. Some of them must have been molting, as they have some new, downy feathers, but several are bare-backed and bummed still. I don't think there are any feathers coming on them. I have some sorry-lookin' chickens!

Lots of purple feathers yet. Guess they didn't molt completely!

 

[LittleBits]

. . . but everyone says we will have bad winter for the south. Of course its supposed to be back in the 70's next week. lol

And let's hope whoever is saying this is right!!! Lots to do...

 

[blondiebee181]

I use a heavy duty hay tarp on my run to keep rain and snow mostly out. I lash it down with a length of rope that I run through the gromits and then through the chainlink. I buy lots of chopped straw and when it snows, I cover the floor of the coop and run with a thick layer of it. I scatter scratch in the straw on the cold days when the girls don't wanna go out in the snow and they love digging in the straw.
I don't heat, or light and in Idaho last year we had some pretty chilly -20F nights. All 5 hens and 2 ducks weathered the cold just fine including my scrawny White Leghorn. Almost all of them laid through the winter but that was their first winter. I agree with the folks that say chickens will be just fine as long as their coop remains dry and draft-free. I have a long window that runs under the eave of my coop and there is a length of wood that slides over it during the cold. I just keep it cracked at the end so the girls have a little ventilation and then bed the coop floor with plenty of straw.
In my opinion, Vaseline does help. I use it on my Leghorn and BR. If you think about it, your skin gets drier and more prone to cracking in the harsh winter cold right? So does a chickens. The Vaseline also keeps any extra water moisture off the comb, which is what contributes to frostbite.

 

[coop-er]

It's somewhere in this here thread.  The idea is to take a 5 gallon bucket, fill it with hot water, cover then lug it out to the coop and it will radiate heat.
It's gotta be covered though or the idea will work against you by filling the coop with moisture.

I see...thank you for the help

 

[Gifa]

Hey guys... back on page 24, I posted about building a more permanent covered pergola for my girls' run, and then promised to edit with pictures of it when I had the light to do so...

And then we had an awful week... culminating in having to put our 11 year old dog, Ajax down...


He just... at around 5pm one night, he suddenly didn't have the energy or coordination to stand or walk anymore... by the time we got him to the vet the next morning, he was too weak to even lift his head... *trembly bottom lip and chin* *deep sigh* We were profoundly saddened... and it kind of wrecked our whole schedule... hubby had to cancel a flight for a business trip, I'm sure my client is wondering when I'll have their holiday sale poster done... etc...



Anyway... With all the rain in the forecast this week, we decided to go ahead and start fitting the run with the winter tarps yesterday...

This was what we looked like last year about this time...




Here are some photos of how it looks today.


From the front, it's not immediately obvious that the pergola is there. We painted the wooden bits of the pergola black to resemble the black of the roof on the coop.




From the side, we were pleased to see that there was very little warping or settling of the run which up until now was just kind of out there in the elements. So, we were pleased to see that not only was it still square, which made mounting easy, as the pergola was built square, the slope of the roof matches that of the coop still... hooray.




While the clear(translucent) tarps do a great job of keeping the water out, and allowing for a lot of light in, the clear covered pergola is superior in that regard. And, I'll never have to bring that feeder can inside again on account of rain when the tarps are off for summer.

Weather is squirrelly here in the midwest in November... we're just as likely to have an 75 degree day on Thanksgiving as we are to have snow with lows in the 20s... As it was, it was in the mid 40's this morning when I went out there to scoop their coop and take the pictures around 10am and the thermometer inside their run was reading 70 degrees... The temperature in their coop according to my digital thermometer/hygrometer was in the mid 50's, so I popped the coop window facing in their run open and it's now reading 64 degrees/50% humidity in the coop... So, that's already a lot of passive solar heating right there, even with a 7'x7' section of their run left uncovered... and all of the trees aren't even naked yet either... We'll probably tarp up the door and remaining panel as soon as we are consistently not breaching into the 60+ degree range for daily highs... but, we are ready to go ahead and start hauling in bales of straw, as they should stay dry in there.

 

[minmin1258]

So

Hey guys... back on page 24, I posted about building a more permanent covered pergola for my girls' run, and then promised to edit with pictures of it when I had the light to do so... And then we had an awful week... culminating in having to put our 11 year old dog, Ajax down... He just... at around 5pm one night, he suddenly didn't have the energy or coordination to stand or walk anymore... by the time we got him to the vet the next morning, he was too weak to even lift his head... *trembly bottom lip and chin* *deep sigh* We were profoundly saddened... and it kind of wrecked our whole schedule... hubby had to cancel a flight for a business trip, I'm sure my client is wondering when I'll have their holiday sale poster done... etc... Anyway... With all the rain in the forecast this week, we decided to go ahead and start fitting the run with the winter tarps yesterday... This was what we looked like last year about this time... Here are some photos of how it looks today. From the front, it's not immediately obvious that the pergola is there. We painted the wooden bits of the pergola black to resemble the black of the roof on the coop. From the side, we were pleased to see that there was very little warping or settling of the run which up until now was just kind of out there in the elements. So, we were pleased to see that not only was it still square, which made mounting easy, as the pergola was built square, the slope of the roof matches that of the coop still... hooray. While the clear(translucent) tarps do a great job of keeping the water out, and allowing for a lot of light in, the clear covered pergola is superior in that regard. And, I'll never have to bring that feeder can inside again on account of rain when the tarps are off for summer. Weather is squirrelly here in the midwest in November... we're just as likely to have an 75 degree day on Thanksgiving as we are to have snow with lows in the 20s... As it was, it was in the mid 40's this morning when I went out there to scoop their coop and take the pictures around 10am and the thermometer inside their run was reading 70 degrees... The temperature in their coop according to my digital thermometer/hygrometer was in the mid 50's, so I popped the coop window facing in their run open and it's now reading 64 degrees/50% humidity in the coop... So, that's already a lot of passive solar heating right there, even with a 7'x7' section of their run left uncovered... and all of the trees aren't even naked yet either... We'll probably tarp up the door and remaining panel as soon as we are consistently not breaching into the 60+ degree range for daily highs... but, we are ready to go ahead and start hauling in bales of straw, as they should stay dry in there.

sorry t here about losing your cherished family member. When you're sad and missing him remember that movie that was released about 12 or so years ago...All Dogs Go To Heaven! He's still watching over your girls from a better vantage point. The pergola and run look super, nice work! Guess is time for me t do the winterizing I've bn planning... thanks for the guilt trip... lol. (And you didn't even know you were giving me one!)