Winter warmth in Eastern NC

[Icie]

Does the forecast in the article below concern anyone else in my area, or am I worrying too much? Should I take any particular steps to safely keep my 17 girls warmer this winter?

Their coop is made from chain link overlayed with hardware and chicken wire. There is also shade cloth over 3 sides, with the 4th side being the wall of a wooden greenhouse (also unheated). The roof is chain link as well and covered over with several heavy duty tarps (a new one added each year, probably 3 of them by now). The only door is a full size with hardware cloth at the top (covered by thick clear vinyl during winter) and an auto door at the bottom (by Omlet). The floor is sand and I use hay in the 4 plastic nesting boxes. Overall size is about 20 x 20.
In past winters I've covered the sides with white plastic and then remove in spring, leaving the top third uncovered, but the plastic only lasted 2 seasons so I'll need to buy more unless my experts here tell me better ideas.
signed,
Worry Wart Chicken Mama

https://www.cottongrower.com/cotton...r-forecast-for-2022-2023-goes-to-the-extreme/

 

[nuthatched]

Can you get pictures? As long as they can get out of the wind, they'll be fine.

 

[jreardon1918]

Interesting, but not concerning with respect to our chickens. We are a bit north of you. Our girls have done well in some pretty cold weather. We do some winter prep. That is designed to block snow and keep water liquid. Here is an article we published.

Preparing the girls for winter

Hope this helps.

 

[3KillerBs]

from the Sandhills.

Our Carolinian chickens have nothing to fear from our winter. Because of their built-in down parkas they are actually more comfortable in the winter than in summer's steamy heat.

You might find this thread reassuring: https://www.backyardchickens.com/posts/25324962

As long as our birds are dry and out of the wind they readily tolerate temperatures down to 0F and, often, below. With excellent ventilation being as necessary in the winter as in the summer in order to keep moisture from building up.

Even when I lived up in Boone (for non-Carolinians that's some of the highest and coldest parts of the southern Appalachians), -40F was not a realistic forecast in even the most extreme winters. -40 *windchill*, maybe. MAYBE. But since we shelter our chickens from the wind we're not concerned with windchill.

Up in Boone the worst I experienced might have been about -5F the very worst year. I remember thinking what nice winters we had there since we'd moved from Massachusetts where -15F was not uncommon and bad cold spells could be a good deal worse.

In 15 years in the Sandhills I *think* it has only been below 0F once or twice.

But people make money off scaremongering.

 

[Icie]

Thank you all so much for your replies, suggestions, and reassuring comments. I'll focus on preventing direct wind and not so much temperature because even if we get low temps, they're seldom lower than 20°F.
Last year I covered with so much plastic, I couldn't believe the dust that accumulated and had to vacuum every couple of days! NOT doing that again.

 

[3KillerBs]

My version of winterizing is to zip-tie a tarp to half of the wire side of the open air coop just in case we get wind from an unexpected direction (the 3-sided shelter is at the *usual* upwind side, but central NC can get storm winds from any direction).

 

[Icie]

My version of winterizing is to zip-tie a tarp to half of the wire side of the open air coop just in case we get wind from an unexpected direction (the 3-sided shelter is at the *usual* upwind side, but central NC can get storm winds from any direction).

That sounds like what I'd been doing with the white plastic, but much easier than all the stapling and taping. Since I have to replace it anyway, I think I'll be buying tarps!

But, question, do you cover the top, bottom, or middle of your sidewalls? My girls jockey for the two highest rungs of the roosting bars for sleeping but spend the rest of their time on the sand floor. Also I know sand is kinda cold but I layered it with bedding last winter and it was really a pain in the butt to clean it off/out come spring.

 

[3KillerBs]

I didn't even cover an entire wall, just part of it so that wind couldn't blow directly on the roost from that direction.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/open-air-coop-in-the-snow.1508695/

A little snow got into the coop, but it didn't matter because the roost area was protected.