Topic of the week - Winter Chicken Keeping

Blooie said:

- Do adult birds need additional heat (heaters, heat lamps) or not and if so, when? I.e. when is it TOO cold?
Nope. I provide no additional heat. Anyone who knows me knows that even if I did, a heat lamp is the last choice I'd ever make. I don't even use them for chicks I'm raising in their outside brooder during our "balmy" Wyoming springs, when temps are often still in the teens and twenties, with 60 mph winds and sideways blowing snow! We have many days and nights with temps in the sub-zero range. The first year I had chickens it was in the upper 60s and lower 70s for weeks and then it plummeted to 17 below zero in 30 hours. Yeah, that kind of make-your-boogers- feel-like-broken-glass cold. So I haven't found that "too cold" temperature yet. I can't improve on the feather-and-down coat they are already wearing, and their body heat is right where it needs to be - trapped next to their bodies. In winter, with the days being so much shorter, they spend more time roosting in the longer night hours. That equates to more time sharing their body heat as they sit tight together.

- How do you prevent frostbite on your birds' combs and feet?
Nice, wide roosts for them lets them hunker down and keeps their feet warm. As for combs and wattles, keeping them and their surroundings dry is the key. Dry, dry, dry!! Humidity is the enemy in winter, not the cold. That humidity comes from many sources and it settles on combs and wattles and that contributes more to frostbite than anything. And keeping them out of strong drafts is important. If it's windy enough to ruffle their feathers, the body heat that's trapped against them can escape, much like you'd experience if the zipper broke on your expensive feather/down coat. That lost heat is hard to regenerate if the feathers just keep blowing around on them.

- How to best kit out the coop (and run) for winter - ventilation, insulation, moisture management, etc.
We ventilate our coop AND run. The coop has operable windows on all sides except the north, where we have a vent that's about 8 inches wide and almost 3 feet long. We can slip a cover over that if the bad weather is coming in from that side, and since that's the side where most of it comes from, it just makes sense. Everything on the downward side of the incoming storms is left open all the time. We have a gable vent on the east side, and a mobile home exhaust fan designed for older mobiles. Ken wired that in such a way that we can keep it open but not running, open and running, or closed off completely. It's been in there for a couple of years and I can honestly say it's never been closed off completely, but it's nice to have the option. That's on the east side, right above the people door and just over from the big gable vent. Their pop door into the run is open 24/7. They enter the coop via a little wooden framed tunnel, and that tunnel blocks direct winds from going into the coop at floor level but does allow for fresh air to come in. Directly across from that is another vent at floor level. We used home heating type floor registers up high on every wall, and those we can open or close, again depending on weather conditions. I think that unless you are fortunate enough to have Woods or similar coop, flexibility to allow for changing weather while keeping things as open as possible is essential. That ventilation IS your moisture management. Moisture laden, stale air leaves the coop and is replaced with clean, dry air.

Insulating the coop is up to the individual owner. I don't. I was adamant that I was going to, but wiser heads than mine prevailed and I'm grateful. Insulation is designed to be a barrier between a heated space and the ambient air. If the coop isn't heated, what are you trapping inside? Well, humidity, for one thing. The building doesn't "breathe" if it's wrapped and plugged to within an inch of its life! Chickens love to peck at insulation so you have to cover it with something. Guess what you've created? Another air exchange barrier and a freeway for rodents inside the walls. So no thanks - my chickens do just fine without it.

Our run is a hoop run, and in winter we cover it with clear, reinforced greenhouse type plastic. It works great, but the first year we did it we goofed big time and sealed that run up tight. Oops - we had condensation literally running down the inside of the plastic in the run, and if we bumped the top we got "rained" on. So we modified it, leaving the south side as a separate piece that we can roll up or down like a reversed window shade. The north side has a sizable gap in the top right above the people door, and the west and east sides are not rolled tight to the ground but stop a few inches above the level of the litter on the run floor. It works very well to keep them dry and out of the strong winds while allowing them a big place to get out of the coop. They are in there from sunup until time to go to bed! And they like a little outside time too, even in the snow!

- How to keep their water from freezing.
We bought a small tank heater safe for plastic and put it in the water. The waterer is a 5 gallon bucket with horizontal nipples. The first year we did that, the nipples still froze every time our temperatures were around that -12 degree mark. So when we'd get up in the morning, while the coffee was brewing Ken and I would put on our winter togs and grab the heat gun, which we used to thaw the nipples. We were going out to do morning chores anyway, and it just took a few extra minutes. We found out that what was happening was little drips left over from them drinking would sit in the tiny cup part, freeze, then more would get added and freeze, and by the end of the day the ice in them had pushed against the metal trigger, which held it open and let more water ooze out and freeze. We had icicles running from the nipples to the floor of the coop and spreading out like a skating pond. Not good. So we moved the water out to the run on the south side where the solar was strongest, and made a new waterer with the nipples located up higher on the bucket. Someone here had used a point-and-shoot thermometer and found that the water near the middle and close to the top was warmer than the water at the bottom of the bucket, so that made sense to us. We also had the original waterer on big bricks that were hollow inside so cold air was flowing all the way around and under the bucket. Solid bricks were also used to replace the hollow ones. And taking the water out of the coop is the best way to keep from adding humidity to the coop anyway. We haven't had a problem one since.

- How to keep their eggs from freezing.
Deep nesting material and gathering them often.

- Keeping the flock happy and amused when they are confined to the coop by heavy snow, storms, etc.
Mine are never "confined". They can access their huge run and the sunshine that pours in through the south side anytime they want. But they do need boredom busters. I use those commercial wire suet cages and fill them with homemade suet once week or so. Commercial suet works well too. I hang a few of them all over the run so they have to work to get the goodies out. The extra fat is good for them in winter anyway, so why not challenge them a little to access it? In summer I stuff them with melon, cut up apples - just about anything that won't slip right through the cage. They have a big log in the run. It's hollow, and it's place cut side down. They are always finding bits of missed scratch in the bark, and little bugs and such underneath. There are also two roosts in there - one swings and the other doesn't. They are placed in a long "V" shape and they go from one leg of the V to the other, balancing and bumping each other off much like lambs do when they play "King of the Mountain". They also bask in the sunshine there. I found two wrought iron shelves and wedged and wired them into the corners. They not only stabilize the hoop somewhat, they also give them a place to get up and survey their domain. And of course the people door to the run is open a lot during winter and out they go, even in the snow. I have some that hang back and are not going out there not now not nohow, but others run all over the place.

Deep litter in the run allows them to still "dust bathe". In the past I'd toss half a bale of straw in there and let them rip it apart, but I don't do that very often anymore. Straw is hollow and can harbor mites, plus it just doesn't break down the way plain old leaves do. I do use straw in the outside brooder pen for chicks because of it's superior insulating properties (it's still cold here when I get my chick order) and that does make it's way into the litter mix, but I can deal with a little bit - just not the quantity I had in there the first year. Now I just dump a big bag of leaves in the middle of the run once in awhile and let them have at it. They aerate the litter by scratching in it, it replenishes the litter, and keeps them very entertained. They also burrow into the litter when temps are harsh - mine do it all the time. They hollow out little spaces in the litter and then lay down in them, quite contentedly and instinctively letting their body heat warm the spot they've chosen. I put my hand in one of those hollows when one of the girls got up.....nice!!

All things taken equally, you HAVE to consider your comfort level when overwintering chickens. Are you comfortable with letting them function and thrive with their own natural protection and ability to see to their own basic needs? Are you willing to go out there yourself and open and close ventilation as the conditions warrant? Can you get power to your coop safely? (hubby is an electrician so that part was easy for me) Have you built a facility that functions as well in winter as it does in summer, with few twice annual modifications? What does your budget and your location allow? Winterizing isn't difficult.

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