Afraid of Winter

[chesterchicken]

I keep my chickens out in the backyard now and am devising a coop. I don't know whether I should build it in my garage or outside...I have an old wooden boat I could convert into a coop. But I am afraid with the many feet of snow we get here in the midwest, I may have frozen chickens one morning.

 

[canada-goose]

DON"T PANIC, I write in big, friendly letters. Give them a nice, solid, draft-free house and they'll do okay. Chickens are a bit tougher than they look.

 

[sparkles2307]

Quote:
I LOVE/ADORE/LIVE FOR Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy!!!

 

[JessHall]

Your chickens will be fine in the winter. Do some research on the breeds you're interested in, many times you can find out if they are cold hardy. Here is the link to My Pet Chicken's breed selection tool. You can check weather or not you need a chicken to be hardy in the winter
http://www.mypetchicken.com/breedQuestions.aspx

As far as your coop goes there are many things you can do. (I don't know from experience, I live in Southern California, but I've read lots of tips and tricks for your neck of the woods. ) You can build your coop so that the north facing wall is against a hill or you can stack hay bales against that side to protect it from intense cold. Another thing you can do is to put windows on the south side. It will warm your coop during the day. You need to cover those in the summer time however.
If I were you, I'd ask around BYC, there are lots of people who keep chickens through the winter! Write down all your ideas and use the ones that best suit your needs! Good luck!

 

[toletiquesbysam]

They need some sort of shelter and I don't know if the boat option is the way to go. I think you should work with a section of your garage if you have space and are willing. If you search you should be able to find others who have done this! I'm afraid of winter too, but that's me hauling fresh water out to my coop that is quite a ways from our house and has no electricity to it!! At least for you if you kept them in the garage....you wouldn't have those issues. Your main issue will be ventilation I believe.

 

[jhm47]

Here (just south of Fargo, ND), we have some pretty severe winters with a lot of snow. Our chickens do just fine. The most important thing is to keep them in a place that is draft free, and to have some way to keep their water from freezing. Feed them well with a balanced feed, and they will be just fine. Lots of people here will be happy to help you if you have any questions.

 

[fordmommy]

First....

And second, I don't know where you live, I am in central Wisconsin. Last year we got record high #'s of snow fall. OVER 88" of snow.

I had questions of what kind of coop to build too. If it would be warm enough, big enough, or too small. Should I insulate? Electricity? Should I have a heat lamp or not? Tons of questions.

Most of my questions were answered here. Hope it helps.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=216746

Here's a few more.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=216746
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=224259
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=225089

 

[ducks4you]

WE break up ice all winter at our place. Just check their water 2x a day. But, I know why you're worried. Here in Illinois we have the coldest July on record this summer! I have pumpkins turning orange 1 1/2 months early! I'm thinking an early and long winter. BUT, like was said above, DON'T PANIC!! ( Don't

)--thought I'd repeat myself in two languages, so you'd understand.

I spent the first few months on this site JUST looking and Coop Designs (look at the top of this page for the link.) Find something simple and adapt it to your boat. I REALLY want to see what a "Boat Coop" is gonna look like!! PLEASE post your pics, even if we don't see them until January, 2010.

 

[txchickie]

I am in NW Texas, where it gets both super hot and super cold! So lucky

haha

Anyway, one of my coops is a large pen made of welded square tubing and tin roof, covered with chicken wire, obviously. In the summer it's completley open with wooden dog houses inside for shelter, in the winter I stack about 15 bales of straw all around the outside all the way to the roof (not the doors, obviously

) and secure them by wiring them to t-posts set about 3ft in the ground. Last winter we had several snows/blizzards and everyone stayed nice and toasty. And it is WINDY here, the wind is horrendous. You want drafts kept out, wind gets under those warm feathers and they get chilled. At the same time they need ventilation for air to circulate and humidity to escape....crystal clear, right?

Now if I can just figure out how to get my free-range chickens to start coming back to the coops at night and not the trees, we'll be set for winter

 

[highcountrychickens]

You know, Chesterchicken, I live in the Rockies where it routinely goes to -30 and worse, and I haven't had so much as a frostbitten comb. We have a nice, insulated henhouse, and when it gets very cold we string a heat lamp in there, make sure the water doesn't freeze, and keep them in until the temperatures break a little. Generally speaking, they come and go as they like into the henhouse - we hung two pieces of heavy sort of canvas cut into strips (like the carwash) to cover the pop door to prevent too much cold air exchange...

If it's terribly cold for a long time, I'll make them some oatmeal with a few b vitamins to help with any stress - but that's really not necessary (it's far more for the chicken keeper than the chickens)

They'll do fine if you give them a bit of shelter -

Good Luck!