AnchorAGE Ak.

[laseterlass]

I had farm chickens growing up in OK. Now I have some baby buffies arriving next week. I drew up my own coop plans and it is coming right along. My coop is 4x4x2.5. I plan on litter composting and it will be a tight coop with ventilation at the roof line. ? is. I would like opinions on heat or not to heat. It gets to 20 below here. It is a dry cold. I purposely purchased chicks of a heavy feather, but just am not sure. Honestly my hubby will probably be trying to sneak them into the garage when it is real cold. But I would like to preven t that if possible.

 

[NonnasBabies]

&

from Louisiana

 

[what's kickin' chicken]

Hi

 

[Attack Chicken]

from Indiana!!!!

 

[Sierra pachie bars]

Hello and

from CaliforniA

.

 

[Desert Rooster]

Hello

from Hesperia,CA and

 

[Chicken.Lytle]

Welcome to BYC! You have come to the coolest place on the internet for chicken knowledge.

I started with chickens last summer and the people of BYC have been great. This year I have tried hatching and buying chicks for even more chickeny joy. Please visit my BYC Page for my blog links that you may find informative or amusing.

Chickens heat themselves. Focus on eliminating drafts (without causing undue humidity from lack of ventilation). You might consider a heated waterer for winter if you put water in the coop with them. At 4x4 your coop is good for about 4 chickens or less.

Please visit my Re-winterizing the Coop blog post (and coop expansion and Lytle screw ups and the weather outside is frightful).

 

[dawg53]

Welcome to BYC.

 

[MSDeb]

Welcome to BYC, glad you decided to join us. Good luck with your birds.

 

[gogoalie]

Welcome!

My birds made it through the winter, sans a reliable heat source (birds kept destroyin' the bulb in the heat lamp), & it wasn't that terrible of a winter, but, I did have the tractor I have, buffeted with snow, & the run was covered with visqueen. Keep good deep litter in your run & in the coop, in winter, & use the long side of a 2x4 for roosting, as the birds will perch & cover their feet with their bodies that way, you won't have too many problems.

If you can, put a nice lil' heat lamp, with a 125w red colored bulb, protected from them peckin' at it, & that'll provide them with enough warmth to make it through any winter here in Alaska.

If yer nestin' box is extended out of the coop, you may wanna find a way to keep the eggs & birds extra warm, throw a double layer of currogated cardboard down & that will provide insulation for them, & you should be able to line the walls with cardboard to suffice for insulation in the winter as well.

You'll need a heated water bucket as well, if you do a search, you can find one, with a plug in.