Eggs in Winter

[Beekissed]

I only gather in the evenings here and haven't encountered any frozen eggs, despite many days of below freezing weather. I keep plenty of hay in the nest boxes and my gals usually all lay in the same nests, so the eggs get plenty of warm butts to keep them from freezing throughout the day.

 

[woodmort]

Actually an egg will hold temperature for a reasonably long time once the hen has left the nest but at times in the winter the interior temp of my coop can drop below zero during the day. If not gathered the eggs will freeze in an hr or so. I suspect a lot will depend on where you live, how cold it gets, the coop size and number of birds keeping the temperature up.

 

[scarter]

I suspect that some of the issue I have is we do not have an insulated coop. It's made purely of pallets, bare bones.

 

[Beekissed]

Quote:
Not to worry, mine is bare bones with cracks between the boards. Its ancient and leans like a drunken sailor! I call the cracks my "adequate ventilation"....

 

[bburn]

LOL.....cracks are adequate ventilation.

Mine is made from the corragated tin from a barn that fell down! Well, it is framed out first. This will be my first winter we will see how it goes. I am in Arkansas and we do get cold weather....no like up north. But it does get cold here. All my birds are good for the part of the country we are in.

We shall see. I would be concerned however if we lived up north.....but people are giving advice from experience from there!

 

[scarter]

LOL! Yep, I'm not sure why we felt to need to actually put venting up top! I do like ours though and would build it again. I just would like to not worry about the cold although we have our original girls except one that got taken by a preditor. Going on our third winter here. The baby monitor might be a good idea for us to know to get out there in the next hour.

 

[greenmulberry]

I have frozen eggs occasionally because I cannot collect until I get home from work, which is about 6pm. I also have external nestboxes which i am sure doesn't help.

But it does have to be pretty darn cold for the eggs to freeze, like 5F or colder during the day.

 

[Rachel'sFlock]

Quote:
Not to worry, mine is bare bones with cracks between the boards. Its ancient and leans like a drunken sailor! I call the cracks my "adequate ventilation"....

That's awesome. Mine is just about the same level of drunkenness, and "adequate ventilation", but we live in a very temperate climate, and their breed is cold-tolerant, genetically. Hoping all that fluff will keep them warm and snug during the drippy gray winters we have (that last for about 8 months) here in the Pacific Northwest.

Bright Blessings!