Feeding During Colorado Winter

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When I was growing up our chickens prefered to sleep in the trees beside the chicken house. It did not matter if it was raining/sleeting/snowing/blowing whatever they prefered the tree. We usually let them until a coon or something would get them at night. Then we would lure them into the house for a while every night with corn until the offending coon moved on. Then it was back into the tree. And it got COLD at night in the winter. 20 below was not unusuall. They just looked like big round balls lined up on the limbs.
 
As a previous poster said, its good to ahve activities for them to do inside. Not painting or coloring books
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They love food. Eating, searching, chattering about...FOOD. Best things I ever did for winter was to:

-hang a cabbage/brocolli/apples from the rafters...
-get a flock block....
-get a suet cage filled with greens for them to pull out....
-melons to mess with....
-sprinkle BOSS in their bedding for them to scratch around and find....
-treat balls that they have to move around to get goodies out...
-hang dried corn on the wall in a squirrel type feeder...
-make them warm mash/oatmeal in the morning...
-sprinkle dried meal worms/corn in the bedding...
-a box of sand in the corner for them to dust bathe in... (not food but they had great fun in it anyway
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)
-we even put a mirror in and some really liked it too!!

They loved it. And it kept them busy!! They are simple critters who are run by their desire and love for food lol When they choose to stay inside cos its just too cold, you need to keep them from finding bad things to get interested in like feather picking or bullying.
 
Quote:
Great ideas, thank you! I've made a note of it in my chicken folder. Two questions. Do you get un-shelled BOSS or can they get the shell off (that being part of the food activity)? I see you have seven birds. How big is your coop? It sounds like you have lots of space.
 
Quote:
Great ideas, thank you! I've made a note of it in my chicken folder. Two questions. Do you get un-shelled BOSS or can they get the shell off (that being part of the food activity)? I see you have seven birds. How big is your coop? It sounds like you have lots of space.

We have an 8x7' coop for them with a 10x12' run. They like either shelled or unshelled...but seem to prefer the unshelled. The grit and gizzard will take care of any shells etc. They seem pretty happy tbh....we are going to redo the whole coop next year so they have a bit more room and it will be a lot more ergonomic for me to clean and be in
smile.png
 
I didn't read all the replies, but I know that you want good ventilation because humidity can build up quickly in a coop, and cause frostbite on their combs and wattles, etc.
Not to mention air quality.
Chickens, once full grown, do quite well keeping themselves warm. You really don't want to have a stuffy, no air flow coop. It equals trouble.
 

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