free range in winter?

[patandchickens]

Quote:
One thing that would help the chickens stay warmer would be to put in a drop ceiling of some sort on the chicken part of the structure, so they don't have to heat such a large space and so the heat doesn't rise *so* far above chicken level

leave the heat lamp on for the water so it does not freeze...should that be ok?..

That's an incredibly expensive and inefficient way to keep water from freezing. (Heat lamps suck down a vast amount of current). You would be *much* better off, IMO, just using a heated waterer or heated waterer base.

If the chickens still get awfully cold (I don't know what climate you live in?) you can box in a smaller area for them to roost in; and/or run a regular (not heat) lamp above their roosts.

Have fun,

Pat​

 

[redkan]

Quote:
Except for the first year when we only had two chickens, our chickens have always been in a converted stall with the horses (and now two goats) as their only heat source ... and since the barn is 32 X 42 with 11' ceilings I don't think the other critters are doing much by way of heating it up. One thing to remember, humans tend to think of these things in our own terms, humanize their needs if you will. Birds of various sizes survive all our winters with significantly less in the way of food, shelter and water than what we provide our much larger chickens. As long as you're sensible about it your chickens will most likely be fine with whatever you vbfggggggggggggggg?>"XZC/. (sorry, that was a passing cat

) decide to do.

 

[Dar]

thanks Pat....

where would I get a heated water dish? I didnt see them at TSC (my local farm supply)...is something like this a special order item?

 

[Chickenaddict]

Quote:
Any pet store would carry them also walmart and menards but usually the feed supply stores have things like that

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
Well, it's barely August

By this Fall they will start showing up there. Or you can get a larger selection online (Jeffers, Murray McMurray, etc etc etc). Your basic choices are either 1) heated dog bowl, 2) heated bucket, 3) heated metal base on which you put your regular galvanized metal waterer, 4) homemade version of same, or 5) plastic waterer with heater element built into base.

Have fun,

Pat

 

[americana-chick]

i always let my chickens free range, even in the winter. but of corse if they get too cold they always have that nice worm coop to go back to. but then there is frost bite, one of my roos got frost bite on his comb but it grew back.

get inside that dang chicken coop!

 

[RockyToggRanch]

Is it safe to use a heated bucket? I was told that chickens could drown in a bucket. I used a heated dog bowl last year when I only had 2. They made a horrible mess of it daily. This year with 21, I will get something larger and more contained. One less trip to the barn in waist deep snow will be worth the investment.

 

[Chickenaddict]

I use a heated dog bowl i bought at walmart for about $20. It is plenty big for the 15 chickens i had last winter and held almost 3 gallons of water. I still however changed it daily just because they tend to kick hay in the dish but none even thought about hopping in it therefor no one drown.

 

[SandraMort]

How much water do I need to leave for them? If I'm checking the water bowl twice a day, morning and evening, how much do I need to have for each bird? A cup, a pint? I'm thinking three dozen birds, ish. Also, what about ducks? They need deeper water, so do I want a heated bucket and several shallower containers for the chickens?

 

[Chickenaddict]

I think if you had 3 heated dog bowls that held about 2 1/2 gallons of water would be enough. I had 1 to 15 chickens but they also had 1 non heated gallon size waterer in the coop along with a heat lamp and it worked great kept the girls warm when they wanted to be and kept the water from freezing in -40 temps . Pretty much everyday no matter how cold it was they went out in their run in the morning and didn't return until it was time for bed. Keep in mind their run was covered in tarps on either end, the front was covered in really thick clear plastic so the sunlight would shine in and the back was up against our house so the run could still "breathe" but protect from the high bone chilling winds we get.