Getting ready for winter! What do you guys do?

[chickfamilyonsleepyhollow]

Its our first winter with chickens ... It gets cold here in New England and after much debate

we've decided not to heat the coop and will use the DLM with lots of pine shavings - now with that said I may change my mind and use some type of heat if it gets too cold out there and I start losing sleep

we closed up the windows and haven't haven't had any damp/draft problems

Our biggest dilemma is figuring out a way to keep their water from freezing

we may try the christmas lights in a tin idea

 

[Terri O]

I have lots to do to get ready for the winter here...I have been working on it for a few weeks 'cause I do it all myself. Today I got a good start on a new little coop for some of the overflow from my big coop. Last week I got a bachelor pad made in my barn and got 15 roos moved in. I have located all the extension cords for the water tin heaters and replaced light bulbs in them. Today I stapled plastic sheeting over the windows and feed bags over the wire venting on the inside walls.
I still have to convince the turkeys and guineas that they will be much warmer inside on the rafters during the nights...they are still roosting in the trees!
So much yet to do...Terri O

 

[pwand]

I bought a heated dog dish. That works really good.

 

[patandchickens]

Oh yes, forgot that -- eventually I rustle up my heated waterers and say "crud! I have two more pens going than I did last winter!" and race out to Walmart in hopes that the last heated dogbowls have not been sold

Pat

 

[LynneP]

In case someone has not seen what those waterers are like:

We place ours in a stock bowl to keep the hens' bottoms on the outward circumference!

(don't use for chicks, they are too deep)

 

[TinkleTurkey]

we just moved and when we built our pens, we didn't notice that the properly has a very slight slope... so when it pours, a river runs straight through the cages! So I had to dig a huge trench to re-route the river. Its easy to forget that it rains in southern california sometimes

 

[HeritageHens]

I covered the north and west exposure hardware cloth with heavy 4 mil plastic sheeting. It is doing a great job of keeping the rain out of the coop. However, tonight I'm really getting worried about a small pond near the coop as it is getting very close to overflowing the banks. In the 5 years I've been here, the thing has never even been close to filling up due to natural water fall. And then I read this tonight on a local site:

Rainfall in Portland throughout September and October was 62 percent higher than average....The heavy rainfall and snow were expected to continue throughout winter, due to a La Niña weather pattern. That pattern has not yet had an effect on the area.

I may be bailing that pond periodically this winter or buying some sand bags.

 

[7L Farm]

Probably nothing.

 

[Toast n Jelly]

Quote:
I'm assuming that your coop is straight on the ground, I would lift it up on a pallet or blocks to keep it dry even with your gutter system.

 

[Mrs. Fluffy Puffy]

Go to the "Managing Your Flock" section and go to the "How to Prepare Your Flock For Winter Official Thread* - Lots of good advice.