Hello from Long Island NY

[Wyandottes7]

LIChickens how much insulation, etc do you provide for your birds in the winter? My concern as it is starting to cool down is that they will feel the cold more than next year since they are still young and not as meaty as i think they will be when they are fully grown.

Welcome to BYC!

We're glad to have you.


I've had experience with cold winters and keeping birds through them. Here are some tips on keeping your chickens happy and healthy through the winter:

• Ventilation! Ventilation is one of the most important things in preventing frostbite in chickens and keeping them warm. You don't want drafts, but you do want ventilation. Make sure that your coop has some windows or cracks, even in the coldest climate. Do make sure to cover any cracks with hardware cloth, to keep out predators. One of the most common causes of frostbite is poor ventilation and humidity build-up.
• Draft-free enviroment. If you do have lots of ventilation, make it up high. My windows are several feet off the ground, so that the wind doesn't blow onto the birds when they roost. If your birds have a wire run, you can staple sheets of plastic on some of the sides, preventing cold winds from blowing on them. Put plenty of bedding in the coop to prevent drafts and cold air seeping up from the floor. Six inches, at least, of dry, fluffy litter like wood shavings and chopped straw is good.
• Plenty of water. It's going to be difficult to keep your chickens supplied with enough water unfrozen in the winter. You can put the waterer on heated platforms, use a heated dog water dish, or put a livestock water-tank heater in. Or, you can just make sure to bring them out warm water at least twice a day.
• If your breeds have large combs, it is sometimes helpful to put vaseline on them to prevent frostbite. I've used this before, with varying successes. In some cases, it seemed to work, but in other cases, all it seemed to do was cause a sticky mess on top of their heads.
• Heat. This is something that you do not want to do, in most cases. Heat lamps are a fire hazard. I've found that heat lamps often increase the liklihood of frostbite. They seem to increase the moisture around the bird's head, in my experience. Many people will tell you to put heat in your coop, but in the long run, you'll be much better off without any.
• Keep the coop dry. If bedding becomes wet (from melting slow, water getting in, etc), clean it out! Moisture causes frostbite and makes chickens colder.
• Feed a little corn or scratch grains before they go to roost. These foods are fatty and keep a chicken warm at night as it digests them. This may or may not be actually true, but it wouldn't hurt to give them some scratch. They sure enjoy scratching around for the treats!
• Don't worry too much! Chickens are built for cold weather. They have many insulating feathers. Your birds may have a slight disadvantage because they are young and not quite as fluffy yet. But, they should still be fine if you follow the above practices.

Hope this helps, and good luck with your chickens!

 

[LIChickens]

I would follow Wyandottes7's advice. It is not meat but feathers that keep a chicken warm and by the time it gets real cold, they should be fully feathered out. Most people skimp on ventilation. As the above post indicated, ventilation is a good thing but cold drafts are bad. The purpose of ventilation is to get rid of excess humidity and ammonia. While you need to provide adequate ventilation in a coop (1 sq ft of opening per bird although that sounds like a lot), you need to make sure that blowing snow does not get in.

I think the hardest part will be to keep the water in a liquid state. A lot of people swear by electric bird bath deicers that usually turn on when the temperature goes below 34 degrees so that they do not waste electricity in warmer weather. The problem with them is that some models overheat if not submerged completely.

 

[lily cd re]

Wyandottes7 and LIChickens thank to both of you for those good pieces of advise. I do have a heating platform for their water on order. I figured I would insulate the wire areas of the run under and next to their coop with house foam insulation sheets on the sides that will be most likely to get snow blowing. Their coop does have windows. I also really appreciate being reminded that feathers matter more than meat. Here is a picture of the coop before they moved outside. I since have moved the whole thing and added a fenced off run area adjacent to the outdoor run attached to the coop.