I need advice from people of the north!

[VT Chick-lit]

I live in north western Vermont, 5 miles from the Canadian border. I was able to keep the 4 standard size hens I had last winter happy in their hen house without electricity by useing solar gain to their advantage. The hen house is a converted 4 x 6 x 5 ice fishing shanty that we fully insulated with compressed foam insulation scavanged from neighbors construction projects. We also installed a reclaimed insulated window on the south side of the hen house. We put 2 vents in just below the roof on the East and West walls. The vents had floor vent covers from Lowes with a closeable louver which we could adjust. We also used duct tape over the vents when there was extreem cold and wind. Our pop door is a double door, with an outer and inner door. The attached run was covered in polycarbonate panels and 6 mil plastic, creating a "green house" effect during the day. The plastic also kept out the south wind.

We had a 5 day stretch where the temps went to -25 below at night. I do not do the deep litter method and wanted to be sure that the hens had additional warmth at night durin that cold spell so I used several 4 gallon jugs (from cat litter) filled with HOT tap water to bring up the temps in the hen house a little.

My hens had no problems with the cold here. The only thing I needed to be aware of is fresh, unfrozen water.

 

[Monk]

My coop design has winter as a piority(pics on my BYC page), gets cold here and lots of snow! The coop is well insulated all around and a south facing window. I do have electricity, for the waterer, a light bulb and a fan. The light bulb is on a timer to come on early in the morning. Basiclly to extend day light hours and take the edge off the early chilly morning hours a little.(100w) The fan is for a more draft-free ventilation, I seen a fan here on BYC and decided to try it??? My run is covered and well pitched for snow. I have plywood panels, that will be placed on the north and west sides of the run to keep the snow at bay and to provide the chickens with more outside time.
I have always gave my chickens scratch year round, but again I read here it raises the body temp up and wasn't recommened for the summer. I switched the to treats out of the garden and scraps from the house. This winter scratch and some greens.
Again its been -30° here and nothing but a light bulb, providing minimal heat, no problems. I'll be following this thread too, still learning all the time, hope this helps.

 

[TheBirdhouse]

Wow, this thread is fantastic. I live in northern ontario and it gets really cold here, ive been worrying for a while now of how im going to keep my chickens warm all winter and im glad to hear that just a simple 100w light bulb is all i need. The only thing im not sure of is i dont really want to keep my chickens cooped up all winter, but im not sure how they will handle deep snow? i get tons of snow here, do any of you let your chickens out in the snow to play?

 

[Judy]

Quote:
Definitely! Patandchickens talks about doing this.

 

[Imp]

Quote:
Some chickens will play in the snow. Some won't. Mine will not step in the evil white stuff. So they are coopbound at times. If I shovel a path, down to green, around the yard they will follow the path. I've seen them hop over snow to get to another patch of ground.
Once last winter they were playing in the compost when it started snowing. Within minutes the ground was white, and they refused to go back into the coop. That was the only time I had to carry the chickens back to the coop in the dark. Silly Hens. Lol
Imp- I'm glad we don't get much snow here.

 

[Ms~Silkie~Girl]

When it was cold we had one Heat Lamp, and in the storage area we had a mini heater thing, but winter was almost over with and it was like 30-50 degrees F. And i live in central new york and it gets REALLY cold so i think for winter this year i will need two heat lamps and the mini heater.

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
Yeah, but have you looked at your electric bill? YOu're wasting a LOT a lot of money on heating up those chickens to waaaaaaay beyond anything they possibly in any way shape or form need. Also probably underventilated (which itself is a risk factor for frostbite!), if you're able to keep the temps that high.

Seriously, do some reading and asking around abot the cold tolerance of chickens -- you have fairly cold-hardy breeds, you absolutely do not in any way need to be wasting all that electricity on them!!

No offense meant, good luck, have fun,

Pat