If you don't insulate...how do you prepare for winter?

[BantyChooks]

I think you have covered most of what you can do to get ready for winter. Protect them from wind. Mine hate a cold wind. A warm summer wind or even a cool wind aren’t a problem but they don’t want to be out in a strong wind when it’s freezing or below any more than you do. A gentle wind movement, like the ”draft” you can get around a window or door in your house if it’s not sealed tight, is a good thing. That air movement doesn’t bother them any more than it bothers you and it helps get moisture out of the coop. It’s when that becomes a breeze that you can have problems.

Keep snow out of the run. When chickens wake up to a white world they generally won’t go out into it, they really don’t like change. After two or three days mine will but I have a large open area with grass for them to forage on the parts sticking out of the snow. Your run doesn’t have that so they have no reason to go out.

Another option after a snow is to shovel (not me but some people will do it) or put something on top of the snow for them to walk on. Straw, hay, wood shavings, dried leaves, pallets, wood boards, something like that.

Good ventilation, preferably up high so it doesn’t allow a breeze, is important. And dry is important. Your biggest risk in freezing temperatures is not that they will freeze to death but that they will get frostbite. They can easily get frostbite in a damp coop with temperatures just below freezing. In a dry coop they can handle temperatures well below freezing. Good ventilation with slight air movement helps get the moisture from their breath, poop, and any water out of the coop.

They do not need a warm spot, they need a spot where they can keep themselves warm with their down coat. That spot needs to be dry, ventilated, and out of the wind. That’s it, they can handle the rest.

I agree you do not need to add any more chickens to help keep them warm. If you decide to add more, wait until next spring or summer when you have better weather and they can spread out more. Looking at your other thread it’s quite possible you will experience some pecking order issues as that 6-week-old matures. You may be fine, you just don’t know how these things will go, but don’t complicate it by adding even more chickens.

Good luck!

X100

I live in the exact same climate as you. I do pretty much what RR says, and my birds are fine.

 

[junebuggena]

Yes, my first winter with chickens.
I was thinking that 4 wouldn't generate enough body heat to keep them warm on those crappy days.

Very common mistake. For some reason, people think lots of chickens, in a smaller coop, equals warm and cozy birds. They could not possibly be more wrong. The more birds you have, the more poop there will be, which means the more ventilation you need. It's a recipe for illness and disease, rather than warm and happy birds.

 

[Birdinhand]

the biggest difference for me has been adding windows for light during the darkest days surrounding solstice, otherwise my birds were laying zero eggs and still roosting at 10AM, then turning around at about 3pm to go back up. within days of adding the windows they went back to normal behaviors and lots of eggs. It doesn't get super cold here but being at sea level between two mountain ranges, the temps swing 30-40 degrees sometimes so I decided to insulate the inner coop/roost. the benefits of insulation are probably marginal and they pose a hazard, you must keep a much closer eye on ventilation if you are going to seal up the roost. Ammonia is a much bigger issue for birds than cold. to deal with this, I added vents with dampers. the heat from the birds rises and pushes air out the vents and draws air in through the door, it's kind of a passive heat pump. there should be no detectible smell of ammonia in roost area. with insulation, I have found some increase in egg production and some reduction in feed consumption, but I have not been scientific about this. again, the biggest change I've seen is with adding windows or you could add a light on a timer... light drives the hormones responsible for ovulation.

 

[Penny spender]

Thanks everyone for sharing your experience!

Another benefit of moving the coop to the side of the barn (besides wind break) is hydro. I plan to put a heated waterer out in the run, but I will look into lighting as well!

 

[Sublight]

I live in Ohio. We have about the same weather as you do there. Both of those breeds are cold Hardy birds. You won't need to insulate as long as your coop allows for them to not be in direct contact of wind. They will huddle together outta the wind to stay warm. Is your coop wood? If so, your ladies will be fine. Wood stays much warmer than metal in winter. If you're super worried about it you can stack bales of straw along outside wall of the coop to block to block wind

Love the bale of straw idea. If you have cows then you already have the hay bales probably.

 

[Lil' Chicky :)]

Omg!!! Love ur avvy!!!!!

 

[Penny spender]

Mine?? Thats Speckles! Meanest hairy-eyeball around! lol

 

[MigraineMan]

Just added a polycarbonate panel as a window to allow us to close-off the coop when it gets cold. The coop is open at the gable into the run, so there will be plenty of air exchange ... just no direct path for the wind to cut through (which is desirable in the summer.) Hopefully tomorrow I will have time to make some skirt panels to close up the under-the-coop run area so they have a sheltered outdoor space.