keep my chickens happy and warm in winter

[nchls school]

Lucky you.....I've gone days without power multiple times.
It's a real consideration for some folks.

I know what you say is true. Living in town has its drawbacks, but being close to a hospital, nursing homes, and a grocery store means having our electric repaired first when there is a problem.
Even when a tornado destroyed much of downtown my electric was back on in hours.

I still would have a heated coop if I lived in the country. But I have a small flock that would make it easy to bring into the house if I had to.

 

[DanEP]

The restored in hours thing is lucky. I live 6 miles out of town and my record is 18 days in Jan.

 

[sylviecolin]

we get ice storms in quebec in our winters. last time we no power for 5 days. it came back on christmas eve. i dont even know if we would be able to bring them inside our home for too long... we have 2 sons with asthma and we have 2 dogs...one is a huskey he would eat them. but we did make a back up plan in case we loose power for a while. i think it is ok that we all have diffrent ideas and care plans for our chickens. the good thing is that we are able to share what works and what doesnt. it gives us the chance to hear diffrent ideas and it helps.

 

[YayasChooks]

It gets so cold here I sometimes have to chip the neighbor's dog off my car tire so I can to to the store.

HAHAHAHAHA!!! You made me blow tea out my nose laughing!! And I hear ya there!! 13.5' of snow last winter (my first up here!) and even with no chooks to care for, I had to crawl out at 4AM in -50 degree wind chill to clear a heater vent.
I'm older than dirt & this was not fun I can tell you.

I hope you don't mind if I share your quote about the neighbors dog.

Stay warm & safe this winter! And thanks for the smile!

 

[Hokum Coco]

Should we lay down some wood shavings on the ground in their pen for winter so they dont get as cold Yes??
will they walk around in the snow as a rule NO? and will they be warm enough??

I am subject to -40º weather l live in Canada think North Pole. I have 65 trips around the sun and have been keeping chickens and birds for decades.

Your best practice I find is to not be too concerned about winterizing or heating your coop to help your birds combat the cold.

Predator proofing "ABSOLUTELY".

Your efforts should be spent in winterizing your birds and letting them acclimatize to their surroundings.
This is done by feeding them whole corn if available or cracked corn as an added supplement in a separate feeder.

The extra protein is more the adequate to bring them through the
"COLDEST" winter.

Do keep an eye open for birds that maybe not be adapting well to the new menu and may be at the lower end of the pecking order they can sometimes run into problems and may need extra TLC.

That being said in a perfect world the flock will flourish and do just fine .

I do not add any extra heat or lighting.
Egg production does slack off but I have more than enough eggs for the table all winter long (24 hens).

Some people may disagree with my method but it has worked well for me and I am not about to change.

I look at it in the same light as winterizing your car.

You really do

"NOT"


have to winterize your car if you can keep it in a controlled environment at all times otherwise you are in for

"MAJOR" problems.

 

[Blooie]

It gets so cold here I sometimes have to chip the neighbor's dog off my car tire so I can to to the store.

HAHAHAHAHA!!! You made me blow tea out my nose laughing!! And I hear ya there!! 13.5' of snow last winter (my first up here!) and even with no chooks to care for, I had to crawl out at 4AM in -50 degree wind chill to clear a heater vent.
I'm older than dirt & this was not fun I can tell you.

I hope you don't mind if I share your quote about the neighbors dog.

Stay warm & safe this winter! And thanks for the smile!

My pleasure! And feel free to use that line - I "borrowed" it from someone else years ago!

 

[sylviecolin]

my pets are more like our extra children so I think thats the biggest problem. We are always going to check how cold it is at night. colin even gets up and goes and turns on the lights for a bit to warm them up. we will have to stop that. I am wondering, we have a lot of rain right now then cold nights, that is mostly why we have been turning the light on so they can dry off so they dont freeze. we had a problem when we got some and they had lice.. so we have some chickens that their feathers are just grown back in. we have cow corn that we have been grinding up to feed them as an extra treat. and we give them left overs( sweet potatoes, squash, berries)

 

[Blooie]

my pets are more like our extra children so I think thats the biggest problem. We are always going to check how cold it is at night. colin even gets up and goes and turns on the lights for a bit to warm them up. we will have to stop that. I am wondering, we have a lot of rain right now then cold nights, that is mostly why we have been turning the light on so they can dry off so they dont freeze. we had a problem when we got some and they had lice.. so we have some chickens that their feathers are just grown back in. we have cow corn that we have been grinding up to feed them as an extra treat. and we give them left overs( sweet potatoes, squash, berries)

The first question that popped into my head was, "Why are your chickens getting so wet in the first place?" Yes, I understand that's it's been raining. But to keep chickens warm, the first rule is to keep them dry. That means their bodies and their housing. How are they getting so wet that you have to go out at night and turn on lights to dry them out, and how do lights help with that process? If your hair is wet does turning on the light in a room dry it any faster?

I raise chicks outside from the beginning. They are in a pen in the run, even with temps in the teens and twenties. They have no light of any kind except sunlight during the day and moonlight during the night - they have nothing for heat but a straw covered heating pad cave. But they were dry, and they were out of the wind, the two key elements to allowing them to stay warm. And right now I have several chickens who are darn close to bald from molting. But their shelter is adequate and protects them from strong winds and snow or rain. They will feather in, and they'll be fine during the process.

I guess my point is that food and lights are not going to help wet chickens much, nor will it keep humidity from building up in the coop. They release humidity into the air when they breathe, when they poop, and if their waterer is in the coop more is released into the air that way. Add wet or damp feathers and it's a recipe for massive discomfort and the very real possibility of frostbite.

Now, it could be that I read more into your post about your chickens needing to be dried off than is actually the case. In that case I offer my apologies for jumping to conclusions. However, if your goal is healthy chickens, I would think the first thing to do is to figure out how and where your flock is being exposed to rain and correct that.

 

[aart]

Quote: But many chickens prefer to stand out in the rain....even when they have shelter available...good bug hunting.
I know several of mine do...and appear bedraggled at roost time, but I once stuck my hand under those wet outer feathers, and the skin was warm and dry. I don't worry about it, they can do what they want as far s the rain goes.

 

[sylviecolin]

we keep them in when the weather is bad, but we have huge worms here and some really love hunting them. i didnt know it was a problem. and we dont always have to put the lights on. we just check on them often to make sure they are ok. i posted up pictures of our coop and how we winterized it if you'd like to check.