Keeping chickens warm in Minnesota winters

[farmer90]

It's a good topic for a first year chicken keeper who's reaching towards their first winter. Tbh I'm worried about them. I use this old thread to ask some advice.

My setup: I have a movable coop+small run. In summer time I move it along the fresh grass. According to chatGPT, suitable for max 6 chicken, I have currently 4. In winter I want it to move to my greenhouse.

So my winter setup will be: the movable coop they can spend the nights. (Small, made of wood, lifted from the ground). + The greenhouse, mostly made of plastic. The outside temperature average here is -15 degrees in Celsius. Might have some cold spells, about -25 degrees in Celsius.

All my friends and family say that my chicken won't make it through the winter in this setup. I also found another thread from this forum including a YouTube video, where a Canadian shows his setup, where his chicken live happily in those tepms and even lay eggs, even though they freeze solid.

Also asked from chatGPT. According to it, my chicken will do fine but their feet and combs will get cold damages.

In the middle of this controversial information, I would really appreciate the advice of seasoned chicken keepers.

 

[Mrs. K]

Neg 25 celcius is -15ish Farenheit. In my own personal coop, mine have come through perfectly fine at -35 F. Much colder, but I do have a mostly arid climate. It is helpful when asking advice to add an area of where you live. Different climates equal different advice.

People worry about cold. But look around you, are there not tiny birds that live there all winter.

Really instead of worrying about cold, what you really need to worry about is moisture. When one worries about cold, the reaction is to close up the coop tightly, to keep the heat in, but what happens is you keep the moisture in.

Think of being in a car in the winter with people and the car is not running. Almost immediately, the windows fog up, moisture collects on cooler surfaces. THAT is what you want to avoid to keep chickens warm. Dry chickens are warm chickens.

Ventilation is of up most importance, and I wonder about your greenhouse - can you open that up near the top? To let the warm air, laden with moisture out of the run?

Frostbit is a real problem, but it tends to worry people more than it worries chickens. Oddly enough, I do not have trouble with frostbite in very cold weather. I will get frostbite, after it has been bitter cold, and then warms up to above freezing, and that night drops again, - that is when combs will get nipped.

What I finally figured out, was in the cold, the manure collects on the floor, but it is frozen solid - hence dry. Then I get a warm day, everything melts - snow, ice, manure - and releases that moisture in the air. That night, the temp drops dramatically and I will have chickens get bit. Now, the moment (I am retired) it warms up, I haul out the old bedding on the floor and add new dry bedding. Helps a lot.

If you do get frostbite, it generally is not life threatening. Certainly not to young and healthy birds. Leave it alone. It will heal up on its own. Touching it with anything causes more damage.

So look at the ventilation in your coop - More is better, especially in the cold weather. Do add a lot of dry bedding to the floor, once a week top the bedding with scratch, and the birds will tear apart the manure clumps with scratching, drying them out. When you get a warm up, pull that solid bedding out. Add more dry, or some people just add dry on top.

Protection from the wind - check the movement of air in the coop. A fluffed up hen out of the wind is warm. They produce a lot of heat. I also like a roost that runs more kitty corner, or as a hypotenuse to the coop. This moves birds away from the wall, where moisture collects. And I like and have 15 inches from the tops of their heads above to the ceiling. Moist air rises, and you need space for that to get away from your chickens.

I hope this helps.

Mrs K

 

[farmer90]

Thank you so much for the great information, Mrs K! Much appreciated.