Live in a Very Cold Winter area? Post link to your personal page here!

[LynneP]

Sorry to hear about your golden campine...and I agree with both of you that examining how folks in the most severe zones helps us, because occasionally all of us face extremes. I've learned a lot from Pat and from Tori (Mrs. AK-Bird-Brain).

 

[freerange freaks]

Thanks for bringing this topic up Pat. I am always on the look out for new ideas on how to best manage my coop in the winter.

This is what I do. First I choose breeds that are best suited to my climate. At the moment, I have Chanteclers, Buckeyes, Wyandottes, EEs, and Dominiques. None have single combs and all are standard, well feathered and good winter layers.

I do not heat my coop but I do provide additional lighting from 5am to 10pm. The hardest part of keeping chickens comfortable is keeping the humidity down. Although the temps here are below freezing from early Nov through end of Mar, I always keep my coop open. Keep air moving to help keep out the moisture.

I run into problems if there is a warm spell. All the poop that has been frozen for months all thaws at the same time releasing unacceptable amounts of ammonia. I then turn on my fan to try to ventilate the coop and move air faster.

I sprinkle scratch on the shavings every morning to encourage the hens to keep the litter turned.

As for water, I bring out fresh water in the morning and by supper it is frozen. I bring out a second waterer at supper and bring the first one in the house to thaw so it is ready to go back out in the morning.

I'll try to get pics today.

 

[vermontgal]

Thanks, Freerange F. for bringing up Chanteclers - I hadn't considered them as a breed, but after reading up on them, I think I may try them along with Wyandottes in the spring.

 

[nerfy]

I would love to hear any info and ideas about keeping chickens in colder climates. Thanks to all who have posted their tips and methods.
I am looking forward to reading and learning more.
This is one of the main reasons I joined this group. Always learning something new about chickens, and then some.

 

[snowydiamonds]

I started w/RIR's as a hardy cold weather breed. I added BO's as they are listed as well but I'm finding their combs are too large, especially my roo's comb! I then added GLW's but neglected to keep in mind even if they were young and dumb roo's I should have kept one of those instead of the Andalusian as his comb & wattles are far too large for our cold weather (4b type).

The geese haven't wanted to walk or be outside today as it was 19 below zero farenheit last night and got up to ? today (still too cold for their feet). The goose barn is not insulated nor heated, I use an electric heated water bowl (for dogs) as a base and fill a bucket that sits in the heated dog bowl. Had to do this as the low bowl doesn't work for ducks and geese, they just want to bathe in it.

The chicken coops are insulated and the water containers have a heat lamp to keep the water from freezing and provide light except when its cold like today. I exchanged those heat lamps for 13 watt energy saving bulbs that provide a tremendous amount of light and turned on the sealed, oil filled electric heaters on low to keep the combs & wattles from freezing.

My BO has frostbite on three points from last night so I should have kept an eye on the temps outside. The Andalusian roo has one point frostbit. I placed the water containers (plastic coffee cans) near the heaters and will manually turn off and on the light while its this cold.

I'll have to watch the temps outside and in the coops while watching the combs/wattles and may just turn off the lights and turn up the heaters because 14 eggs froze today before I collected them.

I'm not saying its colder here than anywhere else, but I do not appreciate allowing my roosters to suffer by my neglect even if I was the person in the kitchen all day. I should have checked last night before retiring for the evening even though I'd taken care of everything and it all seemed fine yesterday morning...the temp just kept dropping and I wasn't paying attention

The Black EE's don't seem to have a problem at all, they have a small insulated coop w/Eastern and Southern plexiglass windows for light and solar heat. Their water is below a heat lamp. The deep litter method works best here. It seemed too harsh to keep the ducks out in their uninsulated coop with no electricity today so I put them in with the Black EE's and will see how that goes...

The bantams are set up just as the other chicken coops but have an Eastern double paned plexiglass window for solar heat and light, the sealed electric heater on low and I am using a 25 watt lightbulb in their coop so the perch area and nesting box area are not brightly lit. I also have to be wary of overloading the fuse box/outlets with all these coops and the outside deck light, plugging in the truck.

In the banty coop I've got two more Andalusian's (hens) and I'm thinking any breeds LF or bantam cannot safely live here w/large single combs without heat so am looking at a revision of what I thought would be good, hardy cold weather breeds.

I am thinking rosecombs would be better, plump body shapes, possibly RIW's that I don't yet have, GLW's that I do have but no roo yet, and I like the bantam W's, too, Plymouth Rocks in LF and bantam, the RIR's in LF & bantam but breed for smaller combs and breed out the taller combs. Yet, I'm in love w/the D'Uccles and Silkies so those are the "hobby" breeds.

I've got to insulate the remaining coops asap this Spring while enlarging the pop doors for the geese. I'm also going to plan on getting a lot of straw bedding before next winter and stacking those bales for added wind and warmth insulation. I did not allow enough ventilation in my roll around coop (built on a trailer) the BO's are in and cannot decide if N/S or E/W should be ventilated as we do have a very harsh wind chill factor.

For the first time in my 53 years of life, I'm thinking the short hair weims, the chickens and I need to move a bit southward, get some sheep and live where we can grow some wonderful veggies in more than 3 short month's time when it sometimes snows and freezes here in July.

There are also a lot of good deals on Craigslist anywhere else than in Alaska...free geese in OR, buy a horse for $300 dollars...free ducks, too, and green grass lawns, not frozen rock or frozen sand/snow. Its like living on the moon here.

 

[luvmygirlsinAK]

I must say it has been quite interesting reading this thread, I am interested in any help I can find on keeping my girls warm this winter. This is my first winter with them, and so I am quite worried about the severe winters here in the interior of Alaska. Last year it was 55 below zero F. for 2 weeks straight, and they say we're supposed to have a colder winter this year. I know that Torie says not to worry so much about them, and that it has been 40 below out her way before, but since I have seen it get 72 below, and a couple of times 80 below, I don't know whether the electric oil filled radiator style heater will keep their coop warm enough in such severe weather. We started out with only 4 chickens, and then added 7 doves, and 20 quail, and 2 more chickens to the flock in the one roomed coop, which hopefully will help with their body heat. (No huge mansion like Tories, just a cute country coop, but since we really got bit by the bug-who knows what's in the future!) The coop is 9x9 ft. and made with 2x6's with double foam board insulation. Right now we keep the temp at 50 degrees. Any colder, and I don't want to go out and spend time with them, and it is something I love to do. We very rarely have power outages in the winter thankfully, and not much wind. North Pole/Fairbanks area is classified as a desert, (although you sure wouldn't have known that last summer with all the rain we had!) so it is not a damp cold, but yes, it is true that at 50 below, you can throw a steaming hot cup of coffee in the air and it will freeze in the air before it reaches the ground! I believe that we are in zone 1 if I remember correctly. If anyone has any ideas for keeping my babies warm this winter, particularly since it has been predicted by a number of sources that this will be an unusually cold winter this year, I would love to know!! (already the newscaster's have said that we've been way below normal temperatures for this area for a couple of months now, although it has warmed up some now) I'm a worry-wart mom, that's for sure!!! I have images in my head of bringing them inside the house when it gets really cold!! I don't think that would work too well!!! I think there is someone else in the North Pole area in this group, I would LOVE to hear from you how you do it!!! (somehow, I doubt that you bring them inside the house when the weather is frighteningly cold!)

 

[wannahavehens]

Thanks so much for all this good info.

 

[snowydiamonds]

Welcome fellow Alaskan! I was in North Pole for my junior year of high school and it was one of the coldest winters that year!

I think the oil sealed/filled heater will do it, just turn it on high when its that cold and use a heat lamp over the water container or place the water container up higher than halfway to the celing. I've got my banty coop water on top of the nesting boxes and the lightbulb is only a 25 refrigerator bulb with their heater near the pop door that is not going to be open any time soon.

A friend of mine has her coop combined w/half the area being the sheep barn so that puts a lot of heat and she doesn't provide any heat or light at all. I was just out there to her place the day before Thanksgiving to bring her birds straw and long shredded paper and borrow a bag of feed. Only one bag of my order has arrived today so I'm in heaven! Wish we had a feed store here!

NY'r pic of chickens in the snow...great pic, my youngest and I were in NY in 2006 and its very similar weather to ours here in NW Alaska! Mine won't set their toesies in the snow right now but I think they will once it warms up here and there come Spring! They'll be desperate for sun bathing by then.

ADDED: Be aware you'll have to collect eggs at least twice a day as I had 14 frozen and cracked the other day when I was busy cooking the holiday meal...unless the coop is warm enough to prevent that!

 

[magsrags]

I am enjoying this thread being a first time winter chicken mom. I won't put in heat. I want to go the way nature intended if possible.

So far deep bedding is working fine and a secure & draft free coop.

Wondered if I should insulate or really wrap in plastic...or use hay bales. I might go with hay around the outside if the winter turns fierce. I
I am in the most southern part of NY and we can get bitter cold/snow. hasn't been too bad in a few years now..... but Murphy's law tells me now I have chickens.....I might be in for a run for my $$.

 

[luvmygirlsinAK]

We actually did think about building the coop with room on one side for the sheep to help with heat, but decided against it, as I wasn't sure if I could handle the smell! Although they sleep in a semi enclosed 3 sided area right up next to the coop, don't know if that provides any extra heat or not. I hope turning the electric heater all the way up does it when it really gets cold, I know our furnace in the house runs non-stop when it gets down to 50 to 60 below, and that's with a furnace that is made for a much larger house! Well, I guess it will be interesting to see how it goes. Right now, I'm just thankful the coop is very well insulated to help keep the electric bill down. So far it hasn't been that bad, but it hasn't been colder than 20 below yet.