Looking for Winter Advice- What do you wish you had known

[2manyhats]

Chickens are pretty hardy. I live in central NY which is a bit colder than where you are. I agree about not keeping the coop too warm; it's worse for the chickens. Just listen to AK and they'll be fine.

 

[leslie]

water bowl heater????
can a water bed heater be adapted for keeping water from freezing..? also what a bout a slow cooker?
does any one know how to "set" the thermostat to a lower setting to keep it from getting too hot?

also does anyone have any ideas on the water bed heater as a heat pad for a dog house?
i have several in my storage house from the years when all my kids had to have a water bed.. since i throw away nothing, I have plenty to play around with.

seems like a surely good idea to me..

also I cannot get the difference in ventalitation and drafts into my head.
I can insulate the coop.. keep the cold air out.. i can do that. but then where do i make the holes to let the vented air in?
as someone said earlier seems this contradicts......
where is a good place to put the holes? would the entrance hole at the bottom of the coop be enough ventaliation. its 12 by 12 inches. does it need a duplicate on the other wall. and would that n ot make a "wind" thru the coop?
i also stashed away several old electric skillets.. can these be adapted to keep water from freezing over.?

My grandma 's chickens roosted in the trees all winter.. were covered with snow on mornings of snow fall. she said she never gave it a thought that was what chickens do. she said she never lost one. tennessee.. gets cold here.. freezes a few days at a time sometimes.
leslie

 

[Reinbeau]

Quote:
As I've said many times, think of the chickadee, or any other wild bird in winter. Chickens have many times the thermal mass, several pounds compared to 1/3 - 1/2 ounce! The tiny chickadee lives outdoors through everything winter can throw at us. Your birds will be fine. Keep away drafts, yet provide enough ventilation to avoid moisture buildup, and keep their water from freezing and they'll do just fine.

 

[cajunlizz]

Quote:
I live in South Louisiana , and I really don't need to worry about ICE & SNOW like most of you do , BUT , proper ventilation is a MUST . BUT would do not want cross drafts ( like east and west openings . We have the sides of our coop that can open up like wings , BUT we can close as needed . Along the top we also have wire that is always open for ventilation . So , we open as needed . DO NOT HAVE A CROSS WIND ...( DRAFT )

 

[ozark hen]

Quote:
As I've said many times, think of the chickadee, or any other wild bird in winter. Chickens have many times the thermal mass, several pounds compared to 1/3 - 1/2 ounce! The tiny chickadee lives outdoors through everything winter can throw at us. Your birds will be fine. Keep away drafts, yet provide enough ventilation to avoid moisture buildup, and keep their water from freezing and they'll do just fine.

This cannot be said better than above. This should be sticky!

 

[simba49450]

i live in michigan too and straw is one of the best things to use when it comes for warmth that and mixing cracked corn in thier laying mash. pine bedding doesnt have the same affect and straw generates heat while pine bedding doesnt. i have had round perches for mine and never had any probs with frostbite or them being cold. true straw gets messy but with a plain 75-100 watt lightbulb, straw and the feed mix everyone stayed cozy and never went out. i found that it works the best for me

 

[swampducks]

Quote:
A draft is when air goes where you don't want it.

Ventilation is a good draft. Heat rises, this is why houses have ventilation in the attic, through the roof or gable ends, otherwise nasty things can happen like condensation at one end of the spectrum or overheating at the other.

You don't want drafts flowing onto the chickens so generally ventilation holes would be at a point higher than the birds' heads. It doesn't have to be a huge number of holes, and you can have a temporary covering for them in case of blizzard.

Leaving the entrance hole at the bottom open could be an invitation to predators and it does nothing to dissipate heat at the top. Plus, to have good ventilation you need you need 2 openings for air flow.

I live in northern MI, it can get to -20 at night. My coop is not insulated, it will have a heated water dish. The only time I will turn on the heat lamp is if the interior of the coop gets VERY cold, below 20 or perhaps 10 (this is my first winter so I'm experimenting). I'm getting a thermometer so I can tell when this happens.

PS - There's an article in a previous month of Backyard Poultry about using a slow cooker base for a water heater.

 

[Gazinga]

great post, i was going to wrap a trp around my coop to help cut down wind and retian some heat in for the girls, as well as the heated water bowl and heat lamp for the freezing nights

 

[Renigeid]

I live in Georgia with moderate winters. Most days are above freezing. My house is 12 ft x 15 ft and is insulated with two large windows. One on the north side and one on the south side. I leave the windows open (open area 12" x 40" ) open both winter and summer except on extremely cold nights (20degrees F) for ventilation to keep dampness from building up. I believe humidity (high) and drafts are the biggest danger to your birds. I also use hay on the concrete floor which is very easy to clean out every couple of weeks. Keeps the poop from getting stuck to the concrete. My run (15 ft x 30 ft) is just a dirt run so I have to put up with mud sometimes outside. The hay cleans their feet when they go inside. I keep water outside and inside. If the water outside freezes, the inside is usually still liquid.

Good morn 'all. Jim

 

[NMbirds]

Thanks for all the good ideas on wintering. We live at 6000 feet in the mountains, have plenty of snow and cold weather but I do not anticipate problems if there is ventilation (no cross draft, I get that) and water that doesn't freeze through keeping it thawed. Also I read on here somewhere that straw is NOT a good idea as it can house mites in the hollow core of the strands of straw, so no straw in my coop. Or maybe mites can't live in the winter? Diotomaceous earth, maybe as part of the floor material? At any rate, thanks for all the suggestions. I especially endorse the idea of passive solar for daytime collection of heat that is then released at night.