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

[Montana-Hens]

1. Insullation makes everything easier.
2. Ventilation makes frost bite less likely. Though when you are far north it is hard to find that right winter balance.
3. Lots of Straw/shavings what have you on the floor.
4. clean your poop board daily! Poop is moisture.
5. I personally find deep litter is frozen litter this far north and with high altitude.
6. Heated water bowls are gifts from the Gods. I keep mine up on cinder blocks and have no problems with the litter on the floor, poo etc.

I don't use supplmental heat or light(my coop has one window). When it gets -20 or more and the winds howl the ladies want the poop door open to put their heads out, but stay in all day. So I only open it part way for an hour or two when it is that cold.

Good luck!

 

[Sanguine]

THANKS TO EVERYONE who posted re: winter care of chickens. Mine got through fine, the next problem is the rooster pulling out all their feathers!

 

[sunflowerenvy]

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you should a make new Post new topic

 

[Germaine_11.20]

No time to read thru to see if this was mentioned but water is JUST as important in winter as summer heat. Fresh water always.

 

[Ema]

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I ive in northern ontario canada and my husband and I will be trying the popcan heaters in a couple weeks. you can make it at home and I have several people around here that have already tried them and swear they work great. look up pop can heaters or popcan furnace on yahoo or google, you can see some videos on youtube aswell. green energy!!! the lady down the street has them on her chicken, rabbit and duck coops on the roof she made them for real cheap and she only has them working in the winter, she says her animals stay warm.

 

[woodmort]

I'm new on here--but not to over wintering chickens--and just read through the 2 years worth of suggestions. The area where I live gets about 100 inches of snow and we can get to 20 below. Normally we'll go through stretches in January where the temperatures don't get above freezing for a week or so. I've gotta couple of things to add.

A well insulated coop is the first step but not completely airtight--I have double hung windows that I open a inch or so at the top plus under the eave ventilation. I sited my coop where it is in a bunch of trees which shelter it from the worst wind but allow enough winter sun to get through the windows. (This was more or less a lucky accident as this spot just happened to be an ideal distance from the house.)

I use metal waterers with a galvanized heater underneath set up on bricks. After losing one of these heaters to mouse damage I make sure the layer of bricks is extensive enough to cover the bottom of the heater--it is a nice warm place for a mouse nest. I have settled on a 5-gallon waterer--I used a 8-gallon one but found the heater was not sufficient to keep the top 4 or 5 inches ice free. I know there are some plastic models that they claim can be used on the heater but, after having one partially melt, I wouldn't use one. Likewise using any kind of immersible heater would be unwise as the depth of water may fall below the heating element--a fishtank heater would be nuts.

I never remove any manure after about October but, on occasion, during the winter will add more pine shavings and a bit of composted plant container "dirt" to make sure good composting is taking place--I deep litter the coop year round. While I'll have frost on the inside of the windows and an occasional frozen egg, the manure under the roosts never freezes so it is, apparently, generating heat. I also keep a deep amount of oat straw in the nest to insulate the eggs. I've found shavings don't work as well for this.

Finally, and most importantly, make sure you have enough birds. I have about 144 sq ft of space inside my coop that comprises two rooms one 8 X 12 the other 4 X 12. I would never try to overwinter less than 15 - 20 birds in that space and when I've had close to the lower number have found they prefer to roost huddled together in the smaller room. While that isn't recommend floor space for a flock that size, it works in the winter. In the summer they're out and about enough that the small space is fine for overnight. I've found they will go outside most days in the winter if the snow isn't too deep or it isn't to cold and I'm will to trudge down there to open the hatch.

BTW, if I were to do it over the only thing I'd have done differently would have gotten a reliable water source to the coop. Once the weather gets cold I have to haul water, not my favorite job, so I keep 2 5-gallon waterers going and try to top them off every day to minimize the work.

 

[sunflowerenvy]

ok have a question How low of temperature can my birds go to in the winter monthes ?without a heaterr in southern tenn last yr it got down to 9 above zero
my birds are 2 hen silver campine,2 hen buff Orpington,3 hen n 1 roo who is disability Australorp /Cochin mix, 2 hen Leghorn in an 8x12 coop

 

[PrinceSandwich]

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yes same here, I wish I knew that before my rooster lost ALL of his toes and his comb

 

[Mrs MIA]

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There is no magic temperature... if you give them access to the outdoors, you will know when it's too cold outside because they won't come out. I can tell you from my experience that I still have chickens roosting OUTSIDE at 0°F of their own free will. Fahrenheit... not Celsius. But I do not add any extra heat, and have about 40 hens to an 8x8' coop (they have plenty of roost space so they're not crowded). They did fine.

 

[Ema]

I wanted to post another comment about how I was winterizing my coop, seeing I live in northern ontario and get 30 below weather on average, in january and feb, we tend to hit the 40 below with windchills sometimes more. 2 years ago we hit 55 below with the windchill, I remember going outside to get my mail and my eyelids froze in seconds, I came back in without the mail. It was bad enough the furnace and the fireplace couldn't keep the house heated well enough.

anyhow, I planned for our winters in advance by turning my 2 car garage into a barn (work still in progress) I built the coop inside and I ripped out all the siding on the garage and added OSB all around. on the inside I am adding 1 inch white rigid foam insulation (its cheaper than blue or pink) and then covering it all up with white panelling. I will be purchasing a garage heater that mounts to the ceiling and set it to turn on and off at certain temps. I can insulate the exterior walls fairly good, because the way we built the coop it has great ventilation. I use hay because my pullets eat the shavings, but as soon as the temps drop some more I will add 4 inches of shavings and cover it all up with a bale or two of hay. they love the hay because it keeps them warm. Currently they have a red 250 watt heat lamp which even in summer here is necessary. you can purchase the white styrofoam panels cheaper from craft stores but we don't have any where I live so I bought them from the hardware store.
Out in the run, because of the blowing winds and the snow we built a peaked roof on the run with a solid fence line all around. as soon as the wind gets too cold, usually end of august beginning of sept. we will be covering the outside of the run with burlap or tarp to stop the snow from going into the pen. hubby put in hooks etc on the peaked roof so we can roll and unroll the tarps. so during bad weather we roll them up and during sunny weather roll them back down. to be honest it usually snows like heck in the evening and its super sunny during the day. so it will work out perfectly. about 6 feet from the the run all around we plan on putting up orange snow fencing to prevent the snow from piling up against the run. a lot of work and plannign but it wil be worth it in the end.

Edited because I apparantly cannot spell