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

[vachicks]

Quote:
thanks for the help

 

[ManDash]

This thread might be a bit old but I read through it and I have a few different suggestions.
1. If you leave a open hole to bring air in to the coop, you can attach a black tube that runs near window (sunlight) to warm the air on the way in.
2. Also, if you have a good window you can put up a black bucket of water that will collect heat in the day and retain it into the night
3. I would suggest getting a indoor/outdoor thermometer and put the receiver in the coop to better track the temperatures so you know how to adjust your features.
4. My main plan for our Missouri winter is that my coop is designed to match up with my greenhouse so that they will hopefully help each other stay warm.

Just some thoughts.

 

[RedDrgn]

Quote:
I just read through this thread since this coming winter will be the first we'll face with our new flock. I really like #3 and will definitely be looking into that.

 

[00BlasterResto]

I know It's an old thread, but I figure with winter knocking at our doors I would add my suggestions.
Here are a few things I learned last winter.
1. Door clearance. Last year the doors on my coop caused big problems we got into 12"+ of snow, it piled up and made closing the coop a big problem. it would warm up and the mud and snow would get between the door and base of the coop and turn rock solid. When I built my new coop I made sure this would not be a problem, I also just raised my gate into the main yard up higher to clear the snow.
2. as mentioned, heated water bowl saves on time and damage to waterers
3. An easy to clean coop makes a huge difference. My previous coop was very difficult to clean and my first winter it basicly got out of control, the snow wasn't even off the ground when I started constructing my new one.

 

[EmmyGirl]

We use a large heated dog bowl which works great but we only have a few chickens. I had purchased a heated chicken waterer (the kind with the red plastic bottom with that screws onto the white plastic top). Maybe I'm just exceptionally uncoordinated but inevitably I'd fill it up inside, get out to the coop and the darn thing would come apart when I put it in the coop, splashing me and the entire coop with a couple of gallons of water. Not fun on an 18-degree morning. The grooves that the top and bottom fit together in seemed too small and I gave up after about 2 months and went to the dog bowl. So much easier and it's a good height for the girls to drink from and they don't get too much mess in there. Easier to keep clean, too and we use it year-round, just dont plug it in after March.

 

[Chic-n-farmer]

No tiime to read all the posts right now....

but I will.

I wish I had known those first years that cold and dry is preferably to warm and damp. VENTILATION is the key to a happy, healthy winter chicken house.

Once I started leaving one of five windows open, on a 12 x 12 chicken house, my chickens thrived in the winter. Now I have chickens in several places and as long as they aren't in direct drafts, the more ventilation the better.

My chickens run around in the snow and it doesn't even phase them.

And of course I couldn't liive without the water heater bases, and heated bowls. I can't stand the idea of an animal dealing with frozen water.

25 + years of being owned by chickens and I am still learning!

 

[fleascratcher]

Hey, does anyone here have any runner ducks, we have 4 and are concerned about the winter effect on them. We live in northern Wis. and it can get pretty cold. They seem to have plenty of warm feeling down and they have adequate housing of course, but we are concerned with frostbite etc. hoping for some veteran winter advice. Thanks

 

[fleascratcher]

Hey, does anyone here have any runner ducks, we have 4 and are concerned about the winter effect on them. we live in northern Wis. They seem to have plenty of warm feeling down and they have adequate housing of course, but we are concerned with frostbite etc. hoping for some veteran winter advice. Thanks

 

[Mrs MIA]

Quote:
You might want to post this as a new thread, under flock management.

 

[urbanhermit]

Twenty years ago I raised a flock of 12 Buff Orpingtons in Fremont, Ohio, in an unheated wood shed with free access to a fenced chicken yard year-round, with no problems from the heat or cold. This spring I started a flock (one rooster and three hens, Barred Rocks) in Toledo, Ohio. This time I have an "Eglu" classic coop and a half-acre of chain-link fenced yard. So far the heated dog bowl ($19.95, Tractor Supply) is working well for both the flock and the alley cat that has adopted us. I shut the chicks in the coop each night, and so far they don't seem to be suffering any ill effects from the cold. The snow puzzled them at first, but they just plow through it now. They roam their half-acre all day long, scratching and eating whatever it is they're finding out there. The cat, however, wanted to sleep in the straw nest in the coop, so I made him his own straw nest in the carport and he's choosing that now. Before we get snow that's deep enough to drift under the coop base, I'm planning to pile garden waste (sticks and weeds) around the Eglu's wire base to keep the snow out. It's a chicken tractor design, but I moved it to the south side of the garage in November and don't plan to move it until late March or early April.