I didn't use anything to keep them warm this year. It was my first winter too, and nice to have a very mild one. I did however use those small shop clamp lamps with 75-100 watt black light/red light bulbs over the water-ers to keep them thawed out enough for constant fresh water. Worked out well. I had 2 hens also go broody, and I did use 100 watt bulbs then to give them an extra hand. As Chicken Grandma said, MAKE SURE THEY ARE TIED MULTIPLE TIMES. Don't just trust the clamps. Chickens fly around and do silly crap when we are not looking, knock things over... A lot of people do not provide heat. Just be prepared, that if you decided to provide heat, you best be ready for a power outage that will take that heat away. Have a back up plan really. SO, If you want to go that route, get some RED heat bulbs, Use them at night, and use white light during the day if you want to get winter eggs if you don't have a natural light source on your coop. I actually use an old aquarium hood light wrapped many times with wire to the rafters, timed to go on at 6 am-9am then again from 5:30pm-8:00 in the winter. Try to keep their hours regular like spring summer hours. (NOTE: YOU WILL WHERE YOUR HENS OUT FASTER WITH OUT GIVING THEM A WINTER BREAK) Timers are great. They are pretty much screwed at the end of a winter though... all that feed dust ruins them pretty quick. I averaged 3-4 eggs a day from 8 laying hens through the winter. I did not use a broad spectrum light, or a very bright light. Just enough to keep them laying a few a week a piece.
Welcome to BYC, I am just up the way from you in Holland.
Got the meaties moved. I used the ducks fencing to make them a pen right around their coop. It was real fun catching them little fat balls and moving them. Some of the were climbing the plastic poultry net that I was using for them... MAN did they not want me to get them. LOL. Well anyway, got them over in the tree area now too, so they will get a bit of morning sun, but not the hot part of the day sun, and mostly shady most the day. AND a nice new patch of grass. They are in the are where the ducks were when I first got them. I am guessing they have about 50 square feet of space to run around in. I have more fence to open it more as needed. I can't believe how much they've grown in 2 weeks. WOW.
The pekins, Pekin and Orange, they are getting huge also. WOW. They are starting feather out good. I gave them watermelon on the rind today to gnaw... nibble... dibble? What ever it is that ducks do. They will get a bigger pen tomorrow with another section of the old duck fencing. I am hesitant to build them a coop cuz I still have not decided if they will be pets or dinner. I am thinking dinner. Jace says pet. He better get a job.
Egg Lover, welcome to the Michigan thread. You will find this to be a very friendly group of helpful people. Be sure to check out the link in my signature line for our upcoming Chickenstock. It's a gathering of like minded folks who gather once a year to share a meal, get to place faces to the names you've come to know. Many birds are brought for sale or trade so it is a good place to find the particular breed you have been looking for.
