It was really hard for me to do, I wanted to call you a snot faced brown nosing Kid. But figured I would be on double secret probation again if I did..
Last edited:
Minnesota!
- Thread starter foxhollow
- Start date
It was really hard for me to do, I wanted to call you a snot faced brown nosing Kid. But figured I would be on double secret probation again if I did..
As promised. It is long...
Lesson’s from a small coop chicken keeper, in winter, in Minnesota
(Mostly learned from mistakes I’ve made my first year)
1 – Ventilation
Ventilation is good, drafts are bad.
Keep the ventilation up high. Do not let it run from low, up over the hens, and out.
Keep the hens’ heads out of the ventilation as well.
It should be passive ventilation, no wind, no drafts.
So, I wasn’t ready for winter last year when in November it went from 53 degrees and 100% humidity to 4 days later, below zero and still 80% humidity. It was terribly, terribly wet. And cold.
My chickens were up high, in the ventilation. I had the high roost up over the vent holes at the bottom, the ventilation came right up and over them. My fault, 2 ended up with frostbite. The two closest to the ventilation holes on the bottom.
Took out the high roost, so now they are on a low roost on the back wall the farthest away from the low ventilation holes as they can get. No new frostbite after that.
2 - The drier the better.
So, my henhouse is approx. 4.5x6.5x6ft. It is a good size for 5 or 6 chickens. Just under 30 square ft. So, how to keep moisture down in such a small area? It is not easy.
I laid down a bag of Sweet PDZ, (Horse Stall Refresher) directly on the floor of the henhouse, then covered the sweet PDZ with pine shavings. This keeps the henhouse drier. The sweet PDZ is zeolite.
From the sweet PDZ site: How Does Sweet PDZ Work?
Sweet PDZ is extremely effective at neutralizing and removing ammonia and odors, because of its two special properties:
Adsorption - Which is the sticking of the ammonia gas molecule to the surface of the Sweet PDZ granule. When the Sweet PDZ granules desorb, or dries out, the ammonia odor molecule is driven off the surface of the mineral as nitrogen. This is why spent (used) bedding material that includes Sweet PDZ, works so well as a slow release fertilizer or as an enhancement to composting.
So, it not only keeps it drier in the henhouse, it absorbs odor and keeps ammonia down as well. A win/win.
If you have frost on the inside of your windows, it is too we in there, you need to lower the humidity. You can try more ventilation, or drier bedding, or both.
3 – Do you need heat?
Many people say no. Do you need it? Probably not. As the guy at the feed store said, he only lost a couple to the cold last year. The year before that was way worse. When you have many, many chickens, it is probably no big deal, when you have 5-6 or less? And they are pets? Yeah. So, I did add heat. No heat lamps, risk of fire is too high. I added a flat panel wall mounted ceramic heater, it gets hot to the touch, but does not get burning hot to the touch. Now, people say, “Well what if the power goes out? They’ll be used to having heat, so now they will die.” Ummm, so there is a difference between heating to take the edge off and heating to 70 degrees. I have my heater plugged into a thermocube, it turns on at zero and stays on until it climbs back up to 10 degrees above zero. So basically, last year when the temp went to 24 below, it turned on at zero, had to try and heat the hen house, by the time it got to 24 below zero, the henhouse was up to a balmy 7 degrees above zero. If the power goes out, which it did last year on a very cold night, the hens were fine. They weren’t used to being warm, it was just enough heat to take the edge off. I also placed a seeding mat on the wall behind the roost. The seedling mat heats up to 10-15 degrees above ambient. I didn’t think it was doing much (this was before I got the flat panel heater) but one morning I went out there, it was below zero, they were all facing the wall, so they must have felt the heat coming off of it)
I also placed a piece of left over green house panel above the roost to keep the body heat around them, did I need it? Don’t know, I was just experimenting, but it seemed to work pretty well, so I left it.
I was going to put that silver reflective blanket on the walls. I actually did, but the hens wouldn’t go on the roost because they were scared, so I took it out, didn’t really need it.
4 – The run
Cover the run and block the wind on at least the north and west sides. You can use whatever you want. I use green house panels because they are sturdy, and fit against my hardware cloth well, and can be taken down and put up quickly. But, they are spendy. If I wasn’t using those, I would use thick clear plastic sheeting. Some people use tarps, but they are hard to keep in place and they make it dark in the run. The plastic sheeting lets light in. If you use plastic sheeting, I’d rig it somehow where you can lift up the south side and put them down when it is raining or snowing. It rained in my run last year, then it froze. Don’t want them jumping off of roosts onto frozen ground. Then it snowed in my run, and I was shoveling out the run. No good. So then I put the panels up on every side all winter long, I left the south side open, but did add them to the south side when it is going to rain or snow. The plus side of the greenhouse panels was that on very cold days it warmed up the run a little. Win/win.
5 – Frozen Water
I do not keep water in the henhouse, remember, you want it dry in there. Plus, mine only go in the henhouse to sleep, or to lay eggs, even at 24 below they were in the run, out of the wind, but in the run.
I keep 2 waterers out in the run because I’m a worry warden. If one freezes up, hopefully the other one doesn’t. I leave for work at 5am and don’t get home until 4 or after, so I need heated waterers, or it would be frozen by the time they get up and out to the run around 8 or so.
I have an electric dog dish, raised off of the ground. Inside of that I place a black rubber dish which I can change out easily. I place a gallon jug of sand in the middle so the chickens can’t walk in it. I bring the rubber bowl and the sand in overnight to warm up. (some people use a dog dish, the plastic one with the straight sides and they put an ice cream bucket in there, good idea as well). When it got really cold, below zero, I had to take the rubber bowl out and use the heated dog dish directly. The second waterer I have is a 2 gallon pail with horizontal nipples. Inside I have a bird bath deicer, and a pond pump that keeps it circulating. I did try the Farm Innovators 3 Gal. heated plastic poultry fountain, from fleet farm, the white one with the red plastic bottom, it froze. But that is not why I stopped using it. One day when I was picking it up to bring it in and refill it, the bottom came off, there was water all over the run. I was scooping up extremely cold water in below freezing weather with my bare hands trying to get it out of my run before it froze. Ouch, you are gone my friend. Anyone want an almost new 3 gallon heated waterer used only a few weeks?
My waterers are plugged into a thermocube that comes on at 35 degrees and shuts off at 45 degrees.
Some people only use the rubber dishes, then they turn them over, stomp them out, and refill. If I was home while the chickens were up and out, I would have no problem with this. I use these in the summer.
6 – Nesting boxes
Frozen eggs. When you leave for work at 5am and get home at 4pm, it is unavoidable. However, I only had a few frozen eggs last year. I bought an unheated pet warming pad, where their body temp warms up the pad. Since my hens always use the same box, and take turns, it seemed to work most days to keep the eggs un-frozen. One in, one out, one in, one out… so this seemed to work for the most part. I’ve seen where they use seedling mats, it heats the mat to 10 to 15 degrees above ambient temp. Be careful, I bought one to try and just placed it in the main part of the henhouse with pine shaving over it, as it heated the shavings, the temp went up, then the mat temp went up (remember 15 degrees above ambient) then the shavings heated up, then the mat. Pretty soon the mat was up to 90 degrees. So I nixed that. But maybe if you don’t cover it too much it would be fine? Let me know if you decide to try this. If it gets really cold and stays there, I may resort to a heating pad set very on the lowest setting and see if that works. I bought one that you can shut off the automatic shut off. Plastic and you can place the cover on it, or not. We’ll see about this, if needed. I’m kind of scared to do this, will the hens stay in the nest box all day because it is warm? I don’t know.
If I think of anything I forgot, I’ll come back and update.
7 - Dust baths
I have 3 areas for dust baths in my run, now. You really only need 1, they will share. I take a big rubber round feed thing from fleet farm and a rubber maid tote and add organic peat moss. sometimes i'll DE to it if I remember. they love it. lesson learned, buy a few bags in the fall before winter, as midwinter, you cannot find it. I get the organic peat moss from Fleet farm or menards. The girls love it and get in it as soon as I put it in there, they pick around in it, then dive in.
Lesson’s from a small coop chicken keeper, in winter, in Minnesota
(Mostly learned from mistakes I’ve made my first year)
1 – Ventilation
Ventilation is good, drafts are bad.
Keep the ventilation up high. Do not let it run from low, up over the hens, and out.
Keep the hens’ heads out of the ventilation as well.
It should be passive ventilation, no wind, no drafts.
So, I wasn’t ready for winter last year when in November it went from 53 degrees and 100% humidity to 4 days later, below zero and still 80% humidity. It was terribly, terribly wet. And cold.
My chickens were up high, in the ventilation. I had the high roost up over the vent holes at the bottom, the ventilation came right up and over them. My fault, 2 ended up with frostbite. The two closest to the ventilation holes on the bottom.
Took out the high roost, so now they are on a low roost on the back wall the farthest away from the low ventilation holes as they can get. No new frostbite after that.
2 - The drier the better.
So, my henhouse is approx. 4.5x6.5x6ft. It is a good size for 5 or 6 chickens. Just under 30 square ft. So, how to keep moisture down in such a small area? It is not easy.
I laid down a bag of Sweet PDZ, (Horse Stall Refresher) directly on the floor of the henhouse, then covered the sweet PDZ with pine shavings. This keeps the henhouse drier. The sweet PDZ is zeolite.
From the sweet PDZ site: How Does Sweet PDZ Work?
Sweet PDZ is extremely effective at neutralizing and removing ammonia and odors, because of its two special properties:
Adsorption - Which is the sticking of the ammonia gas molecule to the surface of the Sweet PDZ granule. When the Sweet PDZ granules desorb, or dries out, the ammonia odor molecule is driven off the surface of the mineral as nitrogen. This is why spent (used) bedding material that includes Sweet PDZ, works so well as a slow release fertilizer or as an enhancement to composting.
So, it not only keeps it drier in the henhouse, it absorbs odor and keeps ammonia down as well. A win/win.
If you have frost on the inside of your windows, it is too we in there, you need to lower the humidity. You can try more ventilation, or drier bedding, or both.
3 – Do you need heat?
Many people say no. Do you need it? Probably not. As the guy at the feed store said, he only lost a couple to the cold last year. The year before that was way worse. When you have many, many chickens, it is probably no big deal, when you have 5-6 or less? And they are pets? Yeah. So, I did add heat. No heat lamps, risk of fire is too high. I added a flat panel wall mounted ceramic heater, it gets hot to the touch, but does not get burning hot to the touch. Now, people say, “Well what if the power goes out? They’ll be used to having heat, so now they will die.” Ummm, so there is a difference between heating to take the edge off and heating to 70 degrees. I have my heater plugged into a thermocube, it turns on at zero and stays on until it climbs back up to 10 degrees above zero. So basically, last year when the temp went to 24 below, it turned on at zero, had to try and heat the hen house, by the time it got to 24 below zero, the henhouse was up to a balmy 7 degrees above zero. If the power goes out, which it did last year on a very cold night, the hens were fine. They weren’t used to being warm, it was just enough heat to take the edge off. I also placed a seeding mat on the wall behind the roost. The seedling mat heats up to 10-15 degrees above ambient. I didn’t think it was doing much (this was before I got the flat panel heater) but one morning I went out there, it was below zero, they were all facing the wall, so they must have felt the heat coming off of it)
I also placed a piece of left over green house panel above the roost to keep the body heat around them, did I need it? Don’t know, I was just experimenting, but it seemed to work pretty well, so I left it.
I was going to put that silver reflective blanket on the walls. I actually did, but the hens wouldn’t go on the roost because they were scared, so I took it out, didn’t really need it.
4 – The run
Cover the run and block the wind on at least the north and west sides. You can use whatever you want. I use green house panels because they are sturdy, and fit against my hardware cloth well, and can be taken down and put up quickly. But, they are spendy. If I wasn’t using those, I would use thick clear plastic sheeting. Some people use tarps, but they are hard to keep in place and they make it dark in the run. The plastic sheeting lets light in. If you use plastic sheeting, I’d rig it somehow where you can lift up the south side and put them down when it is raining or snowing. It rained in my run last year, then it froze. Don’t want them jumping off of roosts onto frozen ground. Then it snowed in my run, and I was shoveling out the run. No good. So then I put the panels up on every side all winter long, I left the south side open, but did add them to the south side when it is going to rain or snow. The plus side of the greenhouse panels was that on very cold days it warmed up the run a little. Win/win.
5 – Frozen Water
I do not keep water in the henhouse, remember, you want it dry in there. Plus, mine only go in the henhouse to sleep, or to lay eggs, even at 24 below they were in the run, out of the wind, but in the run.
I keep 2 waterers out in the run because I’m a worry warden. If one freezes up, hopefully the other one doesn’t. I leave for work at 5am and don’t get home until 4 or after, so I need heated waterers, or it would be frozen by the time they get up and out to the run around 8 or so.
I have an electric dog dish, raised off of the ground. Inside of that I place a black rubber dish which I can change out easily. I place a gallon jug of sand in the middle so the chickens can’t walk in it. I bring the rubber bowl and the sand in overnight to warm up. (some people use a dog dish, the plastic one with the straight sides and they put an ice cream bucket in there, good idea as well). When it got really cold, below zero, I had to take the rubber bowl out and use the heated dog dish directly. The second waterer I have is a 2 gallon pail with horizontal nipples. Inside I have a bird bath deicer, and a pond pump that keeps it circulating. I did try the Farm Innovators 3 Gal. heated plastic poultry fountain, from fleet farm, the white one with the red plastic bottom, it froze. But that is not why I stopped using it. One day when I was picking it up to bring it in and refill it, the bottom came off, there was water all over the run. I was scooping up extremely cold water in below freezing weather with my bare hands trying to get it out of my run before it froze. Ouch, you are gone my friend. Anyone want an almost new 3 gallon heated waterer used only a few weeks?
My waterers are plugged into a thermocube that comes on at 35 degrees and shuts off at 45 degrees.
Some people only use the rubber dishes, then they turn them over, stomp them out, and refill. If I was home while the chickens were up and out, I would have no problem with this. I use these in the summer.
6 – Nesting boxes
Frozen eggs. When you leave for work at 5am and get home at 4pm, it is unavoidable. However, I only had a few frozen eggs last year. I bought an unheated pet warming pad, where their body temp warms up the pad. Since my hens always use the same box, and take turns, it seemed to work most days to keep the eggs un-frozen. One in, one out, one in, one out… so this seemed to work for the most part. I’ve seen where they use seedling mats, it heats the mat to 10 to 15 degrees above ambient temp. Be careful, I bought one to try and just placed it in the main part of the henhouse with pine shaving over it, as it heated the shavings, the temp went up, then the mat temp went up (remember 15 degrees above ambient) then the shavings heated up, then the mat. Pretty soon the mat was up to 90 degrees. So I nixed that. But maybe if you don’t cover it too much it would be fine? Let me know if you decide to try this. If it gets really cold and stays there, I may resort to a heating pad set very on the lowest setting and see if that works. I bought one that you can shut off the automatic shut off. Plastic and you can place the cover on it, or not. We’ll see about this, if needed. I’m kind of scared to do this, will the hens stay in the nest box all day because it is warm? I don’t know.
If I think of anything I forgot, I’ll come back and update.
7 - Dust baths
I have 3 areas for dust baths in my run, now. You really only need 1, they will share. I take a big rubber round feed thing from fleet farm and a rubber maid tote and add organic peat moss. sometimes i'll DE to it if I remember. they love it. lesson learned, buy a few bags in the fall before winter, as midwinter, you cannot find it. I get the organic peat moss from Fleet farm or menards. The girls love it and get in it as soon as I put it in there, they pick around in it, then dive in.
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I was wondering about that. The fastest US car I had or drove was a 1974 Plymouth gran fury. I did 167 in that the car had a certified speedometer but I actually measured the speed with a radar.
I'm not sure I should do this to you but since you ventured onto this thread with this advertisement you should be fair warned here in Minnesota we are raising creamers and creamettes. Bahahahaha.
Dad had a GTO. I'm not sure as a toddler if he drove that fast with me in it. But my cousin claims he rode with my dad to pick up my mom for a date and he was scared to death at how fast he was driving.
Us girls got grandpas 1974 dodge dart. That thing floated down the highway and at 100mph it barely broke a sweat.
Us girls got grandpas 1974 dodge dart. That thing floated down the highway and at 100mph it barely broke a sweat.
KlopKlop
Crowing
Ralphie I can only foresee you getting these fancy Legbar folks all in a fit.... This should be good 
I am going to be good about the contest. BUT I think I know two people from our thread that should enter their Creamers! What they have is better than what I have, My rooster has the tips frozen off his combs so he is out.
The points on a creamer is important from the ten minutes I spent on those threads. They had huge fights over those points.
I wonder if they are going to allow Crested Cream legbars in the contest?
The points on a creamer is important from the ten minutes I spent on those threads. They had huge fights over those points.
I wonder if they are going to allow Crested Cream legbars in the contest?
I doubt crested are allowed Ralphie.
Rofl.
Rofl.
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scandiafowl
Songster
I was wondering that as I have a couple creamettes that qualify for dual registration in the Creamette category naturally and in the Crested Cream Legbar category if they had one. Nice looking birds! Of course I would need a really fast shutter speed to get them to appear motionless, They could go into the road runner group too.
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