New chicken owner as of this past spring

Date sort Score sort
Amfrolia

Amfrolia

Chirping
5 Years
Sep 17, 2015
37
2
79
Hello fellow chicken lovers!

I am a new chicken owner as of this past May. I have 5 hens - 2 black Australorps, 2 Rhode Island Reds and one Araucana.

I am looking for any advice for winterizing my chicken coop and pen. I live in SW New Mexico - up in the mountains at about 6000 elevation. We get days below freezing and some snow - but most of it usually melts a few days after it falls.

I have a layer of pine shavings on the floor of the coop and their run.

I keep the run really clean - picking up poop, and changing their water daily. I clean and scrub the waterers once a week. But how often do you all do a really thorough cleaning - scrubbing the whole coop down, replacing all the pine chips, etc.

What is the best waterer for cold weather?

Any other advice?

Thanks!!!
 
Amfrolia said:
Hello fellow chicken lovers!

I am a new chicken owner as of this past May. I have 5 hens - 2 black Australorps, 2 Rhode Island Reds and one Araucana.

I am looking for any advice for winterizing my chicken coop and pen. I live in SW New Mexico - up in the mountains at about 6000 elevation. We get days below freezing and some snow - but most of it usually melts a few days after it falls.

I have a layer of pine shavings on the floor of the coop and their run.

I keep the run really clean - picking up poop, and changing their water daily. I clean and scrub the waterers once a week. But how often do you all do a really thorough cleaning - scrubbing the whole coop down, replacing all the pine chips, etc.

What is the best waterer for cold weather?

Any other advice?

Thanks!!!
Click to expand...

Hello Amfrolia, Welcome to BYC. I buy a water heater from a local feed store. It's flat pan that you put on the ground plug it in and put the waterer on it. Heat lamp can help with keeping them warm and keeping egg production up. I'm in Idaho and we go below freezing all the time in the winter and we get snow, my chickens will walk in the snow but not for very long and tend to stay inside. Black Australorps in my opinion are the best breed of chicken since they are an excellent large brown egg layer and able to pack on pounds to butcher. I have 24 Black Australorp pullets that will start laying in November and I got New Hampshire Reds I'm about to get rid of since they are getting too old. Other birds I raise are Fawn & White Indian Runner ducks. Another great egg laying breed. Along with that I raise peafowl (peacocks and peahens) for feathers and chicks. Peacocks will molt every train feather every summer. I got 195 train feathers from one of my males and 178 from the other male.
1000
195 feathers, the longest feathers from this train set is 5 feet long.
178 train feathers. Longest feathers were also 5 feet long.
 
Thanks for the welcome and the info! If you like ducks you might get a kick out of this YouTube series called 50 Ducks in a Hottub. It follows a Canadian man who raises ducks in a free range humane way for food. He posts daily videos about the ducks and their crazy antics. I am addicted to it!

I love the Austalorps also. They are good layers and one of mine loves to come in for a little hug and snuggle (after pecking my foot or leg to let me know she is ready) lol

BTW - do you use a metal waterer that goes on the heater or can you use plastic? Currently I have two plastic waterers...
 
welcome-byc.gif


Being down here in FL I've never had to use a heated waterer but I do want to say hello and wish you the best of luck with your birds!
 
Amfrolia said:
Thanks for the welcome and the info! If you like ducks you might get a kick out of this YouTube series called 50 Ducks in a Hottub. It follows a Canadian man who raises ducks in a free range humane way for food. He posts daily videos about the ducks and their crazy antics. I am addicted to it!

I love the Austalorps also. They are good layers and one of mine loves to come in for a little hug and snuggle (after pecking my foot or leg to let me know she is ready) lol

BTW - do you use a metal waterer that goes on the heater or can you use plastic? Currently I have two plastic waterers...
Click to expand...

Mine are metal. I think you could do plastic because the pan doesn't get burning hot but warmer enough to keep it from freezing. I like metal waterers since I put them outside when it's warm and when I used plastic ones moss would grow and clog my waterers up if I didn't get to it time. Metal moss doesn't build up in it and it keeps clean very well.
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom