Official BYC Poll: What’s the most challenging part of chicken keeping for you during winter?

[TOMTE]

Hi Everyone,
I am new to this forum and chickens. I don't have severe cold weather in my area, I would say it can get down to about 32 degrees, very rarely colder, but does happen. I get up every morning before work and feed my chickens veggies, scratch and meal worms or fly large. At night I give them a little veggies, plus they have their normal feed. Sounds like my chickens are spoiled from what I hear. Am I doing to much for them. They have nice thick shells & bright yolks I am guessing because of how they eat. They don't free ranch because i have concerns of predators and the new dog we just got, but they do have an enclosed run they go in. I change the water every 2 days roughly depending on how it looks, but I also put pro & prebiotic or ACV in the water. None the less I am averaging about 2-4 eggs per day. Although my 2yrs ish EE is not producing now for some reason. Maybe she is getting older and it is stopping. So far things have gone well, but there are always challenges.

Any tips for integrating my 2 new hens? The others all pick on them. How long does it take to get everyone in a rhythm? I have them separated for the most part, but do allow them together during the day which is worrisome to watch. Any thoughts are appreciated.
Thank you and Happy New Year.

Welcome to BYC! Great to have you!

There are different schools of thought about treats for chickens. In some places, chickens are fed nothing but table scraps and they forage for the rest of their food and do just fine. In fact, that's how most chickens were fed back in the day. In other parts of the world it's considered unhealthy to feed chickens too many scraps or "treats". That seems to be the general consensus on BYC; you'll see a lot of "treats should make up no more than 10% of a chicken's diet". But honestly, it depends on their lifestyle. Are they getting plenty of exercise? Do they seem healthy? Not overweight or underweight? Normal poops? If everything seems fine, I wouldn't worry about it. Just keep observing them and make changes as necessary. And of course, don't hesitate to ask any questions here on BYC! The team of educators are super knowledgable and friendly

If she stopped laying recently, your EE may have stopped for the winter (if you're in the northern hemisphere). If she's otherwise healthy, that's normal. Just keep an eye on her for any signs of discomfort or illness.

I don't have experience with integration but the see-don't-touch method seems to work pretty well. Let them go about their business alongside each other, but so they can't get physically interact. I've read this can take weeks or months depending on how it goes. You can put a wire dog kennel or something in the run, keep your 2 new hens in there. Others with experience will have more tips.

You can also check out the articles! I've learned a lot from them since joining

 

[AGeese]

Welcome 2rbeal! For integration they need partitioned, but in sight of each other. Once they've had a couple weeks of this you might try letting the others outside (weather permitting) while letting the new ones get familar with the existing flock's area without pressure of them being around.

Supervise some visits with just one or two of the current flock members at a time. Make sure once everyone is integrated that the ones lower on the pecking order have access to water and feed where they aren't in competition with the ones higher in the order.

I place multiple feeding and drinking stations around, but I also have the space for this since I use my garage.

Good luck you birds!

 

[Liz Birdlover]

Winter is a challenge for sure. My runs are not covered, which is not smart, but we hope to address that soon. The chickens do not care for snow & ice over 3 inches, so they'll stay in mostly. A few brave ones will make their way to the covered pet gazebos.

Water heaters prevent water from freezing so they are worth every penny with the below freezing Temps weeks at a time.

I do get some mice now & then. I do what I can to deal with them. The battery mice zappers work well with a bit of peanut butter for bait.

I guess the main thing is making sure human mama doesn't slip & bust her butt!

 

[tripletfeb]

Today hubby and I put plastic around the run and straw inside. Then I gave them a treat block and some grit and oyster shell. They actually came out for awhile. Wish we would have done this sooner

 

[NorthwoodsChick]

My challenge this winter is frozen eggs in one of the two coops. The new coop is bigger, made of wood and uninsulated. So now I have an oil filled radiant heater to bump up the temp a bit until I get home to collect.
The other coop is a fiberglass insulated utility building. Never have I ever had frozen eggs in that one. Those girls are on winter strike.

Eggs are scarce enough these days, and I was losing 2-3 a day out of just 4. But I consistently get those 3-4 every day.
I refuse to add light though; that’s my hard line.

 

[NorthwoodsChick]

The battery mice zappers work well with a bit of peanut butter for bait.

This is interesting. Never heard of battery zappers for mice.

 

[Debbie292d]

Right now we have around 6 inches down and more falling. I'm on my 3rd flock of chickens and have never had one that walked on the snow. I see all these pictures of chickens out in the snow and every girl I've ever had is too scared to do it. And my run has a roof so it's not even much snow. I did want to tarp around the run for the winter so they were out of most of the wind but ran out of time. Maybe when it warms up a little, we can put that up quick

I photographed proof for you today. It's a link to my silkies page, so if you don't want to see it, I understand, but didn't want to post any here to cause you any grief.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/debbies-silkies.1612185/post-28317191

 

[gtaus]

Eggs are scarce enough these days, and I was losing 2-3 a day out of just 4. But I consistently get those 3-4 every day.

What do you mean you lose 2-3 eggs a day? Are they eaten by the chickens, or frozen and cracked?

FYI, living in northern Minnesota, I have to deal with a lot of frozen and cracked eggs in the winter in my unheated coop. But I just take the cracked eggs, let them thaw out in the refrigerator, and use them for scrambled eggs or an omelet for breakfast. Lately, I have been using my cracked eggs and any smaller eggs to make French Toast. Anyways, a cracked egg is still OK to eat. I've been doing that for years with no ill effects.

 

[rosemarythyme]

This is interesting. Never heard of battery zappers for mice.

They work great on mice - mouse walks in, touches 2 pads, creates a current and zap-zap, dead mouse. Downside is many of them don't work great outdoors (they need to be climate protected).

 

[tripletfeb]

I photographed proof for you today. It's a link to my silkies page, so if you don't want to see it, I understand, but didn't want to post any here to cause you any grief.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/debbies-silkies.1612185/post-28317191

Very nice!