Oh, Dreaded Winter!!!!!

[juliawitt]

This will be our first winter with chickens also. That said, we bought one of those heated waterers for their coop! We also bought one of those plug ins for the the light that only comes on when the temp in the coop is 45 degrees. We really aren't sure yet if we will use it though. We get ice storms, so the electricity goes out. If the chickens get "used" to heat and then no electricity, they won't be prepared for the cold. Also, chickens put off a lot of heat. We are having 50 degree nights right now, but it got to 81 yesterday during the day. I did not turn on the 7 week old heat light last night because at 10 last night it was still almost 80 in the coop. Chickens put off a lot of their own heat. Winter is going to be fun!! NOT!

 

[The Zoo]

I am FREEZING just reading these posts! Thank goodness I live in the San Fran Bay Area - you all are hardy folk! I'm a wimp.

We just get rain.

 

[Mrs.ChickChick]

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[garngang]

i have a few winter questions too...
if i was going to buy some square bales of hay how high up should i stack them? all the way to the ceiling or like half way?
also in regards to timers on your lights...what kind of timers do you use? and how do you connect that to your light? the timer things confuses me a bit incase you cant tell....

thanks!

 

[Chooksaurus]

Quote:
Whereabouts are you? We are just south of Superior!

 

[wombat]

I stack them as high as the birds roost, without blocking ventilation.

Outside, three high on the windy side of the run. The downside of that is you'll sometimes get drifting snow coming over the top and dropping in.

I don't know that you'd need straw bales for a wind break in Arkansas, though ... unless your coop does not have much for walls.

 

[patandchickens]

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Be real careful, single-thickness stacks of haybales fall over rather easily after they've settled awhile and/or when bumped the wrong way, and a bunch of 50-lb bales landing on a *person* can do injury, not to mention what it'd do to a chicken. If you're going to stack them, make sure they are secured in some fashion.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[Chickenaddict]

The straw bales are tied with twine making it easy to tie another piece of twine thru them and connected to the run. That should take care of any worries about them falling over. Thats what I have done and it has worked really well. Another thing to watch out for is once that straw gets wet it can get moldy if the weather is warm enough to thaw things out. You may need to replace it as it gets moldy so the chickens don't try and eat it and get sick.

 

[txchickie]

I winterize my coops with straw bales, too. I stack them 3 high and then drive a t-post or a piece of sucker rod right up against them and tie the twine on the bales to the rod. Can't fall over that way!

 

[garngang]

Yeah here in arkansas we don't get a lot of snow let alone snow drifts! It would be nice from time to time thow. And I do have a good house I just thought it would be good to put some hay on the windy side of everything. We live on top of a hill and the winter wind is something else up here! Not compared to some of yall up north I'm sure! Haha
and yeah I was also gonna use t posts to hold em in place