Oh, Dreaded Winter!!!!!

[emrys]

On the water freezing issue. Water that has been heated will freeze faster than water that has never been heated. Heating disolves the minerals or something (been years since I had to look this up) and allows the water to freeze more readily than would otherwise happen. Reference Librarian! This question came up at work. I was surprised by the answer but there it was.

 

[CityChook]

Welcome Mags - You're amongst cold-weathered feathered friends here!

First, I'd recommend doing a search for "winter" and other cold-weather key words. The search key is in the blue bar above. Check out in this forum and in the coop forum. There is a TON of information out there along with lots and lots of experience.

Glad to hear that you insulated your coop. You won't regret it. Now is the time to double check your ventilation. It will be very important this winter to keep your humidity low to avoid any frostbite problems. Patandchickens has great pages both on ventilation and cold-weather.

Heat: Some folks use heat, some folks don't. You *might* be able to get away without it, depending on how many chickens you have and how large your coop is, but don't bet on it. Chickens are able to produce a fair amount of body heat, but it's awfully darned cold here and it lasts a good long time. Just because *maybe* they can handle it, doesn't mean that they should have to endure significant discomfort. I'd still recommend a heat lamp if your coop is on the larger side. Make sure it is VERY VERY secure. Even if you never need it (but I bet you will), it will be at the ready. You're going to have to get electricity to your coop anyways, so why not just set everything up now before it gets uncomfortable? I have a 6x8 coop for 4 birds and it is a devil to keep warm. Sorry, but I had to laugh at the guy from Kentucky who thought you shouldn't let it get warmer than 35-40... I was LUCKY when I could keep my coop at 10-15 and that's with heat - sometimes TWO separate sources too. BTW, you are definitely going to need a way to keep your water defrosted.... I recommend a heated dog water dish. They are very inexpensive and worth EVERY SINGLE PENNY.

Shoveling: My run is covered. Snow still blows in. Even tho it is very shallow, the chickens don't really like walking on it. They will if they have to, but I can tell that they don't like it. On a sunny day that is at least 10F, I will let them free-range in the yard, but they won't venture off of the shoveled pathway and prefer to roost on the plank I made for them next to the house. They don't come out much as there's really nothing for them to do with all that snow and the ground being frozen SOLID. And mine definitely don't like deep, soft snow. Don't know why but chicken footprints in the snow always cracks me up.

Lights: Some breeds really need more sunlight in order to keep laying. I had pretty good luck last winter without supplemental light. I feel that it gives them a break and keeps them more in sync with their own natural rhythms. They have two nice large windows in the coop, and the pop door, and that's all they got. That said, they actually laid better last winter (at -30F) than they did all this summer, so who knows what this winter will bring. BTW, a light earlier in the morning will add a little more heat to the coop at the coldest part of the day, just before sunrise.

Good luck on getting your first egg! It's like every day is Christmas!

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
It really depends on your setup. Especially coop size, building materials, and whether it's attached to another building or not. It would be smart to have arrangements *available* if you need it -- remembering also that there are also a lot of other things you can do to help keep chickens warm, see page in my .sig below -- but I would suggest keeping your hand off the switch as long as possible. Put a max-min thermometer out there (preferably mechanical not battery-operated), and keep an eye on the chickens, and let what you SEE be your guide, not theory or "if I were out there" type sympathy

Does everyone shovel out their girls' runs? Will the chickens even want to go outside in the winter?

The winter outdoorsiness of chickens really varies, I'm not even going to *try* to guess what yours will do

While you may need to shovel down some drifts, you do not want them on bare frozen ground or ice (that's extremely cold on their bare feeties). If you find that mother nature has served you up bare frozen ground or ice despite your wishes, it can be worth throwing down a layer of hay or straw to help make the ground nicer for them to walk on -- although I warn you that you may have to remove it in a big hurry when you get a thaw, as it will suddenly turn massively stenchy and horrible

Also, it gets dark here around 4:30 pm in the winter. Should we have a light on earlier in the morning, or later in the day?

If you choose to add light (personally I would not, at least not for pullets' first year of lay) it makes more sense to add it in a single block from early-hours-of-morning til dawn. That is, if you need to add (say) 4 hrs of light to bring the total up to 14, and your sunrise is at 7, then you would set the timer to come on at 3 a.m. and go off at 7 or 7:30. This has two major advantages: 1) it gives you the extra heat output of the lightbulb [every little bit counts!] during the coldest part of the night; and 2) it give the chickens a natural, gradual dusk so they can find their way to the roost easily. A lightbulb suddenly shutting off, leaving chickens in what's to them pitch black darkness, can strand them off the roost.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat​

 

[teach1rusl]

Mrs.ChickChick :

Quote:

..........

I second that sentiment!!! LOL

I HATE winter, and am nervous about how my young chickens will manage it....​

 

[shelleyd2008]

Quote:
The 'guy' from Kentucky is actually a girl

And I was just saying, cause you don't want it to be too warm. It would be very possible to get it too warm, with it being well-insulated, and enough lights. You just want it to be more comfortable.

 

[CityChook]

Shelly - I'm sorry if I came off as critical. Sometimes typed words don't convey the message that I have inside my head. The point you made is absolutely correct. And in my wild dreams I would keep my coop at 35 in the winter - it would make me sooooo happy and I would sleep so much better at night. I just have to laugh when I see these winter topics come up on the BYC and then people in warm places chime in with what they do. -30 can be hard to imagine for some folks -- heck, it's even hard for US to imagine and we live here!!

That's all. Sorry if I stepped on your toes. It was not intentional.