Please help me! Cold climate.

[Isadora]

Thanks so much. Wow. Honestly it seems counterintuitive to me, and will take some bravery on my part I think. No heater? Thanks for your help!

No, no heater at all.

 

[Koiandchicks]

So what you want is to have them protected from wind while they are sleeping, as was said. This was super confusing for me at first, but 3KillerBs has some great diagrams that I wish I had seen before I built my coop.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/suggestions-in-re-these-ventilation-cartoons.1527692/

We only see -30 for a small stint each winter these days, but here is what we have done.

- Built a large attached run covered with hardware cloth and greenhouse plastic that a kind animal made us two "vents" in.

- Door from coop to run stays open all the time in the winter, and adds to ventilation.

- The two big south-facing, hardware cloth windows get greenhouse plastic in winter. We keep meaning to get around to plexiglass, we will someday. The doors that the windows are on have some cloth weather stripping in the cracks, which brings down drafts but still lets air through.

- There is a vent down below and up in the ceiling. I have heard of folks putting filters of sorts on these in the winter so air gets through, but not wind.

- We use supplemental heat if it goes below -10.

- We use deep litter, but it is a double edge sword. It adds heat and insulation, but it means there will be more moisture in there when it is cold. Moisture is the real problem.

The best thing I have found is to select breeds carefully, but it is hard to do that without experience. I can't tell you for sure what will work for you, but smaller combs have proved to be better for me. Some of the advice on "cold hardy breeds" I have found to be wrong, too.

Do you have any pictures of your coop in winter?

 

[aart]

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...kQFnoECBoQAQ&usg=AOvVaw11TpCEbGP2vdSyGmhR4ovy

If you do an Internet search for woods open air coop, this is the PDF of the book that Mr. Woods wrote about building the open air coops.

@jthornton has a cleaned up PDF on this.
Thought it was in his articles but couldn't find it.

 

[Saveria]

Do you have any pictures of your coop in winter?

I will try to get some up. My husband rebuilt the computer, and now it doesn't register anything that can bring photos in, and I don't have a cell phone because they barely work up here. That is a long way of saying it may take a minute.

We based ours on the carolina coop, but put some of the vents in the wrong place for our climate. Live and learn. I needed those diagrams, but at least I know now for the next thing we inevitably build.

https://carolinacoops.com/chicken-coops/

If you do the open air coop, you will probably just need to find a way to slow the air down that is coming in in the winter, so it is just air and not wind, and won't hit the chickens. We feel forced into the greenhouse plastic since it gets so cold and windy here, but since it holds in moisture it is not ideal. Maybe canvas or something similar would be better for you. You can probably have some sort of window insert you put up in super low temps or wind chill nights.

I'll bet 10-20 years ago it would get to be -30 where you are. We used to see -40 a couple of times a winter. I know climate change isn't good, but I will take it.

 

[Koiandchicks]

I will try to get some up. My husband rebuilt the computer, and now it doesn't register anything that can bring photos in, and I don't have a cell phone because they barely work up here. That is a long way of saying it may take a minute.

We based ours on the carolina coop, but put some of the vents in the wrong place for our climate. Live and learn. I needed those diagrams, but at least I know now for the next thing we inevitably build.

https://carolinacoops.com/chicken-coops/

If you do the open air coop, you will probably just need to find a way to slow the air down that is coming in in the winter, so it is just air and not wind, and won't hit the chickens. We feel forced into the greenhouse plastic since it gets so cold and windy here, but since it holds in moisture it is not ideal. Maybe canvas or something similar would be better for you. You can probably have some sort of window insert you put up in super low temps or wind chill nights.

I'll bet 10-20 years ago it would get to be -30 where you are. We used to see -40 a couple of times a winter. I know climate change isn't good, but I will take it.

Haha, yes, my husband wants to start a group called " Ohioans for global warming - because climate change is not enough". ( He doesn't like the cold, but he doesn't like the big bugs of warmer climate either)

 

[Saveria]

What breed are your chicks btw?

 

[Koiandchicks]

What breed are your chicks btw?

I have all sorts: leghorn, speckled Sussex, smokey pearl, golden comet, Easter eggers, light brahma and black Australorp. We pretty much got one or two of each of the egg layers that the store had available. I'm pretty new, so I don't really know what breed I like yet. So far I like the personality of our white leghorn chicks.

 

[saysfaa]

Do you have any pictures of your coop in winter?

A similar coop in winter
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/woods-style-house-in-the-winter.445004/#post-5566206

 

[jthornton]

@jthornton has a cleaned up PDF on this.
Thought it was in his articles but couldn't find it.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/notable-threads.75309/

 

[Saveria]

Don't know if you saw this in Aarts signature, but this thread talks a lot about how get ventilation to work properly.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/1048597/ventilated-but-free-of-drafts

I have california whites. They are a leghorn, barred rock cross, with large combs and they got some frostbite when the two -30 nights came. It was fine, they have already healed up, I just had to watch closely to make sure that nothing got infected or picked at. If you find you have any trouble with frostbite on your leghorn combs, you can look into rosecomb leghorns sold at Mcmurray's hatchery, but I'll bet they'll be fine.

I have a golden comet with a huge comb and she hasn't got frostbite once. Every time I think I can hang my hat on something, it falls to the floor. Most of the other smaller, single comb breeds may get a touch of frostbite, but nothing that even needs watching in my experience.

If you ever get a rooster you may want to pick any breed that doesn't have a single comb, just so you don't have to worry because they can get frostbite worst of all. I do have a single comb rooster, and I have to watch his comb for a bit each winter, sometimes put some salve on it.

Frostbite on the feet is a bigger problem, but the woods coop looks like it has a lot of floor space, so they will have plenty of room to walk around inside in the winter. The attached run we built has a roof, and we fill it with shavings all winter so they have a dry place to walk around on very cold days. When it is in the 30s we let them go outside, but sometimes they don't even want to go out till it is close to 40 degrees. We let them decide, but they basically stay in the coop and run most of the winter.

Some folks will use flat roosts, similar to 2"x4"s, that way at night their feet are tucked into their feathers. They say the chickens prefer it. We haven't needed to do that, since ours have dry feet almost all the time, but it is a good idea.