Preparing Your Flock & Coop for WINTER

[Beekissed]

One can keep open water clean by elevating it on something so debris cannot be kicked into it. Last winter I used a two step stool from the kitchen...one step to stand on and the other to hold the water bowl.....kept the water VERY clean. This winter I'll build a flip down platform for the same purpose. Temps here got to -16F (-26.7 C) last winter with the water staying quite warm and clean all the while, with 10-12 in. of deep litter in the coop floor.

 

[CanaDawn]

One can keep open water clean by elevating it on something so debris cannot be kicked into it. Last winter I used a two step stool from the kitchen...one step to stand on and the other to hold the water bowl.....kept the water VERY clean. This winter I'll build a flip down platform for the same purpose. Temps here got to -16F (-26.7 C) last winter with the water staying quite warm and clean all the while, with 10-12 in. of deep litter in the coop floor.

I'm sure that would work well with larger birds in a bigger flock, and with more space. I've never had water stay unfrozen, nevermind "warm" at -27C. Your coop must have been above -4C, which would also negate any need to add heat..

 

[Beekissed]

I'm sure that would work well with larger birds in a bigger flock, and with more space. I've never had water stay unfrozen, nevermind "warm" at -27C. Your coop must have been above -4C, which would also negate any need to add heat..

Heated dog bowl....a few posts back. My coop is a hoop coop and has no added heat except that heated dog bowl. Big or little chickens, it makes no matter, they can all drink out of a heated dog bowl. Dog bowl...$20 and free shipping on Amazon, draws 25 watts of power and no danger of burning down a coop. And, yes, it actually keeps the water warm at -27. 6 C.

 

[CanaDawn]

Heated dog bowl....a few posts back. My coop is a hoop coop and has no added heat except that heated dog bowl. Big or little chickens, it makes no matter, they can all drink out of a heated dog bowl. Dog bowl...$20 and free shipping on Amazon, draws 25 watts of power and no danger of burning down a coop. And, yes, it actually keeps the water warm at -27. 6 C.

ah, I missed that it was a heated bowl. Still not an option for me, but not because I have little hens...I do not have the space. (The little hens means I need to heat, and that a step stool would be too tall for them so stand and drink, not that they can't drink from a bowl) I may try to rework the housing for this winter, but I looked at and decided against those dishes last year.

IMO, anything requiring electricity to be run to a building means there's some risk of fire, but I know others are of differing opinions on what is a risk and how much risk they are willing to assume.

 

[Beekissed]

When I have real little ones on hand, I just put a few bricks alongside the dish so they can hop up and still drink. When they reach an age(3-4 wks) they can fly up to a 5 ft. roost, they can hop up to a ledge or step for the bowl. Some people rig it so the bowls are hung from the rafters so the floor space is still available. There's always a good solution, just has to be looked at from another perspective sometimes.

 

[CanaDawn]

When I have real little ones on hand, I just put a few bricks alongside the dish so they can hop up and still drink. When they reach an age(3-4 wks) they can fly up to a 5 ft. roost, they can hop up to a ledge or step for the bowl. Some people rig it so the bowls are hung from the rafters so the floor space is still available. There's always a good solution, just has to be looked at from another perspective sometimes.

Yup. And my perspective ended up "I do not have room for a dogbowl waterer, nor height for an open bowl to be raised up enough not to just be a bowl of bedding". Doesn't work for every situation.
My Silkie will never fly to a 5 ft roost and is piss-poor at "hopping up" as well.
Glad it works for you, and perhaps someone else will find it helpful.

 

[CanaDawn]

If you're plugging in a waterer, there's also this kind of option http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/91uqAoZ0R4L._SL1500_.jpg

 

[coop410silkies]

I have one silkie (came for free with the Seramas specifically to help with keeping them thru winter!) and because I have so few birds, I can get away with a small enclosure, and a heat lamp.  It makes it easier to cope with the cold, having so few, but harder to deal with water.  Most of the heated water options are too big, or too open, to work in the small space I have.  If I had more birds, I would do what you're doing and put in a floating or submersible tank heater, in a much larger volume of water, or go with a commercial heated waterer that would work for more birds in more space and could be hung to keep the crap out of it.

I didn't find the Seramas harder to keep over winter than the large birds we had when I was a kid, and only one tiny comb bump got caught by frost last winter.  This year I have a run attached to the shed, and may consider some changes to let them have more space.  The challenge then is that the Silke doesn't fly and none of them seem interested in using a ramp...so providing heat will have to be reworked - although not heating is just not an option for me.

I'm fine converting C to F with all the converters online, but wasn't sure just how cold it got for you.  -26C can be a challenge, but if you get sunshine, and they are sheltered from wind it's not too hard to get the temps up to -10C or so, and even my Seramas were ok at that.  It sounds like you have things figured out, though.

I can only imagine how productive Silkies are, as mine has been very determinedly broody this year even with no eggs at all.  Maybe next year I will let her sit on some, but we really don't need more birds here, as it would mean ramping up scale on everything!  Since we're on a city property, and a fairly small lot, I think we're maxed out already...

I wouldn't count on just the single Silkie doing much hatching; my birds - all 5 or 7 of them - lay and protect 24 eggs or so, and when they think they have enough, they all sit on them, taking turns getting food and water; they do all this procreating in an elevated small Dogloo, and after they've brooded the chicks for some number of days, they kick them out of the Dogloo, and the chicks must go down the ramp to get to the ground, where some of the mothers teach them about doing all the things they need to do to stay alive. The male Silkies are not excluded from the family, and the free ranging LF birds, both cocks and hens, leave them alone, even with free access to the Silkie pen. That's how my Silkies do it, on their own with no supervision, and in a tight single family unit, the more hens the merrier. They didn't lay eggs their first year and didn't get broody for long periods of time; when one hen went broody and stopped laying, they all did, but they are quite prolific layers when they are laying. Your one hen might incubate a broodi, but I think her chances would be better if she could sucker some of the other hens into a co-hatching arrangement with her. My Silkies didn't like the ramp, either. They would go down to get treats or yummy leftovers, but we had to gather them up and lock them in at night. ''Twas not fun for awhile.

About watering strategies in small places: in my small Silkie coop, I have used the light bulb in the cinder block technique to heat small 1 gallon milk containers fitted with one or two horizontal nipple drinkers to good effect. I put foil over the opening of the block and fasten the milk jug to the wall with small bungees to keep the birds from tipping it over. I use this with a Thermocube, and everything works well, especially if I drill a small hole in the milk jug cap. If you make a couple of these, it is easy to just switch them out when they run out of water. A100 watt bulb was enough to keep the waterr from freezing on my coldest days (-26C). Keeps 5 gal bucketfuls liquid, too. Speaking of cold and small spaces: last winter my Silkies stayed in a small Dogloo, and on really cold snowy nights, I worried about them. So I filled a gallon milk jug with hot water, wrapped it in a towel, and put it in the Dogloo with them: to my surprise, even on the coldest nights, the water in the milk jug remained unfrozen. The power of Silkie heat: it is amazing.

You are smart to know your limits and keep them applied. I could very well do with a tenth the number of birds I now have (I mean, how many eggs can a person eat in a day.?). Blessings

 

[coop410silkies]

I'm thinking it would be worlds and worlds easier to just use a heated dog bowl for water in the winter than trying to stick with gravity drinkers in the cold of winter.  They are fine for other times but require all kinds of monkey shines and money to keep going in the winter, so why not just have water reservoirs that suit the season?  The water bowls use only 25 watts, are easy to fill, clean and maintain and are more than large enough to keep 15 chickens in water all winter, they are very safe to use and last a long time, so the $20 spent on them pays off greatly over the years of use. 

Problem solved. 

Except for the amount of water consumed and the continuous need to keep the the open bowls free from poop and debris, I absolutely totally agree. Of course it is hot now, and they are drinking enormous amounts of water, but even in winter, I think my layer flock of 15 needs to have its 5 gallon waterer refilled at least once a week- which would be fine if I had only one water station to attend to. But with upwards of seven, I'd like to have to have to visit not more than one per day in the very coldest months of the year. (I was raised, after all, in the hot Sacramento valley of California.) If your coops/pens are not very far from your house, if you can easily keep them clean and fresh, if you don't have very many elictrical connections and extension cords to manage, heated dog bowls make a lot of sense. And they are especially great for smaller coops.

Yes, the gravity feed drinkers are definitely not the way to go in winter. I don't know what I was thinking. BTW, when there is snow to be had, ALL my birds prefer it to any other source of water. Makes my life easier in the winter, and I am so thankful to them for that. Thanks, Bee; your advice is always wise, welcome, and not easily forgotten. Blessings

 

[coop410silkies]

...

One can keep open water clean by elevating it on something so debris cannot be kicked into it.   Last winter I used a two step stool from the kitchen...one step to stand on and the other to hold the water bowl.....kept the water VERY clean.   This winter I'll build a flip down platform for the same purpose.  Temps here got to -16F (-26.7 C) last winter with the water staying quite warm and clean all the while, with 10-12 in. of deep litter in the coop floor. 
[/quote

Bee, this seems a good and useful idea. Do you ever have problems with chickens jumping up on things and sending them asunder? My cocks seem especially adept at destroying my finest achievements in chicken accessory ware, but some hens are good at it, too. How do you/would you manage this potential problem?