Preparing Your Flock & Coop for WINTER

[dianeb423]

Thanks Mrs K great help

 

[jc mac]

I live in the Adrondacks by Lake George I'm interested in using hay bales to use on the exterior of the coop 4' x 6' , I will need 8 hay bales 36" x 18" roughly, I have 2 sex links hens. Any suggestions on what to wrap the bales in, I do not want the bales to get wet and moldy.

 

[RnRRidgerunner]

So these straw bales will be like a wall around the coop, or just three sides? what is the roof like? I suppose you will have 6 mil PVC sheet from Lowe's or Home Depot to wrap them in, and tape it with maybe gorilla tape? Other duct tape will come off with cold and wind. Last year I just tacked it on with staples thru those round roof plastic things. I took the nails out and used staples. It will probably still get wet and moldy.
This year I got the clear panels and used ratchet straps, looks great works great. Won't work on straw bales however. I stuff straw under the coop which I can lift with the wheels, then when the true freezing weather comes I put straw inside too. This collects the poop and it helps generate heat through the winter. If it looks nasty put more straw in once in a while. As long as it is dry inside and you have ventilation it will be fine. Sort of depends on yur coop design. Good Luck!

 

[RnRRidgerunner]

The coop is 4 ft x 10 ft

Nest box view to front of coop

I used black PVC sheet on the roost and nest box area, nest box out the back LOL Chickens liked it. lol Hope this helps give you ideas on what to do for your coop.

 

[jlbiggs]

We live in Iowa and have some seriously cold, wet, windy nights. This is our fourth winter with chickens and have learned really to just let them adjust. I get the heaters out for the waters and make sure to close up the shed at night for them but that's it. I'd do more but we have nice big cold hardy girls that's (besides one roosters comb getting some frost bite) have never had any problems. I'm surprise to see folks who get only down to 30s and 20s doing so much to lock them up tight. I really think just acclimation and dryness is key. One thing I am wondering is what to do with winter feed. My girls free range on the farm and do go get stock piles of corn from the steers pen but I give them all you can eat straight layers feed. I know people warn about over corn eating but there's not much I can do about keeping them out of the lots and plus they enjoy being free birds everyday on our 10 acre farm. I'm going to try supplemental lighting this year for more eggs and worried that I may need to give them some more colories in there coop (especially for those really terrible nights that I can't get back there to open the coop until afternoon)

 

[Sonya9]

I have bantams and do worry about frost bite especially on rooster combs.

The temps here sometimes go below freezing and I do use a ceramic heat bulb in the coop on those nights. The bulbs do not emit any light and are not as hot as the red ones so there is IMO much less fire risk. Nevertheless I do zip tie the lamp to two different hooks to prevent any chance of it falling to the floor. Not only can it not fall, but I can't even move it without cutting away the zip ties.

If the power went out the drop in temp drop would not be extreme enough to harm the birds as it only raises the temp by a few degrees (if an ice storm hits we can lose power for days at a time so that is a concern).

 

[vajjslayer09]

Our heat lamps are even above my head when I'm in the chicken coop and they are secured in with hooks that you can't get them off of unless you really push. I know that most people probably don't have a coop that big, but it's just what works for us. We have to heat a 64 sq ft chicken coop, and the lamps have been our go-to.

what do you do if the elctric is out for a week or so??? wont the birds get to cold and not be as hardy??? does it run your electric bill up??

 

[TalkALittle]

I live in the Adrondacks by Lake George I'm interested in using hay bales to use on the exterior of the coop 4' x 6' , I will need 8 hay bales 36" x 18" roughly, I have 2 sex links hens.  Any suggestions on what to wrap the bales in, I do not want the bales to get wet and moldy.

Those big black contractor trash bags fit nice over straw bales.

 

[lilchickenz]

I use a ceramic heat lamp in the chickens' house. I did this because the temperatures the last 2 winters have gone down to -22F ambient air over night. I know birds are tough, but I think even for birds there's a limit to what they can survive, especially since I have only 4 of them. They come out into the plastic covered run during the day, and it does warm up a bit outside, but still below 0F. So I leave the lamp on during the day too in case they want to go in the house and warm up. If the power were to go out I would probably put them all in a big dog kennel and bring them into the house, depending on the forecast. I've done it before. Like I said I think there's a limit to what even birds can survive and I don't want to find out what it is. -22F is bitterly cold.

 

[cricketmt]

This will be our first winter with our 4 hens. We had chickens when I was growing up and I don't remember doing anything special for them, but those were the '70s....

We have a 4x8 coop with a 5 foot wall on the tall 8 foot side and a 4 foot wall on the short 8 foot side. Roosts are next to the window which I'm trying to figure out how to seal the gaps on....hardware cloth under the eaves on 4 inch high openings on both long walls. But I'm blocking the eaves with foam insulation on the west side since those are prevailing winds. The coop is on the south side of our garage so they'll have protection from the north winds as well.

As a Wyoming member said, we can often get down in to the -20 to -30 range for lows for a week or more...with "highs" staying below zero in some cases.

The only thing we didn't insulate on ours is the roof...do you think we'd be well served to cut some insulation to jam up in between the rafters? They can't reach it to peck at it up there...I'm thinking we should, hubby is resisting.

So far we've used deep pine shavings and it's staying very dry in there...we've only had a week or so below freezing at night. We do have a supplemental heater--a ceramic reptile heater screwed into a light bulb fixture hooked to a thermal block that will kick on at 25 I think and off at 35.

I'm not wrapping the run since it is on the south side of the building. We will be re-using some triple wall polycarbonate to block the wind under the run (there's about a foot or so of space under there, reinforced with hardware cloth) on the west and south side. We'll just tack it into place so we can pull it off in the spring. That will give them a "greenhouse" type Sunroom in the daytime under the coop.

I have two big bales of straw in the garage (to stay dry) to parcel out to them over time--keep their toes out of the snow and such--and will get them some alfalfa hay to do the same (and for something different to peck at).

I am assuming that they'll hang out inside the coop if the weather outside is too cold and windy...