Preparing Your Flock & Coop for WINTER

[chickensrus2]

For my girls and the rooster I have a heat lamp in one corner that is nailed, duct-taped, tied and a few feet off the ground. I still allow them to go outside in a large closed pen. I also put down extra bedding. My coop for them naturally has insulation. As this is my first year, should I give them more nutrient-filled food? Or should I keep their diet the same?

 

[Sonya9]

For my girls and the rooster I have a heat lamp in one corner that is nailed, duct-taped, tied and a few feet off the ground. I still allow them to go outside in a large closed pen. I also put down extra bedding. My coop for them naturally has insulation. As this is my first year, should I give them more nutrient-filled food? Or should I keep their diet the same?

Just fyi but the lamp doesn't have to fall to cause a fire, if the bulb is hot enough a floating feather could catch on fire and land in the bedding.

Some folks add game bird feed to the winter diet, is has more nutrients and protein.

 

[handydad]

Here in SE Michigan we get pretty cold temps so I replaced the tarps on my "simple" hoop house with 1" foil faced EPS insulation board and 2" extruded "pink board" on the back wall. I forgot that chickens and seagulls love to peck at (and eat) foam so I had to
protect it inside and out with sheet cardboard, heavy plastic and aluminum coil stock any place the girls could reach (it's amazing how long they can stretch their necks!).
I have also removed the poop board and gone to a deep litter method on the concrete floor using wood shavings and dried leaves and lawn clippings from the yard. So far no smell. I just closed off the front of the coop with clear 3/8" corrugated plastic boardstock but it gets enough flow through ventilation in through the ADOR 1 automatic door (one of the best units made,imo) and also around the mandoor frame and out the high vents at the peak.
The heat lamp shield now holds a 25 watt bulb on a timer for the 15 hours of light to keep up the egg production.
The only heat in the coop is under the waterer ( using a BYC inspired cookie tin water heater set on bricks) and a 20" x 48" seedling heat mat under the 4 hole , slant roofed nest box ( to keep the eggs from freezing in the morning hours till I can collect them, also inspired from a BYC article!).

We'll see how well they do their first winter, the 14 girls, (5 EE, 3 ISA BROWNS, & 6 RIR) just started laying 3 weeks ago and we are already getting up to 9 brown and blue eggs a day

.

 

[chicken4prez]

We just have a lot of chickens so they will keep themselves warm. We also don't let them out unless its 1 degree Celsius.

 

[MikeTheGardener]

Last year was my first year with chickens during the winter. We had a pretty cold one with plenty of snow. The girls held up great, but I did learn a few things along the way. Bought a heated water bowl and made sure I plugged it in before I went to work, which was an hour or two before I went to work. Left it plugged in until the girls went to bed. Made sure their food bucket was always full, and once a week I would throw in some treats, ie meal worms, veggies from the store.

 

[Zores Mother]

Thanks for all the info. Average temps here for Dec - Feb 61-41. Sometimes we dip down to the teens. My coop has 2 windows approx. 2'x2'. Also a screen door for the summer and a wood door for the winter and there opening to come in and out.

There are little gaps around the top and bottom of the coop that air can come in. Should I plug these up or let them be?

Thanks again for all the help.

 

[Zores Mother]

Very nice coop and thanks for the info. Truly appreciated.

 

[TalkALittle]

Thanks for all the info.  Average temps here for Dec - Feb 61-41.  Sometimes we dip down to the teens.  My coop has 2 windows approx. 2'x2'.  Also a screen door for the summer and a wood door for the winter and there opening to come in and out.  

There are little gaps around the top and bottom of the coop that air can come in.  Should I plug these up or let them be?

Thanks again for all the help.

LOL! With temperatures like those, I wouldn't be doing anything. I'm in New England and we've had night temperatures in the low 40s and 30s this week and all I've done is close one window.

In your place, I'd just make sure that on those nights that dip really low that you are able to close the windows most of the way. Don't plug those gaps. They'll offer valuable ventilation up high in the coop. That's the best place for winter ventilation.

 

[Blooie]

29 degrees last night with Wyoming's usual balmy breezes.....25 gusts to 40. Snow in the mountains, so I guess here it comes. <sigh> Funny, the winds were so localized. Friend of mine said it wasn't that windy when she was in Powell - she didn't run into the wind until she was almost home. Powell is only about 25 miles from here. That's Wyoming for ya!

Putting the plastic cover on the run this weekend and the tank heater in the waterer. And that's it - winter preparation for the birds is done.

 

[Forrestzoo]

I loved my mothers chickens when I was a kid, but ended up getting sick from their droppings (Histoplasmosis) when I was like third grade so she had to stop raising them until I was grown.
Anyway that behind me I kept threatening to get myself some chickens and finally did this past July. I have only 5 but they are the most fascinating things.. Red Stars someone called them but the chick owner said Cinnamon Queens and I liked that.
I am in SE North Carolina and it got cold for a week very early(October) so I started preparing my coops. It was a 6 x 6 coop I bought from someone else and had a solid plywood side, a full 2 x 4 welded wire side, a side of 1/2 welded wire and a plywood door and the other had three nests with door outside and welded wire. I thought it too easy for a raccoon or fox to reach in the welded wire and grab a hen so I added 1" chicken wire on the inside. It had originally sat straight on the ground but I set it up on solid cinder blocks and added another roost which they seem to prefer.
When it started getting colder at night on the outside I added roll down 4 mil plastic with a stick stapled to the bottom and a small rope at the top so I could roll it up or drop it down. Two sides are facing the sun some of the day and the other two are shaded. I use a lot of wheat straw on the floor and can pitchfork it out if it gets too smelly.Also about 1 foot of wire wall does not have plastic for ventilation.
One hen was molting about a month after I got her and the others picked on her furiously so I gave her another smaller coop also with roll up plastic and a light because she doesn't have the other hens to snuggle up to. It is a standard heat lamp but with only a 60 watt bulb. Each coop has it's own covered pen as we have 2 hawks that patrol nearly everyday and then there are also courtyards not covered I can let them out in when I am working in the yard. Sometimes I switch them in the courtyards when I need them penned and they seem bored with where they are. Then there are the couple hours a day I let them free-range in the yard and barnyard when I am sitting out with them and they can all range together. They tend to get along, but still now and then they peck Earlene so she likes to wonder off by herself.
I have their water and feed outside of the coops now as I was warned against attracting mice and rats inside the coops, but with 20 farm cats I really have no worry of that. I am trying to figure out the winter water deal and I really hate lugging that 3 gallon waterer out of the pen to fill.