Preparing Your Flock & Coop for WINTER

[Clucked Up]

Thanks, wish more folks would exercise their due diligence when researching the needs of their flock.
Dry
No drafts
Stimulation
Clean coop
Fresh Water
Room to roam
Free from predators

 

[bigmrg74]

I'm thinking about using next weekend to park my tractor and setting it up for winter then.

 

[mainechicklet]

OMG! When you said you shovel everyday I was thinking "sheeshers why not just walk on the snow" until I saw this! If I lived there (and I wouldn't, because of the snow) I would have thought about a covered walkway from the house to the runs! If the roofs didn't collapse it would be the "chicken snow caves" all winter long.

And this was just the beginning in Nov! I'd spend several hours each day and the next day have to start over. Believe me, I was in tears a few times. I can't find my other pics but these coops were essentially in a fortress of shoveled snow over 8 ft high all the way around the perimeter. I was almost head-level with the top of the run. (And I'm only 5'3".) And my relatives were complaining about having to shovel out their propane tanks 5' away................

 

[mainechicklet]

"Maine Chicklet. I love your set up. Love your avatar also. Kayak is one of my favorite places to be. I just got done building a permanent run (due to hawk predation). I chose to build the run so that the man door is outside the run. That way, I can access the coop without having to walk through the run! I do have a clean out door on the back side of the coop which is inside the run, though. That way, the litter comes from coop to run to become part of the deep litter in the run. They'll finish it off well before I move it to the garden. Did you have to shovel coop AND run roofs last winter? My coop has a very steep pitch with a metal roof. If I'd planned it right, I'd have had the pitch going in the opposite direction, b/c it sheds snow into the run, so the flock won't be able to use the run during the winter months. Oh well... live and learn! I'll have to give them a little alley leading from their pop door to the run door, and then, they can access the snow blown path from run door to green house door."

Hi Lazy gardener, yes I shoveled the roofs and coops over and over and over......I'm in the runs constantly so having the coop man-doors inside the runs would've been much easier. And if I'd had more space between the runs I wouldn't have had to shovel all the snow that came down plus the snow that I shoveled from both run roofs. I truly hope last year's snowfall was a fluke and not going to be the norm. I'm in the Blue Hill area. My blonde husky-lab just went swimming in the salt water yesterday. Geez, it's too cold for swimming! But she's also happy to lie in the snowbanks for hours. Yes, my dogs love to kayak..we're on the Bagaduce River, if you know where that is.

 

[cicknmama]

That's a beautiful house and run. Yes please post more photos when you're done and I'll send you photos of ours.

[/IMG][/IMG]Finally finished with the sheeting. Getting the door on this weekend. Supposed to get some snow next week.

 

[NTBugtraq]

Hi Lazy gardener, yes I shoveled the roofs and coops over and over and over......I'm in the runs constantly so having the coop man-doors inside the runs would've been much easier. And if I'd had more space between the runs I wouldn't have had to shovel all the snow that came down plus the snow that I shoveled from both run roofs. I truly hope last year's snowfall was a fluke and not going to be the norm. I'm in the Blue Hill area. My blonde husky-lab just went swimming in the salt water yesterday. Geez, it's too cold for swimming! But she's also happy to lie in the snowbanks for hours. Yes, my dogs love to kayak..we're on the Bagaduce River, if you know where that is.

Mind me not praising poorly designed coops?



edited by staff

 

[mainechicklet]

Thanks for your opinion ntbugtraq. But it actually works quite well. And if you could see what the other 99% of the hen coops look like around here, I think you'd keep your negative comments to yourself. Btw: the smaller coop was initially built for my first 3 hens and when I offered to rescue an additional 20 hoarder hens, I needed to build a second coop. If you had read earlier in the thread, you would've noted that I had property restrictions so I couldn't build farther away nor closer to the waterfront. And that I was also offering suggestions as to what I would've done differently, these having been my first coops.

edited by staff

 

[TalkALittle]

Mind me not praising poorly designed coops? Building those, where you are, seems like you had an idea based on...um, nothing. So praise for that, and you showing us that, just seems counter-productive. If you build like @mainechicklet
, you are doomed to either too much work or failure.

Let's stick to things that might work.

Saying that, like you did, seems like you have manners based on...um nothing.

 

[MeepBeep]

Chickens do not care about the temperature as much as people do.

This is not technically true, chickens very much prefer moderate temps just like humans do, that is why almost all commercial chicken and egg farms not only heat but also air condition their buildings as moderate temperatures promote optimal production and growth... Fact is most chickens slow laying or stop laying altogether in extreme cold and hot temps, and/or growth is also slowed in both extremes, this is especially true for heat intolerant or cold intolerant breeds...

They have down to provide personal insulation, and external feathers which act as a windbreaker, so imagine they are wearing the best down filled ski jacket you have ever seen...

This may be true to some extent but it's only part of the story... Even if you had the best down filled ski jacket, I'm betting if given the choice you would choose a climate controlled environment over roughing it out with no heat, right? There is homeless people living in alleys and on sidewalks in Chicago with no heat all winter and they survive, but that doesn't mean it's ideal and I want to do it...

Now when you start building your coop like a house, you create all sorts of problems chickens cannot readily cope with.

Patently false... I'll bet there is no shortage of people with house chickens on this forum saying "What? My chicken lives in my house and is AOK." Or you will find people like me who's coop is built very much like a house, insulated, and even has a furnace in it and I will state definitively that it's not causing 'all sorts of problems chickens cannot readily cope with' as I do my best to not allow any of those problems to develop...

The biggest of these is humidity. In our human homes, we are comfortable with high humidity in the winter...

I don't know where you live but in my area most people struggle with low humidity in the winter when heating their house as the ambient humidity outside is usually low during the winter months... Anyway high humidity alone does not cause frostbite, it only exasperates the risk at bellow freezing temps, and plays less and less of a role as the temps drop...

but if chickens get damp, the exposed skin (combs, waddles, and feet) can very quickly get frostbite.

True if they get damp, and only if the temp is below 32°F... The North and South Poles have near zero humidity, but frostbite happens quite easily there due to the extreme cold even without humidity, the same way you can get frostbite in 30°F weather and high humidity, frostbite is caused by the below freezing temps not the humidity, humidity only increases the risk... But, it is a factor one should most definitely consider as it can be an exponential risk increase in moderate freezing temps...

You think you want to block all wind coming in, and save all heat being created, and in doing so you make the place air-tight, and therefore highly susceptible to too high humidity.

Higher humidity is not necessarily bad, as long as there is still is ventilation and the temps are above freezing...

So, whatever you do, make sure there is a way for the humidity to escape your coop. Make sure your birds are not sitting in areas that are humid. And to put a number on it, let's say you are aiming for 20-30% humidity maximum.

I agree that one should have a way for humidity to escape as well as ammonia gases, but again humidity alone is not a problem until combined with freezing temps... A balance can be achieved...

Insulating a ceiling serves no purpose whatsoever as any form of such an installation is also likely going to prevent humid air from escaping.

Sure it serves a purpose, it can aid in holding in heat during the cold or it can also aid in holding out heat when it's hot... Fact is you can balance heat lose and still allow venting of humidity, it's not one or the other both can be accomplished and balanced if one chooses...

BTW, as I have stated numerous times I heat my own coop because in my specific coop and with my selection of birds the pros of heating outweigh the negatives of heating... I heat my coop to 35-40°F all winter and balance the ventilation depending on the outside temps, and because my coop never experiences freezing temps I have no frostbite concerns even if the humidity creeps up a bit on the very cold days that I damper down the vents... If you plan it out and do it properly you can provide a healthy insulated and heated coop, but it has to be done properly or else it can be very bad for the birds...

In general for small coops with healthy, mature, cold hardy breeds, heat and sealing up the coop is not recommended... But that doesn't cover everyone's setup...

The short of it is that it's NOT a one size fits all black and white answer...

 

[Beekissed]

Quote:
Which is completely natural for the chicken...what is unnatural is the commercial practice of forcing them to lay or grow year round by heating or lighting them, regardless of climatic changes that are normal, forcing a normal laying or growing slow down on the chickens. All of that is for a purpose, so when we heat them or light them artificially, we are going against their natural habitat and environment and forcing them to produce or grow quickly and abnormally~that's not optimal, that's just cruel. And, no, all chickens were not derived in the tropics and therefore must be kept in tropical climes to be be natural....clearly some breeds are more suited to northern climates and some are more suited to tropical climates.

If I were going to copy a practice that was optimal and more safe for the chickens, I'd certainly not model my poultry management off commercial practices....the most cruel and inhumane system on Earth and kills millions of birds a year due to their unnatural habitats. Horrible, cruel deaths.

Quote:
Have you ever tried that? Wore a down suit from your head down to your knees while trying to exist~even for a short time~comfortably in a climate controlled environment? I have.....it's horribly uncomfortable!!!! Hot and humid, nigh enough to smother a person. Unless you were someone that had poor circulation and could not maintain normal body temps, a down suit like a chicken wears while in a climate controlled setting is just miserable.

Comparing chickens~ideally outfitted for life in the outside temps during winter~with people who have no fur, down or feathers to protect them is just ridiculous. Humans are designed to live indoors in cold weather and chickens are designed to live outdoors and have the increased metabolism to do so...there really is no comparison at all.

Quote:
Now, pump up your body heat to 104 or even 113, slip on that down suit again and sit in your climate controlled environment....

Quote:
A chicken that lives in a house full time is drastically different than a chicken that lives outdoors and moves from indoors to outdoors at will during the winter months. One has grown the appropriate feathering to live in a climate controlled~for human living~house and stays in that house at all times during the winter months.... and the other has developed the proper coat for outside living where the temps fluctuate from day to night, from season to season and at any given moment. One can not live comfortably outdoors any longer because some human thought it would be kind to make them live in a human environment and the other is living a more natural life outdoors, in a bird's natural climate.

Creating a "house" like environment for a flock that moves from the house to the outside and back again, while being too hot in the house, getting humid from it all and then moving out into the cold to escape it, then getting chilled due to the humidity in their coat when it is exposed to the outdoor temps...that's putting huge amounts of stress on the bird's body and can compromise their ability to fight off disease/illness. Furthermore, it's just not necessary to do all that when the bird is designed to withstand cold temps just fine.

All these comparisons are not even comparing apples and oranges but more like buses and daylight savings time. One has absolutely nothing to do with the other because you simply cannot, on any level, compare a chicken to a human. Ever. Different creatures with different needs and different designs for those needs.

More about these differences....

Quote:
While the poster giving the advice might have been a little too plain spoken for many, he/she had a point....too much plastic, too much insulation, too much battening down the hatches can create conditions in a coop that lead to more illness and transmission of that illness, particularly in the winter months when many such pathogens thrive well in a warm, humid coop that has very little fresh air flow and chickens living more closely together than they do in the warmer months.

I'm in agreement. There's reasonable and normal precautions one can take to insure chickens are comfortable in colder climates and then there is over doing it and thinking one is doing them a favor. Free advice is, by it's very nature, free for the taking....or the leaving. One can choose without getting all worked up about it.