rasing chicken in the winter

[barbneise]

hi i;m new to chickens and we live in mo and i was wanting to know how to take care of my chickens it get really cold in mo can you give me some info

 

[Ridgerunner]

Welcome to the forum! Glad you joined us!

Remember that chickens wear down coats year round. They really can handle cold better than heat. Your winters are not that cold to them. Your summers are going to be more dangerous.

In winter, you need to provide a well-ventilated place for them to sleep out of direct drafts. You can do this by having lots of ventilation above their heads while they are roosting. Your risk in winter is not them freezing to death. It's frostbite. A coop that holds the humidity in can lead to frostbite. That's why you need good ventilation.

In the summer you need more ventilation down low as well as the ventilation up high. It won't hurt them at all to sleep in a draft in warm weather. A lot of us do that by having windows lower than where they sleep that can be opened in the summer and closed in the winter.

You might want to read these articles. The author lived in Ontario so she knows a bit about colder weather. I'll include her muddy run article too.

Pat’s Big Ol' Ventilation Page
https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=1642-VENTILATION

Pat’s Cold Coop (winter design) page:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=1642-winter-coop-temperatures

Pat’s Big Ol' Mud Page (fixing muddy runs):
https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=1642-fix-a-muddy-run

Good luck and again

 

[7L Farm]

RR hit the nail on the head as usual sound advice. My chickens struggle through the long hot summers we have here in Texas cool weather is welcomed here especially right now when its super hot. The only advice I have is keep the birds out of the cold wind. Block the cold wind from blowing on the birds. This doesn't mean tarping all the windows just block the wind off. Nobody, likes to stand in the cold wind. Birds & animals adapt to the environment their faced with they grow more fur,feathers etc. to combat the cold weather so adding heat is normally not the answer. The only problem with summer is they can't take their jacket off.