Southern NY, Dutchess county and below

[RubyNala97]

I have some nice silkies, cockerels and pullets, available, if anyone is interested they can pm me for pics. I'm in Wappingers. Thanks!

 

[unmistakablySam]

Hey there fellow New Yorkers. I have a question about your winter chicken coops. I know this topic has been over discussed in other threads but since you all have first hand experience with NY winters I wanted your expert opinions. Does your coop have insulation? Do your provide chickens with heat lamps during the winter? Do you do nothing and let nature take its course? Any help/ advise would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Joe Rampata]

Hi
I have two coops and last winter was real cooled and much snow, pipes froze in my home for the first time in twenty years.
I have lights in my coops on timers only on in daylight hours, coops are not insulated and no heat and my chickens did fine.
If combs get frost bite, start to turn black i put Vaseline on them. Also depends on the breed you have hopefully they are cold hardy.
Also i give them scratch, only 10% of total feed scratch will generate heat in there body.

 

[ChickenAl]

Our chickens have done very well with no insulation, heat or any special diet. The important thing to remember is that you have to have ventilation without any drafts. Drafts can be deadly in the winter. Chickens fluff their feathers to keep warm. Kind of like their own down jacket.

 

[unmistakablySam]

Thank you so much for all this useful insight! I'm just now building my chicken coop and don't want to spend all the extra money on insulation so good thing they don't really need. I will have double walls, ply wood on the outside and the inside so that should help keep them a bit warmer. Also I have cold hardy breeds (barred rock and faverolles) so that should be plenty. Thanks again for the help!

 

[RubyNala97]

Hey there fellow New Yorkers. I have a question about your winter chicken coops. I know this topic has been over discussed in other threads but since you all have first hand experience with NY winters I wanted your expert opinions. Does your coop have insulation? Do your provide chickens with heat lamps during the winter? Do you do nothing and let nature take its course? Any help/ advise would be greatly appreciated! 

This is my first winter with chickens. So far the only thing I've done is cover the run with 6 mil greenhouse plastic and I put some moving blankets over the roof of the coop, covered by a tarp. Made sure not to cover any of the vents. But I have silkies, so I don't think they are as cold hardy as others.

 

[JerseyHen]

I never insulate or heat my coops and I open their windows in the daytime in winter if it is not too breezy. The worst thing for them in the winter is a draft since it gets under their feathers and doesn't let them stay warm. I had a single rooster in my bachelor pad over winter. I hated to do it since they use each other for heat, but I didn't have anyone else to put in there with him. It is just a small tractor coop that I use for breeding trios in the summer. He did just fine in there, in fact, when spring rolled around he was in better condition than my main coop which had several cases of frostbite. The tractor is much better ventilated than my coop since it has an open door all the time, but the position of the door prevents drafts. The key is high ventilation, but no drafts. Tricky. It depends on door, window, and vent placement, along with not having "cracks" in your structure. You cannot shut them up tight in the winter, it is the inclination, but it will do more harm than good.

Frostbite most often occurs when the birds are exposed to humidity coupled with freezing temperatures. I am currently working on my main coop to add more ventilation for the winter since last year they were fogging up the window. That means the humidity is too high in there secondary to not enough ventilation. So, I am adding vents up near the roof that can be closed when needed. This will be better for summer as well since it will allow for better air circulation.

The size of your coop and the number of chickens in it matters as well since the birds themselves generate quite a lot of heat. If you have a big coop and only a few birds it will be colder. If it is too crowded it will be humid and full of ammonia.

Breed matters as well. My pea comb birds do better than my single comb birds. In fact, I docked the combs on several of my legbars last year after a frostbite incident. The Vaseline trick works well if you get it on them in advance of the really cold nights. It works by preventing the humidity from gathering on the skin and freezing there resulting in frostbite. They can still get frostbite if they get cold enough as was the case with the legbars (they have gigantic combs and waddles).

While chickens are decendents of jungle fowl and so are originally a warm weather bird, they have been bred to survive in all sorts of conditions. In the end, remember that they are running around with very effective down coats on and they generate a lot of body heat. I find my birds do far worse in heat than they do in cold.

 

[Carolyn252]

Hi, JerseyHen. I agree with everything you said in your post about wintering the coop. My little flock of eight hens here on Long Island's Nassau County all did just fine without insulation and without adding any heat. [Two Buff Orpingtons, two EasterEggers, one White Delaware, one Black Marans, and one White and one Black frizzled bantam Cochins.] I just wrap the entire ChickArena in huge plastic tarps, leaving about two inches open at the top of all four walls. Lots of ventilation up top of the six-foot walls, but no direct drafts down at the ground level where the chickens are walking around. I use two devices to keep their water from freezing: a dog's bowl that's heated and a cookie tin with a coffee mug warmer inside it; both are plugged in to a heavy duty extension cord hanging down from the ceiling of the ChickArena. Completely safe and completely reliable. Been using them for at least three and five years respectively.

I've a question for you: I'd like to get two new point-of-lay pullets in the Spring/Summer that will produce BLUE eggs. Cream Legbars or Ameraucanas. I don't breed ever, as I don't want to raise chicks. So, I only add point-of-lay pullets, or started-to-lay young hens, to my flock. My two EasterEggers each give me eggs that are very light blue in color. Really have to put their eggs next to white eggs to see that the EE's eggs are in fact tinted blue.

So this time I want to get really BLUE eggs. Do you think that in a few months from now you might have what I'm looking for? Or know someone who might? [Anyone else reading this, please feel free to suggest possible sources.]
-Carolyn252

 

[JerseyHen]

Hi, JerseyHen. I agree with everything you said in your post about wintering the coop. My little flock of eight hens here on Long Island's Nassau County all did just fine without insulation and without adding any heat. [Two Buff Orpingtons, two EasterEggers, one White Delaware, one Black Marans, and one White and one Black frizzled bantam Cochins.] I just wrap the entire ChickArena in huge plastic tarps, leaving about two inches open at the top of all four walls. Lots of ventilation up top of the six-foot walls, but no direct drafts down at the ground level where the chickens are walking around. I use two devices to keep their water from freezing: a dog's bowl that's heated and a cookie tin with a coffee mug warmer inside it; both are plugged in to a heavy duty extension cord hanging down from the ceiling of the ChickArena. Completely safe and completely reliable. Been using them for at least three and five years respectively.

I've a question for you: I'd like to get two new point-of-lay pullets in the Spring/Summer that will produce BLUE eggs. Cream Legbars or Ameraucanas. I don't breed ever, as I don't want to raise chicks. So, I only add point-of-lay pullets, or started-to-lay young hens, to my flock. My two EasterEggers each give me eggs that are very light blue in color. Really have to put their eggs next to white eggs to see that the EE's eggs are in fact tinted blue.

So this time I want to get really BLUE eggs. Do you think that in a few months from now you might have what I'm looking for? Or know someone who might? [Anyone else reading this, please feel free to suggest possible sources.]
-Carolyn25

My legbars don't lay a true blue egg, mine run to the green side, so I am not going to be able to help you that way. There is a poultry show in Sussex county NJ in mid spring though. There is a good chance you can find what you want there. Several folks from your direction travel to the show, so we might be able to get a chicken train going for you.

 

[stoopid]

Carolyn, I'll keep my CFG skills active for you. I got some of Christine's eggs last year and only hatched one girl. UGH but my incubators will be running for the next month or so.

Anyone want empty feed sacks to make totes out of? I have MANY of them, already stripped down and washed. My creativity hasn't kicked in like my hoarding ability. So I have decided they must GO. Except for a few......