The first WINTER - ventilation, heating?

[ChickenCanoe]

Do your birds(And your electric bill) a favor, and get rid of those heatlamps. Chickens can handle cold weather. With their feathers, they are perfectly insulated and capable of dealing with what you call cold. And open the vents up. Lack of proper ventilation, is a much bigger problem in the winter, than the cold. You may even have to open one, maybe both, of those windows.
Chickens generate a lot of humidity, just from breathing. And we are not even talking about moisture, and ammonia from their waste. If that moisture is not removed with proper ventilation, the birds can suffer from frostbite, and can even be subject to various respiratory problems. Heatlamps can also prevent your birds from properly acclimatizing to the winter cold. Then, if for some reason, the heat goes away, from either a power loss, or bulb burnout, then your birds WILL suffer. And really all for nothing. Another thing heatlamps are good for is burning coops down. Every winter, we will read again, about somebody burning their coop down, because they were worried that their birds were chilly.
Check out the coop below. It is a proven 100yr old design, that is unheated, and uninsulated. And the whole front wall is open. This is the 5th winter, and I've never lost a chicken to the cold, and none of them has ever suffered from frostbite. Coops like this were in use all the way up into Canada, in -40 temps.

I've always admired your coop and have followed that design for a while. I have 3 coops and another complex of 5 breeder units. Most have huge openings but I have a question for you.
I have a building that slopes so the low side is on the north. I built it that way so sunlight can reach the berry patches on the north. I need to rebuild that building. I can't go as tall as yours because of the berries. Do you think, given your experience with that design, that the lower level can be dropped a foot or two and the tall part can be lowered 3 or 4 feet and still function the same?

Thank you, thank you! So what kind of temps can I expect these girls to endure? I guess I have far under estimated them. Is there a temperature I should try to be sure to stay above inside the coop? And what about a heat lamp just for night? (Makes a good night light for them)

-20, no sweat. some people report no problems to -40. It was -19 here last winter and my buildings large openings let the breeze blow right through.
I'm not an adherent of the 'no drafts' philosophy as long as the birds are dry. They can live in trees and I don't know how one keeps a breeze out of a tree.
Just at night would make matters worse.

You don't want/need a "night light" - chickens need those hours of darkness and do not need heat at night any more than they do during the day. I have kept chickens in unwired (thus unheated) coops in temperatures below zero and never had an issue.

X2

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I appreciate all of the advice. All of our venting is on the south west wall , the windows could easily be opened and closed but the vents (which u can see in the fascia) could be closed with a board as needed I suppose. The roof venting would be a little harder to reach as needed, I guess i should leave those open then, right?

Again, leave all vents open. About mid winter, sometimes earlier, people worried about cold start reporting all sorts of respiratory problems. They're outdoor animals that we put into buildings to keep them safe from predators and perhaps rain but for no other good reason.

 

[JackE]

I appreciate all of the advice. All of our venting is on the south west wall , the windows could easily be opened and closed but the vents (which u can see in the fascia) could be closed with a board as needed I suppose. The roof venting would be a little harder to reach as needed, I guess i should leave those open then, right?

Where are the roosts, in the coop? Are they right next to one of those windows? If so, I would leave the window, next to the roosts, shut. You don't want a cold drafty wind blowing right on them. And open the other window. I see the little roof vent. Is there another one, on the back side of the coop? I would leave that open, and the other roof vents, if there are any. And leave the fascia vents open. And if there are more fascia vents on the backside of the coop, I'd leave them open too. Then, you would have some good air movement/ventilation, over the bird's heads, to get rid of humidity, and the crappy gases from their waste.

 

[JackE]

I've always admired your coop and have followed that design for a while. I have 3 coops and another complex of 5 breeder units. Most have huge openings but I have a question for you.
I have a building that slopes so the low side is on the north. I built it that way so sunlight can reach the berry patches on the north. I need to rebuild that building. I can't go as tall as yours because of the berries. Do you think, given your experience with that design, that the lower level can be dropped a foot or two and the tall part can be lowered 3 or 4 feet and still function the same?

I would think you could. But, the front of my coop is only 4.5' high. It would be kinda tight, with a foot or two cut off. The highest point of my coop is 9'. Again, I would think you could cut it down, but you would have to watch your head when you go in there. Which direction would the coop face? A Wood's coop should face south, to southeast. If you really want to build one of these, I would highly recommend getting the book 'Fresh air poultry houses' from Amazon. Because there is definitely a wrong way to build them. And that book will give you great info, on avoiding that.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Thanks. The current building runs is long and low running about 20X3.5' between the raised vegetable beds and the berry patch. It would face south as does the current building. I built the current one as a grow out coop with access to the rotating veggie and green manure crops but it was only supposed to last a couple years. I've been using it for 5 and until mink found a weakness in the design it was fine. So I decided to rebuild with a more secure design.

 

[Brennigan]

We randomly lost a chicken right before the winter and want to wait until spring to add to our flock. Problem is we only have TWO HENS now. Will they provide enough warmth when they snuggle together?

No heating lamps here, and our coop is quite tall (for ventilation), but smaller as far as square feet. I have a thermometer in the coop that's reading 31*, but that's the same as what the WeatherChannel says that its outside! We even added insulation to the walls, so I'm just hoping there is some difference from outside...

- first time chicken owner, so new mama problems.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Insulated or not, an unheated coop with sufficient ventilation will be close to the ambient temperature unless it's over packed with chickens.

31 isn't cold for chickens. It hit -19 here last year and my big openings on both sides of the coop allowed for good ventilation and no problems. We've never provided heat for hens in decades.

My biggest concern is if you lose another chicken and are left with a lone flock animal.

 

[markinohio]

I know this question has been asked before, so bear with me. With no heat in the coop, do people use heated water bowls in the winter or just remove the ice everyday and add fresh water? We give them fresh water everyday, but not always in the morning. My son does it after school.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

If one has electric or the means to get it to the coop, they usually use some type of heated water container, heated fount, dog bowl, bird bath heater, engine block heater, whatever.
If you don't have electric, You have to provide water up to several times a day depending on temperature. The black rubber food bowls work for that. When they freeze you can beat the ice out without breaking them.

http://www.okvetsupply.com/rubber-feed-pan-2-quart/

 

[ECBW]

I know this question has been asked before, so bear with me. With no heat in the coop, do people use heated water bowls in the winter or just remove the ice everyday and add fresh water? We give them fresh water everyday, but not always in the morning. My son does it after school.

Either. Do you have the options? Keep in mind that electrification of America is a "recent" advent compared to domestication of chickens. So you can do it either way, as long as they have water to drink.

Heating on the other hand, is a luxury that chickens dont need.

You might starting thinking about egg laying lighting while you are contemplating.